Ingram Micro is #1 IT distribution company in India

 At Rank # 9 in DQ Top 20, 2015 Rankings for Ingram India, growth was good as compared to last year. It was a year of sustaining and leveraging through a multi-pronged strategy.  Moreover as traditional areas of IT distribution becomes more challenging, companies like Ingram took on to a diversified portfolio for better margins.

Ingram Micro in India had a good year despite the IT distribution industry being mired by oppressive tax regulations in this part of the world. What drove Ingram Micro India’s revenues was the strong enterprise sales and good growth in the handsets portfolio. Of all the emerging markets, India is demonstrating bigger traction and if we look at the company’s global revenues, for CY2014, it posted $46.5 bn globally and 61% of its global revenues have come from outside the US with APAC countries demonstrating impressive traction. If we further drill down, India is one key growth country for Ingram and is positively impacting its global revenues. Since FY14, Ingram is globally making a conscious attempt to re-innovate itself in the distribution space. At the end of FY14, it embarked on a new brand identity in sync with the times.

If one looks at FY15, clearly it connected the new brand identity with the vendors and channel partners and projected itself as an agile distribution shop to be able to embrace the wide ranging technology disruptions and emerging opportunities—starting from core IT opportunities to smartphones, tablets, and non-IT products, and training. For instance, its aggressive foray into the education sector amply demonstrates how Ingram is looking at verticalized services and offering specific solutions for specific verticals like IT training. For instance, through the Ingram Micro Education Services (IMES), the company delivers education services specially designed and crafted by specialists to meet the customers’ needs. The company has ambitious plans on becoming one of the top commercial education centers in India. To this end, Ingram Micro has invested resources and efforts to make sure all the classrooms and labs are fully equipped; trainers are professional and well-trained to deliver top quality courses; and service staff is fully trained with substantial product knowledge to serve the customers at all levels. IMES aspires to maintain the quality and prestige by delivering most pleasant and productive learning experience.

It represents Microsoft, Symantec, Red Hat, Eucalyptus, IBM, and Fortinet as authorized training partners. It is also planning to start a testing center soon. With this, the company is looking at broad basing the availability of skilled technology personnel and looking at meeting the requirements of organizations, which are increasingly dependent on highly skilled IT professionals to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Here IMES’ goal is to provide support with robust technical training courses and hands-on labs. Information available suggests that its trainings recognize and reward real-world skills to help its customers gain a competitive advantage in the market place. If we look at the business strategies of distribution companies, since the last few years, they have been adopting a multi-pronged strategy to de-risk themselves from the intricate complexities that govern distribution in this part of the world.

So in the last few years, distribution companies like Ingram and Redington have morphed into an end-to-end SCM player, with a portfolio that included electronics and white goods as well. In the non IT space it’s majorly smartphones that is giving in good revenue yield. While Ingram has a huge portfolio cutting across software, security to consumer electronics segments, let’s look at some significant updates over the last year. Ingram collaborated with Dell and launched ‘Dell Storm,’ an outreach program that encompasses 117 tier-2 and -3 cities in India. Dell with this program effectively leveraged the extensive Ingram channel ecosystem and thereby Dell’s offerings became one key product in Ingram’s portfolio. Looking ahead, with India becoming a key geography for Ingram, the company is clearly adopting a customized roadmap. What puts Ingram in an advantageous position is its expertise in giving significant value to vendors and resellers. In this regard, Ingram’s Business Intelligence Center (BIC) plays a critical role in creating a seamless positioning of a wide ranging products.