Ingram Micro Lays Out Changes To Customer Model

That was the message from Brian Wiser, vice president of marketing at Ingram Micro, regarding the distributor's new Choice Advantage program during Monday's World Premiere event at XChange '04. Arguably the biggest change to Ingram Micro's customer model in the company's history, Choice Advantage presents three customer levels to solution providers with varying degrees of pricing benefits and support services, depending on the option a reseller chooses.

"Fundamentally, this is about offering you a whole new way to get the services and support you need," Wiser said. "This program is about flexibility."

The world's largest distributor unveiled Choice Advantage earlier this year and rolled the program out to approximately 700 VAR customers. Now, the distributor is preparing to introduce Choice Advantage to all of its resellers. The program is divided into three different customer options: Independent Choice, which offers solution providers aggressive product pricing but fewer support services; Professional Choice, which focuses on delivering a wider range of value-added support services without as many pricing benefits; and Active Choice, which blends both service and pricing features from the Professional and Independent options. Thus, a VAR looking for low, competitive pricing for its products may choose Independent Choice, while another VAR that values high-touch services for marketing and tech support may want Professional Choice.

Ingram Micro hopes Choice Advantage will help the company appeal to an even broader spectrum of resellers. The program is similar to many vendor partner programs with its three-tier system. However, unlike vendors, Ingram Micro allows solution providers to select the level they feel is the best fit for their business. Wiser emphasized that point during the presentation and said the model of "one size fits all" simply doesn't work for the wide-ranging, diverse channel community.

"You can choose the way you want to transact business with Ingram Micro. I can't stress that enough," Wiser said.

Wiser added that the early results from the initial rollout of Choice Advantage have been encouraging. One early adopter of Choice Advantage is Praxis Computing of Los Angeles. Jennifer Roback, vice president of sales at Praxis, joined Wiser onstage during the event, along with fellow solution providers and Choice Advantage customers Tony Williams of Riata Technologies, Austin, Texas, and Adam Eiseman of The Lloyd Group, New York.