INGRAM MICRO
Gaining an Xvantage Ingram Micro’s Xvantage has enjoyed a positive response from the channel since it was launched in March for how it makes business easier – culminating in two recent high-profile award wins.
It has been a successful year for Ingram Micro’s Xvantage platform, having scooped the Stock in the Channel award for Distributor Platform of the Year and CRN Channel Award for the Most Innovative Distributor Award. This is recognition for Xvantage, which has sought to disrupt the market since its launch and set new benchmarks for the sector, and the hard work the team behind it has put in before and after its launch to ensure that it delivers what resellers and vendors want. Xvantage is not just an ecommerce website or procurement portal, it is much more than that. It is an intelligent digital platform, which has been built for the IT ecosystem. Here, the user can discover, learn, purchase, and manage technology and cloud solutions in a single pane of glass. One of the main benefits of this is it significantly reduces order and transactional complexity and time to market for the user, which should enable resellers to spend more time focusing on their customers. Deserved recognition At the Stock in the Channel awards, which were based on empirical data rather than a judging panel, Xvantage took the Distributor Platform of the Year title, having been the best performing platform on the Stock in the Channel site. Meanwhile, the CRN award highlighted the innovation that is behind Xvantage, and there is plenty of that. For instance, one of the advantages of Xvantage is it can be personalised. In a similar way to streaming services such as Netflix, the recommendations that resellers see on their pane is based on their interactions with the platform, which means they can save time in searching for items and focus on building their business. Xvantage is also a self-learning ecosystem, underpinned by machine learning and artificial intelligence, which delivers powerful business intelligence and insights based on Ingram Micro’s years of experience across the globe, all in real time.
Another advantage is that it is seamlessly connected to all Ingram Micro sites via a data mesh, as resellers, vendors and Ingram Micro associates are all interconnected. For instance, if a reseller enters a quote on the platform, Ingram Micro associates can see it and ask if they need help – taking the friction out of transactions and turning them into meaningful interactions. Interview with: Matthew Sanderson, SVP UK & Ireland How is distribution evolving? The role of distribution has somewhat shifted from product-centric to service-centric, focusing on delivering value and outcomes to customers. We are innovating fast, with platforms, integrations, and services to enable our customers. This year we launched our Ingram Micro Xvantage™ digital experience platform with the goal of reducing complexity, optimising integrations, and delivering technical resources to transform the way our customers partner with us. How have relationships with vendors and resellers changed for distributors? The relationship has become deeper and more connected, with distribution playing an important part in supporting vendors and resellers to respond to rapidly changing customer needs, optimising costs, and differentiating themselves from competitors. With the introduction of Xvantage, our vendors can now begin to access rich and measurable data-driven results on all aspects of their business with us. These real-time insights allow vendors to make more informed decisions that can lead to greater revenue. For our resellers, the integrations and services available via Xvantage help reduce the complexity of doing business, whilst personalising the experience and helping our partners focus on creating solutions, allowing us to build deeper relationships together. The overall goal of course, is to help our partners make their business better and to grow.
“
Xvantage
is not just an ecommerce website or procurement
portal, it is much more than that. It is an intelligent digital platform, which has been built for the IT ecosystem.
”
Matthew Sanderson SVP UK & Ireland
ingrammicro.com
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