Ingram Micro's New Business Intelligence Center Delivers Competitive Advantage to Channel Partners

New Services Tap IT Channel's Largest Database to Maximize Business Opportunities for IT Vendors, VARs and Ingram Micro

SANTA ANA, Calif., April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM) today announced the launch of its Business Intelligence Center (BIC), a strategic service that provides IT channel partners in the U.S. with the data, market intelligence and visibility they need to generate more business, expand their reach and achieve pinpoint accuracy in their marketing and sales efforts.

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The creation of the Ingram Micro BIC, which is based on the company's extensive database as the world's largest technology distributor, is the logical outgrowth of Ingram Micro's rapidly expanding business intelligence initiatives that began in 2006.

Led by Ingram Micro North America's Vice President of Channel Marketing Kirk Robinson, the BIC now offers IT vendors and solution providers a number of customizable programs and services, such as analytical and predictive modeling, customer and end-user profiling, lead generation, market performance and share analysis, primary market and customer research, as well as opportunity refresh and sales trending data.

To date, the BIC's growing service portfolio and programs have enabled a number of leading IT vendors to achieve their unique business goals including Belkin, Citrix Systems, IBM, Microsoft, SonicWALL and Xerox.

"Our experience in working with the Ingram Micro Business Intelligence Center has been invaluable," says David Lee, vice president of marketing communications, SonicWALL, Inc. "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."

In addition to its success within the vendor community, the Ingram Micro BIC team currently is working with a select group of solution providers within Ingram Micro's VentureTech Network (VTN) to expand their addressable market. The distributor plans to launch a new Business Intelligence Portal at the upcoming VTN Invitational in Hollywood, FL from April 21 – 23.

"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," says Robinson. "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. The BIC is unique to Ingram Micro and offers exclusive, business-building services and programs that bring increasing value to our channel partners and strengthen our position in the IT marketplace."

IT vendor and solution providers interested in finding out more about the business-building capabilities offered within the Ingram Micro Business Intelligence Center should contact their Ingram Micro sales or marketing representative.

About Ingram Micro

As a vital link in the technology value chain, Ingram Micro creates sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programs, outsourced logistics services, technical support, financial services and product aggregation and distribution. The company serves approximately 150 countries and is the only global broad-based IT distributor with operations in Asia. Visit www.ingrammicro.com.

SOURCE Ingram Micro Inc.