Ingram Micro To Launch VAR Services Division

The division, announced this week at CMP Technology's XChange '06, will have its own profit-and-loss responsibilities and will be led by Justin Crotty. He will have the new title of vice president of services.

The initiative will include the Ingram Micro Service Network of 750 solution providers, a revamped managed services offering, and current programs such as Ingram Micro Help Desk, IT Staffing Solutions, IM Outlet, Ingram Micro OfficePac and Reseller Services Portal. In addition, Ingram expects to develop more services based on solution providers' needs, Crotty said.

"We have a lot of services now, but we haven't done a great job getting them in front of VARs. This brings our entire portfolio together and helps us get across the different types of services we have," said Crotty, who is ceding leadership of Ingram's VentureTech Network to head the services division. VTN will be led by Kirk Robinson, currently vice president of U.S. solutions marketing.

Ingram, Santa Ana, Calif. plans to dedicate a services sales team as well as build technical and services-focused associates to help solution providers, Crotty said. In addition, the program works closely with Ingram's sales organization to drive business, he said.

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"This is long overdue. It should have been done years ago. It's one of the smartest moves Ingram Micro has made in a long time," said Mike Novotny, president and CEO of InterTech, a Phoenix-based solution provider. "Historically, [Ingram] has been very product-focused, and all their programs have been generated to sell products as a pull-through. For them to recognize that services doesn't have to be tied to product sales and can be a stand-alone profit center for everyone is a huge step for Ingram from a cultural perspective."

As part of the initiative, Ingram plans to launch a new Web-based services management platform called IMOnsite that allows any solution provider to find services resources from IMSN members across North America. IMOnsite is powered by Autotask and replaces a clunky, antiquated Clarify system, said Jason Beal, IMSN group manager at Ingram.

The distributor opened up IMSN to its general solution provider population about a year ago, but few businesses outside the 800-member community were leveraging the available services resources, Beal said.

"Previously, members had members to go in through a Citrix portal to access the system. Now, you can access it anywhere at any time," Beal said. "And we have added online work order approval and billing. It used to be a paper-intensive, fax-based process for approving service ticket work orders. Now, the work orders are billed on net terms to Ingram Micro. You don't need to make a separate deposit."

In addition, IMOnsite supports Canadian currency and includes much more detailed reporting and user administration capabilities, Crotty said."This is going to open up so much flexibility for VARs. Our biggest inhibitor [in growing IMSN business] was our Clarify system. It was a cost of doing business with Ingram Micro," Crotty said.

Ingram hopes the services division will have as big an impact on solution providers as when the distributor started shipping products directly to end users, Crotty said.

"When we started drop shipping, we didn't change the solution providers' value to the end customer, but we changed the economies around delivering products. VARs were able to get rid of their own warehouses and inventory, but continue to deliver value to end customers. This is along the same lines," he said. "This division is about us delivering a broader array of services than [VARs] could do on their own, in a manner that is more profitable, with reduced costs and reduced investment."