Giving Credit Its Due

As part of the move, Ingram Micro plans to lay off 50 people from its Santa Ana headquarters, relocate the credit division to its Buffalo, N.Y., campus and hire 30 new people there to focus on credit-related consultative services and creative credit packages.

Pat Collins, Ingram Micro's group senior vice president of sales and marketing, said the new credit program could support products such as copiers and printers, which are usually leased by the end user, require constant maintenance and depreciate quickly, Collins said.

The high level of support needed for those solutions often requires solution providers to keep in constant contact with the customer, and that can lead to incremental business, he added.

Ingram Micro's new credit and financial consultants also will help solution providers analyze their credit needs and formulate packages that fit their business models, Collins said.

"We want to bring an outside perspective to our credit programs," he said. "This is going to give solution providers access to a knowledge base and skill set that will help them put together a combination of traditional and alternative financing.

"Ingram Micro is rolling out a new Flex Program that gives solution providers serving the SMB market a large revolving credit line to help them finance big deals," Collins said. The distributor also has introduced a program with Hewlett-Packard that provides 60 days of interest-free financing for the SMB, government and education markets, he said.

"As the industry matures, [solution providers' need to offer creative credit programs becomes stronger," Collins said. "In economically challenged times, we have to work closer with our customers and understand their needs better to help them be more responsive on all levels."

The move makes sense to Evan Leonard, president of CHIPS Solutions, Lake Success, N.Y., a member of Ingram Micro's VentureTech Network of SMB solution providers.

"In a down economy, any type of creative credit program helps," he said. "We've closed on a lot of deals lately because we've been able to offer leasing to customers that don't have big budgets. Ingram Micro is acting like a solution provider because they're offering turnkey solutions. That makes it easier for us to sell."