Ingram Micro’s Paul Bay: Platinum Equity Supports Our ‘Excitement Around The Things We Can Accelerate’

There have been quite a bit of mergers and acquisition going on in distribution . What are the opportunities for a company like Ingram Micro?

There are always going to be opportunities to look at skill sets to enhance the capabilities we have. When we talk with our partners about what’s important to them, is it vertical markets? Is it specific skill sets and certifications they need? We’re going to look at those opportunities to acquire. And we’ve done a handful of tuck-in acquisitions over the last year-plus. We’ll continue to look at those. The answer is, there are always opportunities for us to look at ways to increase our value of what we do for our customers.

Does that include potential acquisitions of solution providers and MSPs to bring in more expertise for your channel partner base?

I would define it maybe not as solution providers or MSPs. Maybe more around professional services-oriented [partners]. ... I think that’s one of the big opportunities that both our customers and our vendors have asked for: additional skill sets and capacity and capabilities around professional services. And we’re building that out with the opportunities around a global basis.

Given that professional services is an area where the solution provider community can potentially make the most money, how big is the opportunity for Ingram Micro to increase its professional services capabilities?

I think it depends on the services that we’re talking about. With some of these, there’s a lack of services in the marketplace where [customers are] actually asking us to help because they may not have that. And, in addition, there are services we’re able to augment. We’re going through that portfolio of opportunities now to see what do we want to be able to provide.