Ingram Micro Spared Wrath Of Buffalo Snowstorms

Ingram Micro can count itself lucky this week.

That's because, as some VARs are digging out their houses and businesses from more than 5 feet of snow in Buffalo, N.Y., Ingram Micro's major distribution center in the city was spared.

Buffalo made headlines this week as the city was hit with record-breaking, and sometimes house-breaking, levels of snow, which reached 7 feet or more in some areas. Ingram Micro's distribution center in Amherst, N.Y., a suburb of Buffalo, was not in any snow-banned area, said Susan O'Sullivan, executive director of sales for the U.S. O'Sullivan works out of the Buffalo office. However, O'Sullivan said a mere half mile away in Lancaster, N.Y., there were whiteouts, snow bans and more than 70 inches of snow.

[Related: MSPs Shuffle In Buffalo Via Snowmobile To Help Clients As Record Snow Piles Up]

Luckily, O'Sullivan said, that means that it has been business as usual.

"We haven’t missed a beat on the business, even with all the road closures, driving bans and people working remotely," O'Sullivan said.

O'Sullivan said that with laptops and the ability to work from home, the office has been able to keep monitoring call statistics and key metrics to make sure the customer experience is staying up to par despite the snow.

"All is good," she said.

VARs in the area said they weren't letting the snow affect their businesses, either, even if they were buried under 5 feet of it. Skip Gould, CEO of BrightPlanIT, a Buffalo-based systems integrator, said despite record amounts of snow, his employees were actively helping clients remotely from their home offices.

"It's part of the dues we pay for living here," said Gould.

Other VARs said employees were able to make it into the office, but because a lot of client businesses were closed due to the snow, they were working hard to keep systems running and ready for when clients reopen. David Stinner, president and founder of US itek, said that was crucial as MSPs are "as necessary as an emergency room" in situations like this.

O'Sullivan said that on Wednesday, when the storm shifted north, a lot of employees weren't able to get into the office. However, using remote technologies and other measures, there was "no disruption to the business," she said.

"In true Buffalo fashion, we are all helping out and rising to the occasion. Teams and individuals are going above and beyond to ensure there are no service gaps," O'Sullivan said.

PUBLISHED NOV. 21, 2014