Ingram Hires Fujitsu Executive To Run Managed Services, Cloud Business

Bergeron replaces Justin Crotty, who left Ingram Micro last month to become executive vice president and general manager at NetEnrich. Bergeron's title is an expanded one, (Crotty was vice president of services), and that tweak is no accident as Ingram Micro looks to enhance its services strategy, said Keith Bradley, president of North America.

"It is the same role, but has more of a point. Renee has all of Justin's responsibilities. We're closer to what the cloud is and we're ready to move forward on that piece," Bradley said.

Bergeron starts Sept. 8 at Ingram Micro. She is responsible for driving Ingram Micro's services growth strategy, which includes accelerating sales and business development efforts. She is also tasked with building the distributor’s Ingram Micro Services Network, Seismic services portfolio and Cloud Conduit Initiative and Advisory Council. She will report directly to Paul Bay, executive vice president, Ingram Micro North America.

Ingram Micro envisions a three-pronged approach to expand its cloud strategy under Bergeron, according to Bradley. First is educating VARs on what the cloud is, including infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and software-as-a-service, and how to sell it, Bradley said.

Second is to "continue to develop the channel model to make sure that VARs never get disintermediated as some [end users] move toward the cloud," Bradley said. "Third is to aggregate world class solutions for both vendors and VARs. For vendors, we want to be their platform for SMB and their cloud strategy. For VARs, we want to be their one-stop shop experience."

At Fujitsu, Bergeron led the company's $300 million services business and oversaw the development of managed services operations such as data center virtualization and cloud-computing, according to Ingram Micro.

"Renee has been a consultant, she's been a CIO, now she's running a $300 million-a-year services business," Bradley said. "When I looked at [our] role, I wanted somebody that clearly understands the business side of it, that has run a business unit to have that financial experience. But also I wanted somebody who understood the technology. The cloud is still so nascent, we want to make sure we build the right solution and have good technical skills."

Bradley said that he's confident Bergeron has the necessary skills to relate to and work with solution providers.

"She will embrace the channel. We can put her on stage as an Ingram spokesperson," he said. "During the interview process, we talked about what she and her team do with end users. She can take that experience, replicate it and learn what challenges VARs face."

Bradley expects to have a more clear strategy for Ingram's specific cloud initiative over the next couple of months after Bergeron comes on board, he said.

"Everbody has sold a little of it, but nobody sold a lot of it yet. Where do we think the cloud is really relevant? Where will we see acceleration in 2011? We have to make sure we have correct bundles for VARs to [sell]," Bradley said. "Is the sweet spot less than 100 seats? Less than 200 seats? We have to identify that and have bundled solutions for VARs."