News in the Channel - issue #13

INGRAM MICRO

cloud products on the same purchase order as a hardware transaction really opens a whole new opportunity for the IT Industry using Xvantage as a complete one-stop shop for business. How are resellers and vendors responding to Xvantage so far? Feedback from partners in total has been incredible. We couldn’t have got to where we are today without the voices of our reseller and vendor partners and in the majority of cases feedback has blown us away. Obviously change doesn’t happen overnight and that’s why we will continue to use those voices to regularly review, revisit and enhance on features and functionality that still require improvement. Xvantage is a journey, and this process of continuous improvement is what excites our team the most. What have been the biggest learnings for Ingram Micro associates? Our biggest learnings have been not to underestimate the need to involve associates in the early stages so they feel their voices are being heard and to reiterate that with a digital transformation journey like Xvantage, we cannot wait for perfection, instead, we must embrace progression. Interview with: Anna Wesley, SHI International, International Partner Alliance Manager – Distribution What features of Xvantage do you feel offer the most benefit to your business? I feel the sourcing features and the end to end order tracking are the most beneficial to our business as we are able to self-serve and support our customer’s needs throughout the whole sales process. What change do you see the platform making to the way you do business with Ingram Micro? I feel the migration to one single pane of glass platform with the Cloud Marketplace will ultimately help our interactions with Ingram Micro long term. How has Xvantage changed your perception of what a distributor can offer? I feel the platform has become a digital journey and full user experience, it’s not just transactional, it has become a foremost tool as part of the partnership between ourselves and Ingram Micro.

Sarah Horton Director Business Operations

What should we expect from a platform-led distribution model? Simplicity and efficiency. Of course, the traditional role of distribution remains as important as ever, however, with the rapid introduction of complex technologies often wrapped with services and financing solutions, we are evolving the way we support reseller partners to make it simpler to offer end-to-end solutions which can ease the route to market and help deliver a beneficial end-customer outcome. Xvantage brings together everything a reseller partner or vendor needs, offering greater control and more support. Interview with: Sara Horton, Director Business Operations and Kerrie Spalding, General Manager Platform Lead What are the key milestones on the Xvantage journey so far? We performed a full customer migration of our old IM Online ecommerce website over to Xvantage in May: since the migration we have continued to enhance and develop features and functionalities to maximise the user experience of the platform. In parallel, we launched our industry first Xvantage for vendor platform to a handful of pilot vendors. This platform has developed in the months since with new and improved functionality and we are now ramping up to complete our vendor onboarding. Our chief digital officer Sanjib Sahoo announced in May that we would be bringing our cloud marketplace, Ingram Micro’s cloud purchasing and provisioning platform, into Xvantage. In the UK we went live officially with our pilot customers at end of October and will continue the roll out into the new year. This industry first ability to process subscription

Kerrie Spalding General Manager Platform Lead

ingrammicro.com

Anna Wesley International Partner Alliance Manager - Distribution