Ingram Micro India Pvt. Ltd. (IMIL) is an Indian subsidiary of Ingram Micro Inc., USA. IMIL today is the top IT distribution company in India, with a nationwide presence at 40+ locations. Ingram Micro Inc. is the world’s largest technology distributor, providing sales and distribution services for the IT industry worldwide with a vast geographical footprint across 61 countries and more than 161,000 IT partners worldwide.
In an interaction with NCN Magazine, Mr. Navdeep Narula, Executive Director, Mobility & DigiOps, Ingram Micro India, shares his thoughts on the changing paradigm of the IT distribution landscape and how digitalization and automation are enhancing value in the distribution ecosystem.
How Digitalization Play a Vital Role in Transforming Any Industry?
Talking about the latest trends in the distribution segment, the basic pillars like talent, resources, reach, and logistics efficiencies are still relevant today. However, process automation and the advent of AI and ML tools are rapidly impacting distribution like never before. The focus today is on value creation at every step of distribution, and the ecosystem must evolve accordingly. For a distributor to be successful, he must adapt to changing expectations and market conditions and align with the requirements of the ecosystem. This calls for bringing all stakeholders, including partners, vendors, and associates, into one seamless and integrated community.
It is established that automation and digitalization play a vital role in transforming any industry, and IT distribution is no different. Companies that leverage this to streamline processes, increase operational efficiency, and drive scalability will create tremendous value in this evolving ecosystem This value creation is a continuum, with different companies embarking on it at different stages of the journey.
How “Experience” is the cornerstone for Success?
“Experience” is the cornerstone for success in the new digital era and the need for distribution companies to enhance the overall experience of partners and vendors alike through strategic value-added services. In his words, “IT distribution companies can differentiate themselves and expand their value proposition by offering a wide range of value-added services that go beyond mere distribution of IT products. They must facilitate 24X7 engagement opportunities, provide on-demand information and business insights, and offer end-to-end solution capabilities, which include a comprehensive range of Marketing, Financial, and Professional Services, to cater to the diverse and evolving needs of partners and vendors. This will help foster and cement stronger partnerships with OEMs, partners, and end users. Value-added offerings will surely optimize and revolutionize the traditional distribution model extensively.
What’s New Digital Platform Launched to Enhance TheEase of Doing Business?
With their recently launched Xvantage, Ingram Micro aims to solve the complexities of doing business across different IT channels. By taking a leaf from the functionalities of the B2C experience and weaving them into the B2B space, Ingram Micro is attempting to make it easier and more effective for partners and vendors to come and grow their businesses together.
We have recently launched our digital platform, Xvantage, which offers a lot of functionalities that enhance the ease of doing business. We have distinct platforms for customer partners, vendors, and associates integrated into one simple, large, seamless ecosystem. We have already launched the associate and customer platforms and will be launching the platform for the vendors soon. Through this unified platform, all customer partners will get a similar business engagement experience with Ingram Micro, irrespective of their size and location. This means that an Ingram Micro customer sitting in a Tier 3 city can get the same experience that his counterparts receive in Tier 1 cities. Partners in Tier 2 and 3 cities are expected to benefit a lot from having access to the platform’s functionalities, while partners in major cities will leverage it to build and scale their businesses, addressing newer opportunities. Through its industry-leading propositions like Self-Serve Capabilities, 24X7 Access, Order Status and Tracking, Business Insights on demand, Customer Service to manage returns, access to industry-specific solutions, and a comprehensive view of the financial metrics, topped up with extensive platform help and support, Xvantage is expected to offer compelling business propositions to partners. This will create high stickiness amongst all the users of Xvantage.
What are the Expectations and Focus of Ingram Micro?
Ingram Micro is focused on creating value by enhancing the experience of all its stakeholders through industry-leading practices and an integrated ecosystem of sellers and buyers. For decades, innovation has been a key differentiator between Ingram Micro and other IT distribution companies, and it attains even higher importance in building Xvantage as the platform. Ingram Micro Xvantage is expected to be a game changer in the industry with its inclusive approach and deployment of cutting-edge technologies. The company’s management team is focused on leading the industry through this change with a clear understanding of customer expectations.
What are the Plans Ingram Micro Have to make distribution successful?
For distribution to be successful, we need to understand and align with the objectives of the vendors and use those synergies to meet market expectations. In this light, we at Ingram Micro combine the power of information with BI (Business Intelligence) tools, extracting value from the decades of transactional data to help create business insights aimed at making informed and valuable decisions.
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