Channel Insider content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

The North America Services Division of Ingram Micro has expanded its IM Link services network with an IBM Professional Services specialization. This gives channel partners in the United States and Canada access to IBM software service providers in a non-compete environment to help them win new business and expand their IBM services and expertise.

IBM specialists within the IM Link network have experience across IBM’s entire software solutions portfolio, including business analytics, storage and content management, security, mobility and collaboration software. Other IBM specializations and professional services—including IBM Power Systems, PureSystems, System x and Smarter Storage Systems—will be available in the second half of 2013.

The IBM Professional Services specialization is the first of several vendor-specific specialty services that are planned to launch in 2013 as part of Ingram Micro’s IM Link services network. “We have it on our road map to continue to build out IM Link specializations around IBM hardware, as well as the continued addition of system integrators and app developers supporting cloud solutions like force.com, Office 365, and Birst,” said John Redman, Ingram Micro’s manager of Professional Services.

IM Link is an online professional services network that makes it easier for Ingram Micro’s channel partners in North America to collaborate and in-source technology services from a select community of IT service providers, according to the global technology distributor. Channel partners can leverage IM Link when they need additional technical resources and services to close new business, or to fulfill ongoing service agreements and specific projects when their staff is at capacity.

“By enrolling as a member of IM Link and leveraging the standard noncompete and nondisclosure terms of its contractually protected environment,” said Redman, “channel partners gain simple access to the specialized technical resources needed to fill any of the service needs of their customers by extending geographic and technical reach, adding flexibility for the management of their own benches, and increasing profitability and revenue through the diversification of their product and service portfolios.”

Other areas of specialization available through IM Link include Public Sector, Health Care, Websense, DataCore, McAfee Web Security, Pro/AV Digital Signage, High-Performance Computing and Virtualization Services.

There are no membership fees or transaction or service charges to use IM Link “beyond the price quoted by the service providers completing the service requests,” said Redman.

Gina Roos, a Channel Insider contributing writer, specializes in technology and the channel.