Ingram Micro Making Stronger Play In Retail, Finance Verticals

Ingram Micro's vertical market arsenal now includes retail and finance, the company said Monday during its ONE event in Las Vegas.

The Santa Ana, Calif.-based distributor has brought on experts in these fields over the past four months and plans to roll out portals in winter 2015 that will give solution providers a one-stop shop for white papers, case studies and training in the new areas, said Kirk Robinson, senior vice president of commercial markets and global sales.

The new markets will be supported by a dedicated team of business, marketing, sales and technology experts, and will complement Ingram Micro's existing programs for the health-care and SLED (state and local government and education) verticals, Robinson said.

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The move primarily is intended to help Ingram Micro do more business with existing channel partners, although it should also help the distributor expand its customer base, said Jamie Ferullo, Ingram Micro's director of HP enterprise.

Roughly half of North American retailers are looking to upgrade or change their IT, Robinson said, due to advancements in video surveillance and digital signage as well as the transition in the coming years to credit cards with security chips.

In financial services, Robinson said lawyers have rapidly embraced bring-your-own-device models while millennials have pushed for more banking functionality outside the brick-and-mortar branch. These developments have created opportunities for solution providers in areas such as mobility and document imaging, he said.

Ingram Micro is bringing on business development managers with extensive experience in the verticals, Robinson said.

Ingram Micro is confident its existing vendor base can service the enhanced verticals, Ferullo said. Vendors that excel in tablets, digital security or physical signage should excel in the retail vertical, he said, while those with strong electronic or digital initiatives should do well in financial services.

Ultimately, Ferullo said just about all of Ingram Micro's top vendors are looking for more opportunities to support these verticals.

Don Cockayne, president and owner of Murray, Utah-based Applied Integration, said his business mainly focuses on the retail and lumber industries. The retail vertical push through Ingram Micro, especially in areas such as point-of-sale technologies, will help make it easier for him to do business because he will be able to get all of his solutions through a single distributor, he said.

"We try to get as much as we can through Ingram," Cockayne said. "That will help us, I think."

SARAH KURANDA contributed to this story.

PUBLISHED SEPT. 23, 2014