Ingram Micro will shortly add configure-to-order and quote-to-order capabilities to its Xvantage digital platform. Sanjib Sahoo, chief digital officer at Ingram Micro, announced the new capabilities at the distributor’s ONE Ingram Micro event in Orlando Tuesday.

Introduced earlier this year and launched in Canada just last month, Xvantage is what the distributor calls its “digital twin,” a platform for working with partners, vendors, and Ingram employees that, in short order, will become the primary way the company does business. Throughout the development and launch of the platform, Sahoo has spoken frequently about updates and new features coming out every two weeks.

Sahoo said the distributor would first bring its Cisco CTO tools into the Xvantage realm, with other key vendors to follow quickly afterwards. He noted that moving these tools, previously offered elsewhere on the Ingram website, into Xvantage will ultimately allow the distributor to provide CTO and QTO options in half the time.

Kirk Robinson, executive vice president and president and Ingram’s North American business, previewed the soon-to-launch Xvantage experience for its associates, describing it as a development that will be as foundational as its initial CRM platform for working with solution providers.

“We learned a lot about your business so we can have more intelligent conversations about you and your opportunities,” Robinson said.

One of the most significant changes with Xvantage will be the ability for both Ingram Micro and channel partners to have greater access to data on solutions providers’ business with the distributor. The platform will allow Ingram to help partners find “different ways to help your clients, keep them secure and compliant.”

Although the Canadian launch of Xvantage is a little over a month old, “just about all” of the distributor’s Canadian solution provider customers are on the platform, Robinson told attendees. Robinson said the platform went live in the U.S. first, and some 25,000 partners are up and running on Xvantage, with all partners Stateside slated to be up and running by next month.

In a main-stage panel discussion, Joanna Muzatti, CEO of Mississauga-based solution provider Commerx, praised the ease of use of Xvantage.

“The information was just there. It was immediate simplification and easy to navigate,” Muzatti said. She added that the platform had shaved “half a day a week” off of the time one of her key employees spent managing the Ingram relationship. The distributor says it designed Xvantage to surface information like order status that would have previously required a phone call to the distributor.

“That’s half a day back to have business conversations instead of running things down. It’s huge,” Muzatti said.

Providing further evidence, the distributor sees Xvantage as its platform; CEO Paul Bay said in his presentation that three years from now, he would “love to say we’re a platform business and the business behind your brands.”

Ingram Micro ONE is going on this week in the Orlando area, the first time since 2019 the distributor has brought together its partner and vendor communities for the event.