Las Vegas – After six weeks of running the Canadian subsidiary of Ingram Micro, Mark Snider and Charlie Spano collectively say the dual job is “pretty cool.”
Both men have worked together in the past, and as they outlined the new strategy for 2008 they said that they draw from each other’s personality when making decisions.
For 2008, the key message is getting vertical, Snider said. Spano added that coordination with the U.S. operations has improved. The core business of the broadline distributor has not changed, but it is this coordinated effort with the U.S. that helps Ingram Micro Canada gain new business, keep costs low and add new levels of service.
One of the new additions to the Canadian operation will be Avad, which Ingram acquired more than two years ago. Avad, under the leadership of Chris Burns, has been run independently of Ingram. Avad will be opening its Toronto office this quarter and is planning a Western Canadian location early in 2008.
Avad Canada will be run separately from Ingram, but Spano said that the company would be using the subsidiary’s HR and payroll functions. “This is a whole new customer set,” Spano said.
Snider added that the difference between Avad and Ingram Canada’s CE/IT division, run by John Henderson, is that Avad comes from the high end home stereo channel, while Henderson’s group deals with VARs who want to offer CE solutions to customers.
That too is priority for 2008, Snider said. Henderson, who is in China this week, has added digital signage VARs and six new team members to his group.
“Avad is more for home installations and working with companies in construction or those who set up boardrooms. A lot of them come from the home stereo side, but they’re really high end. They are not interested in the guy who buys a large screen. They are interested in the guy who buys the large screen along with the home theatre chairs,” Snider said.
“Unified communications is a topical question,” Snider said. “Both Cisco and Microsoft want to attract the SMB customer. Cisco has simplified its certification process and made it less onerous to get up to speed on the product side. Once they get the knowledge it can get to the customer quickly. Customers will not pick up the phone and order unified communications. A reseller has to show it to them,” Snider said.
Snider and Spano will utilize the SMB Alliance for this. The SMB Alliance is now up to 1,000 members and Snider said a lot of these resellers are unknown to companies such as Cisco and Microsoft.
Ingram Micro Canada will also introduce the ITS Division, which is targeted at the growing trend of server virtualization and storage consolidation. “This is just another new market and moves us up the value chain,” Snider said.
Snider said the ITS Division is one of those new services that makes the broadliner more value based. Snider and Spano plan to use some of the U.S. operations’ resources in ITS for technical support for the Canadian roll out.
Other priorities for 2008 will be in Ingram Canada’s Extreme division and its Outlet program.