Diversifying for Growth

Unfazed by post merger challenges, Ingram Micro emerged stronger. In fact, it
was the best year in terms of growth and diversification post its merger with
Tech Pacific, with all the legal and operational issues finally laid to rest.
The year even saw Ingram finally biting the bullet in terms of launching its own
branded productsa trend distributors in all segments are increasingly
following.

The systems business once again contributed the lions share of revenue
(45%); consumer electronics, 12%; and the consumer PC business saw maximum
growth at about 30%, despite Ingram dropping the LG product line. Ingram added
ASUS to its portfolio and stopped reselling Toshiba notebooks from HCL, becoming
a direct distributor for Toshiba. Getting over the sluggish performance of FY
07, the components segment performed better as the go-to-market strategies by
Intel and other vendors became more streamlined.

Ingrams strong focus on high-end enterprise business paid off, contributing
almost 20% to the revenue. It also structured the vertical in a more logical
manner into sub-segments such as storage, networking, enterprise software,
security, and enterprise hardware to make it more profitable. It added smaller
but niche vendors under each category such as Business Objects (now SAP), VMWare,
D-Link, Hitachi, NetApp, Tandberg, and Netgear among others. Its enterprise
software portfolio grew by almost 50% after adding the Autodesk and Adobe
businesses.

Rank-6

l Start-up Year: 1996
l Products & Services: Distribution
of IT products and consumer electronics l
Employees: 1,200 l Address: Gate
1A, Godrej Industries Complex, Pirojshahnagar, Eastern Express
Highway, Vikhroli (E), Mumbai-400 079

l Tel: +91-22-67960110
l Fax: +91-22-67960103
l Website:
www.ingrammicro.com

size=1>Highlights

n
Strong growth in consumer
PC and enterprise business

n Stopped
distribution of Toshiba notebooks from HCL

n Added Autodesk
and Adobe to its software portfolio

n Launched its own
brand called V7, focusing mainly on the accessories
segment

size=1>Strengths

p
 Getting
into new business areas, exploring non-IT business
opportunities and constantly looking at diversification
in IT solutions


p Ability
to identify early opportunities in terms of up country
initiatives

size=1>Weaknesses

size=1>qÂ
Still perceived to be slow in its response time and
decision making despite conscious efforts to change that
image

size=1>q Has not
attracted any new talent despite increasing its reach
and penetration

K
Jaishankar, MD

M
Mohapatra, director, PSG and CAG

Bimal Das, director, CSG

Navneet Bindra, head, National Sales

The foray into POS solutions grew more focused last year, with
Ingram roping in more vendors such as Printronix and Zebra apart
from Symbol and Wyse. These additions enabled Ingram to have an
end-to-end offering, which witnessed demand from the retail and SCM
industries.

Ingram also started an in-house training cell and began vendor specific
training sessions for Red Hat and Fortinet to both resellers as well as
customers. In terms of reach into tier-2 cities, it did not open many new
branchesjust two in the East. Rather, it focused more on its telesales engine,
which spread to fifteen smaller towns.