Interested in getting some of the business intelligence muscle used by
vendors such as Citrix Systems, SonicWall and IBM?
While many VARs have been looking to BI and how that specialty lends itself
well to service sales, higher margins and the trusted adviser role,
distribution giant Ingram Micro is turning that around to offer vendors and
VARs a BI service.
Ingram Micro's new Business Intelligence
Center is a strategic service for
IT channel partners in the United States,
intended to help them better understand customers and generate new business.
The service provides partners with data, market intelligence and the visibility
they need to generate more business and better target their marketing and sales
efforts. The service is an expansion of BI initiatives Ingram Micro has offered
to its vendor partners.
Among the services offered are the following:
- Analytical and predictive
modeling;
- Customer and end-user
profiling;
- Lead generation, market
performance and share analysis;
- Primary market and customer
research; and
- Opportunity
refresh and sales trending data.
Technology vendors that have used the service include Belkin, Citrix, IBM,
SonicWall and Xerox.
"Our experience in working with the Ingram Micro Business Intelligence Center has been invaluable," David Lee, vice president
of marketing communications, SonicWall, said in a statement. "Last year,
we teamed with Ingram Micro to design a custom primary market research study
for SonicWall. We found their thinking, design and research to be extremely
insightful, thorough and action-oriented and look forward to working with them
again."
The Ingram Micro BIC team currently is working with a select group of solution
providers within Ingram Micro's VTN (VentureTech Network) to expand their
addressable market, the company says. The distributor plans to launch a new Business
Intelligence Portal at the upcoming VTN Invitational in Hollywood, Fla., held April 21 to 24.
"The Ingram Micro Business Intelligence Center has proven to generate actionable results that
positively benefit the top and bottom line for our channel partners, as well as
Ingram Micro," Kirk Robinson, Ingram Micro's North American vice president
of channel marketing, said in a statement. Robinson is leading the BIC effort.
"By successfully tapping into the IT channel's largest database and leveraging
the intelligence gathered from our analytics tools, we are able to deliver an
unprecedented level of visibility into IT market transactions and establish
predictive behaviors around purchasing habits of both end users and solution
providers."
Distribution 
