Ingram Micro Seals IoT Sensor Distribution Deal With CoreKinect

'With CoreKinect, we're able to remove the need for us to vet a hundred different sensor manufacturer companies and partner with one company who can custom design and create sensors very specific to the actual use case,' Ingram Micro's Eric Hembree says of the CoreKinect deal.

Ingram Micro wants to help its channel partners scale Internet of Things projects faster thanks to a new strategic alliance with custom IoT sensor maker CoreKinect.

The Irvine, Calif.-based distributor announced the U.S. distribution deal with CoreKinect on Thursday at its IoT Summit in Irvine, saying it will help solution providers find scalable IoT sensor solutions for a wide variety of uses.

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"With CoreKinect, we're able to remove the need for us to vet a hundred different sensor manufacturer companies and partner with one company who can custom design and create sensors very specific to the actual use case and the environment for what our customers need," Eric Hembree, director of IoT at Ingram Micro, told CRN.

Hembree said one of CoreKinect's key capabilities is the ability to make custom IoT sensors for multiple uses, spanning from smart cities to agriculture.

"They don't have to create a sensor for each little thing if they can create it once and it has many different use cases," he said. "That's ultimately what the endgame should be."

There are multiple ways solution providers can make money with IoT sensors, starting with the sale and extending to integration with a cloud platform and various IoT applications, according to Hembree.

"There's a lot of touch points for partners to come to the table on, give their expertise on a given subject — and it's all managed and orchestrated through Ingram Micro," he said.

While CoreKinect has global manufacturing operations, Ingram Micro will only source IoT sensors from the vendor's U.S. facilities, Hembree said.

"Having a homegrown sensor that's developed and supported in the U.S. is really unprecedented, and for us we couldn't be happier with the partnership," he said.

Assar Badri, CEO of CoreKinect, said the channel is important to the company's strategy.

"We care deeply about outcomes and the success of our partners, and are thrilled to team with Ingram Micro in bringing CoreKinect’s solutions to channel partners in the U.S.," he said in a statement.