Ingram Micro One: Distributor's New Facilities Expand Move From Product Focus To Solutions Focus

Ingram Micro is making the introduction of its new Business Transformation Center, which focuses less on demonstrating products and more on helping partners test solutions, a centerpiece of this week's Ingram Micro One conference in Washington, D.C.

The Irvine, Calif.-based distributor is also showcasing is new Custom Integration Center, and introducing new programs and services to solution providers.

The new Ingram Micro Business Transformation Center, or BTC, was set up at the behest of channel partners who often come to the distributor without knowing exactly what they are looking for, said Greg Richey, director of training and professional services at Ingram Micro.

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The BTC is situated in the same space Ingram Micro's Solutions Center in Buffalo, N.Y. was based, Richey told CRN. The new BTC, and the now-discontinued Solutions Center, served two different purposes, he said.

"Customers came to the Buffalo Solutions Center to look at server and storage and related gear, and we asked them what they needed," he said. "There's been a shift. Now they come, and we ask what business outcome they want. The BTC shows off solutions with technology, but the focus is on the business outcomes."

The BTC features separate rooms showcasing the classroom of the future, a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) lab, and vertical solutions centered around such areas as healthcare and retail, Richey said.

Together, they present potential solutions to help customers with their digital transformation, he said. "We can set up virtual presentations to show new solutions in an exciting new way," he said. "We're introducing new products and solutions that we never before could have shown."

Mark Herberger, director of partner technical enablement at Ingram Micro, told CRN that the BTC offers scalability and flexibility, and is set up to be configured as needed to show potential solutions.

"If a partner or customer makes a request to visit, we ask them what they want to do," Herberger said. "If we probe and ask customers about their current practices and requirements, we are able to tailor the experience to be more relevant."

Ingram Micro uses the BTC to help partners grow competencies and to help close the deal, Herberger said.

"They've made the pitch, and got the customer's interest, and now the customer wants to see how everything works," he said. "So we try to duplicate the customer environment as much as possible."

The BTC is already open to channel partners who can come in on their own or with their clients, Richey said. The grand opening was held two weeks ago, he said.

One channel partner who was at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Business Transformation Center was Sam Barhoumeh, founder and CEO of ReadyNetworks, an Evanston, Ill.-based solution provider.

Barhoumeh told CRN that going through the four main rooms of the BTC was really a journey into possible solutions as Ingram Micro made it a practical environment for both customers and partners.

"Ingram Micro nailed it good," he said. "The retail room shows what the point-of-sales solutions look like. The education room looks like a classroom. If you're a partner in education, you can demo all the solutions including Microsoft voice and voice-over-IP. They even have access points embedded in the ceiling. After the demo, the engineers showed them to us. I didn't even know they were in there."

Barhoumeh liked the details he saw at the BTC.

"The healthcare room showcases telemedicine and audio/video for doctors," he said. "An Ingram Micro person asked us if we could hear any server noise. We said no. He then opened a small hospital cart to show us four blade servers running."

Customers and partners will really appreciate the investment Ingram Micro made in the BTC, Barhoumeh said.

"The value points that Ingram Micro is offering is far higher than those of other distributors," he said. "They are creating proofs of concept, demos, and a transformation environment for us. We could never make that king of investment. Instead, we just fly a customer to Buffalo and show them the BTC."

Nigel Slater, vice president of corporate development at 3D-P, a Calgary, Alberta-based solution provider which uses Ingram Micro both as a source of components and as a distributor for its own IoT edge devices, has yet to visit the Ingram Micro Business Transformation Center.

However, Slater told CRN, he has always found the distributor to be ready with specialist help, and looks forward to working with the BTC on potential projects.

"We often find ourselves in a situation where the customer knows we do industrial IoT and shows us a problem," he said. "I can go to Ingram Micro, tell them I'm looking for a solution but am not sure what it is. We see Ingram Micro as a place to find best-of-breed solutions or other partners with certain skills we may not have."

The Ingram Micro One conference will also see the distributor introduce its new custom integration center, formed last week when Ingram Micro transformed its former components business unit into the new Integrated Solutions business unit.

Ryan Grant, vice president of the Integrated Solutions business unit, said the new 15,000-square-foot custom integration center was carved out of the company's Mira Loma, Calif.-based distribution facility as a place for vendors to do final integration of solutions before sending them to partners and their customers.

The new center serves both channel-focused OEMs and service providers who buy the components from Ingram Micro, Grant told CRN.

"They buy the components from Ingram Micro, and we do the integration," he said. "We can rack the servers, burn in everything, and drop ship it to customer. A lot of smaller OEMs, systems integrators, and VARs are looking for these services."

Should Ingram Micro not have the needed components, customers can bring their own or can as Ingram Micro to special-order them, Grant said.

"But the Ingram Micro portfolio has over 55 vendors that cover 98 percent of component needs," he said. "So if a partner wants to deploy a solution and can't find it, we can design it for them, source the components, and handle the integration and logistics."