NASHVILLE, TENN. – After 17 years being know as VentureTech Network or VTN Ingram Micro’s International channel sales and service community has a new name and logo.
At the Ingram One conference Ingram Micro introduced the Trust X Alliance and the new group will be based on four pillars that address the four tips of the “X” in the new logo. The four pillars stand for Exclusive, Extensive, Exceptional and Experienced.
But this not a cosmetic change for Ingram Micro and the 63 solution provider partners that are members of Trust X Alliance. Cathy Vankesteren, senior vice president of End-to-End Networks and a VTN Advisory Council Member told CDN the changes were made to address the end user customers who everyone in the channel ecosystem (vendor, distributor and solution provider) works to serve.
We want to get the word out on our new value proposition. VTN has always had a strong union of solution providers, Ingram Micro and the manufacturers in this industry and today with Trust X Alliance we are going to bring in the customer,” she said.
Vankesteren added that over her time at VTN the group was well known in the IT industry but unknown to customers so the focus turned to how, as trusted IT providers, do we bring the end user to the table. Once that discussion started it inevitably led to a name change. Vankesteren said: “VTN was a bit confusing some people thought we were venture capitalists.”
The goal is to inform the customers that Trust X Alliance does approximately $3 billion worldwide, $1 billion in North America and more than $120 million in Canada. He has groups in four countries: Canada, U.S., U.K. and Brazil. Trust X Alliance sports more than 350 members of which 63 are based in Canada that conduct more than 15 billion annual transactions.
One of the strengths of this group is that it has access to 250 data centres worldwide along with support from vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, HP Inc., Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Dell, Lenovo, Symantec, Xerox, VMware, ArcServe, Intel, Eaton, Kaspersky, and Veeam.
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Nancy Stabile, senior channel development marketing manager at Ingram Micro Canada, agreed with Vankesteren that the VTN name was unable to tell the whole story. “That’s how the Trust X Alliance came about. The X is still a part of the VTN logo so we can keep a bit of our legacy,” she said.
Stabile added that the Trust X Alliance Web site will now be open to customers. It was password protected before under VTN.
Ingram Micro vice president of sales David Mason said Trust X Alliance is interested in expanding the number of members in Canada. However, size will not matter as much as it did previously.
“It’s the evolution of the community. We want to grow it but only if it makes sense. We will look at new capabilities to expand that matrix and deliver more to the community. Companies that come in have to have a unique differentiator,” Mason said.
Solution provider My Blue Umbrella has used Trust X Alliance to help build its business and brand. Company president Michael Contento told CDN that from a collaboration standpoint Trust X Alliance is unmatched. “We were able to reach out to other partners globally with Trust X Alliance. We want to encourage all the members to promote the launch, put the new logo on business cards and on Web site,” he said.
Contento has a Trust X Alliance section on My Blue Umbrella’s Web site.