IT distributor Ingram Micro announced a lineup of fully integrated virtualization solutions and complementary marketing enablement resources for channel partners selling to small and midsize businesses. The Ingram Micro Virtualization (IM-V) bundles include EMC VNXe storage systems, designed for simplicity, efficiency and affordability for smaller businesses, VMware’s vSphere and the Cisco Catalyst, Nexus and Unified Computing System products.
The customizable IM-V bundles are being supported by the Ingram Micro Advanced Computing and Advanced Technology Divisions, which are designed to deliver greater opportunity, specialization, technical support and business value to U.S. vendors and channel partners that market, sell and support higher-end technology solutions and services such as unified communications, virtualization, data center infrastructure, network security and storage.
“These new IM-V virtualization bundles and enablement resources are exactly what we’ve been asking for from distribution,” says solution provider Bill Hall, CEO of Boice.net. “Not only do they simplify the ordering process and reduce costs, but they also make it easier for us to market and sell these virtualized solution sets to our customers. It’s a smart move by Ingram Micro and its manufacturer partners and will certainly get the attention of IT solution providers who sell to small and mid-size businesses.”
To generate even greater demand for the IM-V bundles, Ingram Micro is now offering solution providers a number of partner-led marketing campaigns designed by EMC. These co-branded, partner-led banners, email campaigns, micro-sites and postcards are available to EMC channel partners at no charge. In addition, EMC partners can take advantage of additional collateral including battle cards, customer-facing sales presentations, FAQs, sell sheets, and video available from Ingram Micro.
“The new IM-V bundles are ideal solutions for channel partners selling into small and medium businesses with limited IT infrastructure expertise and are at the early stages of virtualizing their IT environment, or want more efficiency from their business applications,” said Doug Wood, vice president of entry systems and software for EMC. “These VNXe-based bundles combined with the added support from Ingram Micro’s Advanced Computing and Advanced Technology Divisions provide our partners with a significant sales and marketing advantage. We’re thrilled to be working closely with Ingram Micro to bring these offerings to market and make it easier for our mutual partners to lead with EMC.”
Paul Bay, executive vice president of Ingram Micro North America, said as a distributor authorized to sell EMC, Iomega, VMware and RSA portfolios, the company is uniquely positioned to offer channel partners a more robust and integrated set of EMC solutions. “The winning combination of the Advanced Computing and Advanced Technology Divisions is clearly a differentiator for Ingram Micro and a tremendous value play for our vendor and solution provider partners,” he said. “Ingram Micro is pleased to be a distributor of choice for EMC and bring to market a new series of SMB/SME virtualization bundles that will provide our channel partners with a greater sales advantage.”