DQ Top 20 Rank 9 - Ingram Micro India The Promise of 2023 

Operating in the business of technology solutions, mobility, cloud, and supply chain solutions, Ingram Micro has managed to surf the tide of technology well in its strong markets. In addition, it has built new competencies in its own garage and continued to expand friendships in many fresh pockets worldwide. 

This multibillion-dollar organization has a strong presence in India, and it has established a viable reputation as a trusted IT distribution company—as shared by the company. With the aim of revolutionizing the entire distribution ecosystem, it has also recently launched its “digital twin” – Xvantage. 

Yes, this May it gave a peek of something new and its own with its future digital experience platform ecosystem known as Ingram Micro Xvantage – making a foray into the Digital Twin space. This offering is packed with several proprietary engines enhanced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) —as claimed so far. It has been built to deliver unique and differentiated learning, partnering, and buying experiences for channel partners – as the company explained. It is expected to move on the trajectory of future integration of Ingram Micro’s global Cloud Marketplace. In September it launched this in the United States and Germany – and confirmed the global “go live” plan for the rest of the world is early 2023. It plans to go live with Xvantage for Ingram Micro’s vendors in early 2023. 

The company describes itself as the business behind the world’s brands with the ability to reach nearly 90 percent of the world’s population. It also shared some data explaining its stronghold—presence in 61 countries, a reach close to 200 countries, approximately 27,000 associates for 161,000 customers, and 1,500 vendor partners worldwide. 

A global lens gives a good hint of what’s happening—or about to happen—in regions like India. This January, it also rolled out a series of enhancements to its Cloud Marketplaces globally around Microsoft Azure and New Commerce Experience. The company is a leading global Microsoft distribution partner and serves 25,000 partners in more than 30 countries. It is expected that these key billing and promotional updates are essential to the experience and continued adoption of Microsoft Azure and Microsoft NCE—helping partners to help establish, expand, and grow their Microsoft business. 

Interestingly, Xvantage has received an overwhelming response from Ingram Micro’s partners across India. The company is elated to onboard 100% of its partners on the AI-powered platform, and it aims to enhance the features and functionalities of the platform going forward to continue providing ease of doing business in the new digital era—the company has shared. 

Globally—This year the company shook hands for many fresh partnerships and distribution opportunities – thus, expanding its portfolio across the technology spectrum. It fortified its place in markets like Southeast Asia and the Middle East filling several key gaps. The company cemented itself well as Physical Security and digital distributor in many important regions. 

It made announcements for businesses like: 

• Sophos for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia – bringing in its next-generation software and hardware products and threat response services 

• Motorola Solutions, Inc.—distribution agreement for Video Security & Access Control products in the Middle East 

• Dayta AI, an AI Cloud Video Analytics company in Hong Kong and Macau – adding AI to Ingram Micro’s bundle of cloud, cyber security, advanced solutions, and unified communications 

• Nvidia—to sell and promote its high-performance networking technology in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (namely Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan, Turkey, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria). 

• Google Workspace, Google Workspace for Education, Chrome Enterprise, and Chrome Education across its reseller network in Hong Kong 

• Vertiv for a go-to-market relationship to cover Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand – this adds to the companies’ distribution work in Australia, New Zealand, and the Americas. It will cover Geist rack power distribution units (rPDU), Liebert uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), Liebert rack cooling systems, and dedicated software and services. 

In India too, the company added new names and technologies in its basket with: 

• A distribution agreement with PICO—a global VR technology company 

• A Cloud agreement with Unotech Software Pvt. Ltd.—a player in IAM (Identity Access 

• A distribution agreement with Digitate—a provider of IT, AIOps, and business operations solutions globally 

• A distribution agreement with HFCL (Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited) —a manufacturer for the telecommunication industry 

• An agreement with Videonetics under PSS portfolio with a wide array of products to fulfill unified interfaces for all the surveillance needs 

What’s noteworthy in these expansion moves is the use of the company’s internal strengths that complement these solutions well. Like its Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, or its vast array of education, training, and professional services resources. 

Navdeep Narula, Executive Director, Mobility & DigiOps, Ingram Micro India. 

“We focus on bringing consumerisation experience into IT distribution so that the end users get a better experience in terms of buying, transacting, and interacting. That’s where the Ingram Micro Xvantage platform can be a game changer. With our intelligent, AI-powered self-learning platform, we can serve as an even more strategic solution and service provider and generate a more intuitive experience for the customers.” 

Interestingly, in October 2022, it also made a splash with a Gaming esports Lab in the Ingram Micro Business Transformation Center (BTC). While Gaming is not a big chunk of Ingram Micro’s Business and Consumer Division, the company already has the foundation bricks of PCs and monitors to pro-AV as well as resellers in the education space. It can tap a lot of synergies in the education space with universities and new curriculum—if it plays this round right. 

According to analysts like Fitch, the company has key strong areas like 

• Revenues in excess of US$50 billion and operations in 61 countries 

• A broad product portfolio with over 1,500 vendor partners 

• A global and extensive distribution footprint 

• Presence of Advanced Solutions and Cloud businesses – giving it a ready posture in the ‘as a service' era’s arrival 

• Ability to adapt quickly to new changes 

• Can invest in working capital, resulting in cash outflows during expansion periods 

But it also faces challenges like: 

• Sales dips during contraction periods 

• Inventory pile-ups 

• A low-margin industry with sharp competition between IT distributors 

• Dominant position of IT vendors over distributors on margins 

• Inventory write-downs due to product obsolescence 

The company describes itself as the business behind the world’s brands with the ability to reach nearly 90 percent of the world’s population. It also shared some data explaining its stronghold—presence in 61 countries, a reach close to 200 countries, approximately 27,000 associates for 161,000 customers and 1,500 vendor partners worldwide. Ingram Micro has explored channel finance tie-ups as well - giving Ingram Micro an opportunity to reach a larger customer base across realms and domains 

If the company can keep adapting to tech disruptions and build deeper relationships with its own in-house strengths wherever required—it can actually capture ‘the promise of technology’.  

By Pratima H