Ingram Micro
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Name: Dan Shapero
Title: Director, Global Cloud Marketing
RCP: What do you call your program?
Shapero: Cloud Elevate.
What do you call the CSP resellers in your program?
Channel partners.
What requirements does a partner need to meet to be a reseller for you?
Ingram Micro makes Cloud Elevate available to any Ingram Micro reseller. To join the Cloud Elevate program, resellers register at elevate.ingrammicrocloud.com. All Cloud Elevate partners are provided access to the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, giving them the ability to purchase and resell Microsoft cloud services through the Microsoft CSP program. The Microsoft CSP program requires partners to provide billing and Level 1 support to their end customers. If our partners need assistance meeting the Microsoft support requirements, they can engage the support of the Ingram Micro Service Desk to augment their capabilities
Is there a cost involved?
There is no additional cost to an Ingram Micro partner to participate in the Elevate program.
One of the attractions of the CSP program is that Microsoft does not own the customer billing. But has a reseller substituted Microsoft owning the customer billing for you, the CSP distribution partner, owning the customer billing?
No, Ingram Micro does not bill end customers for products and services, including CSP.
What protections or assurances have you put in place to reassure the reseller that they own the customer relationship?
Ingram is committed to the channel and our primary customer base of our reseller partners. The reseller is responsible for the billing, support and the overall relationship with the end customer.
Do you offer a white-label billing option or white-label support options? Is there a fee or different participation requirements for partners to use a white-label version?
Yes we offer a white-label support option called Ingram Micro Service Desk. Service Desk is a fee-based service that provides Level 1 technical support for front office, desktop and many IT-related issues via phone, chat and e-mail.
In addition to distributing Microsoft cloud keys and billing, what benefits are you providing to the resellers that they can, in turn, offer to their customers?
Ingram Micro delivers the following additional benefits that resellers can pass to their customers:
- Ingram Micro's automated Cloud Marketplace offers the ease of deployment and management for Office 365.
- Ingram Micro delivers an optimal migration experience through the combination of Skykick Office 365 Migration Suite and Cloud Ignite Services. Our integrated migration suite, based on SkyKick, simplifies and accelerates the sales and migration process to Office 365.
- Ingram Micro Cloud Ignite Services provides the direct 24/7 support desk that our partners require.
- Level 1 Service Desk support options for anything sold through the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace and Microsoft services purchased through the CSP program.
- The opportunity to earn higher margins as compared to the Microsoft Advisor program.
What differentiates your CSP distribution offering from the other CSP indirect partners?
Comprehensive cloud portfolio: Ingram Micro offers a comprehensive portfolio of cloud solutions from leading cloud service providers. More than 70 vendor partners and more than 200 cloud solutions on Ingram's cloud portfolio are being added to our automated Cloud Marketplace. The Cloud Marketplace delivers a one-stop shop for partners, where they are able to access all the cloud solutions their customers need from one single portal.
Value-driven customer support: Ingram Micro provides 24/7 support, not only for CSP, but for all cloud solutions provisioned on our Cloud Marketplace. This capability is based on the 15 years of customer services experience we gained through our acquisition of SoftCom in 2013.
Automated Cloud Marketplace: The automated Cloud Marketplace offers resellers a competitive advantage by expediting the time to purchase, provision, manage and invoice cloud solutions. Resellers are able to shorten the sales cycle and time spent deploying for customers because of the platform's real-time access to the Cloud Marketplace's cloud portfolio. Flexibility is another characteristic of the automated platform, as it allows partners to create new, multi-vendor bundle solutions in affordable, cost-effective packages. With the additional acquisition of SofCloudIT in 2014, Ingram Micro gained 15 years of expertise in APS developments. These support capabilities, combined with the value of the CSP program, gives partners a trusted and reliable platform to help them accelerate and grow their cloud services business.
Streamlined migration: To achieve an optimal migration experience while simplifying the deployment and management processes, the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace provides channel partners access to the scalable and real-time SkyKick Office 365 Migration Suite and Ingram Micro Cloud Ignite Services. Our integrated migration suite, based on SkyKick, streamlines the sales and migration process to Office 365 for channel partners by offering them full access to project automation technology. Additionally, Ingram Micro offers a service desk to provide end customer technical support for those partners that don't have this capability.
The Ingram Micro brand: Partners are in good hands with Ingram Micro, a company with over 34 years' experience as a technology partner for resellers worldwide.
How much demand are you seeing from resellers?
We have seen tremendous response from our existing reseller base, and have had a number of new partners that haven't transacted with Ingram Micro in the past join the program, as well. These new partners include traditional resellers, MSPs, ISVs, telcos and born-in-the-cloud resellers. Our ability to provide an automated Cloud Marketplace, which enables the ordering, provisioning, managing and invoicing of all cloud solutions and services from a single portal, is a key differentiator in attracting these new partners.
How many resellers have you signed up so far for your CSP program (United States and worldwide)?
We currently have over 5,000 channel partners registered on our Cloud Marketplace, all eligible to purchase CSP via the marketplace.
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