Ingram Micro adds VNX installation and voice and video network readiness assessments to its growing collection of services for solution providers.
Joseph Pelonero, senior manager of sales for Ingram Micro’s advanced computing division
Ingram Micro continues to build out its Expert Services lineup, expanding the service available to include VNX deployment services, and voice and video readiness assessment services.
The former is an installation offering that the distributor says allows solution providers to take its engineering resources and re-task them with engaging new sales opportunities while the distributor takes care of post-sales installation and deployment, and the latter is a pre-sales assessment designed to make sure customers’ environments are ready for the voice and video network resources they’re thinking about deploying, said Joseph Pelonero, senior manager of sales for Ingram Micro’s advanced computing division.
“The idea behind Expert Services is to deliver a high-touch technical solution with simple, consistent, predictable quality of delivery, it helps them expand and gets them into new markets without having to invest too much,” he said. “It helps them address skill gaps, establishes their company as a trusted advisor, and gets them broken in to different disciplines.”
The Expert Services business started at the end of last year, and has now ramped up to seven distinct services, including the two new ones. Existing services in the lineup include wireless network assessments, penetration testing assessments, web applications vulnerability assessments, and a virtualization health check. With the focus on assessments, Pelonero said the distributor has been very successful in finding incremental opportunities with solution providers’ existing customers.
“Our assessments are very high touch, and when resellers engage us, we see repeat business very quickly,” he said.
With the VNX installation offering, Pelonero said the distributor is focused on making solution providers more profitable by re-tasking their engineering resources for pre-sales activities while Ingram takes on post-sales installation and deployment.
“It lets them take their best engineers and go find new revenue streams,” he said.
Meanwhile, the voice and video readiness assessment aims to make things easier for solution providers whose customers are eyeing deploying out voice and video on their networks, and much less expensive for the customers themselves.
“We go in and test the environment for voice and video before they deploy,” he said. “We make sure everything will work find once it’s installed, and if not, we cut it off at the pass and make sure the network is ready. It can be 30 to 50 times more expensive to fix it after the fact than it is to get it right the first time.”
Like all seven of the current Expert Services offerings, the two new offerings are available to Ingram’s Canadian resellers. Pelonero said Canada is an important market for the services, and that the distributor has resources devoted to the services in its Canadian offices. It’s just been a bit of a “best kept secret” thus far. Pelonero said he sees value, particularly, in helping regional Canadian resellers expand their footprint across Canada, and potentially even into the United States.
“We have resources on both coasts. If the reseller is in Toronto and they want to go after an opportunity in Edmonton, they can use Ingram Micro, and we can be there for you,” he said. “We want to tell them ‘There’s nothing you can’t do. Let us help you accomplish it.’”
Although the business is rapidly expanding, Pelonero signaled that the distributor is continuing to ramp up its Expert Services lineup, both in terms of breadth and depth.
“We’re investing heavily in this, and we continue to hire engineering resources,” he said. “Our staff has beefed up incredibly in the last six months.”
