Ingram Micro Enhances SMB and Public Sector Partner Communities

Generating greater partner value and return on investment, Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM) today announced several program enhancements, additional resources and new annual fee structures to its U.S.-based SMB Alliance (SMBA) and GovEd Alliance communities. The distributor also announced it has re-branded its GovEd Alliance partner community to Public Sector Elite (PSE) to mirror Ingram Micro's new U.S. public sector sales structure, which went into effect earlier this month.

"Ingram Micro's partner communities stand alone in the IT channel when it comes to creating tangible business value for our members and vendor sponsors," says John Fago, senior director, Channel Marketing, Ingram Micro North America. "In 2012, we've upped the ante -- adding new resources and benefits that will provide greater business advantage to our partners and place SMBA and PSE on a new playing field."

New benefits to SMBA in 2012 include six months of free pre-sale technical support, a discount on registration fees for the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit, a dedicated services inbox for community members with a four-hour SLA and an airfare voucher to attend one SMBA Invitational. Open to qualified solution providers in the U.S., the Ingram Micro U.S. SMBA community is supported by the distributor's Commercial Markets Division which includes the Small Business Group led by Jamie Ferullo, director of SMB sales in the U.S.

In 2012, Ingram Micro PSE members receive GSA Pass Through program support at no extra charge, free UID tag registration, exclusive member pricing on Educator Professional Development Services and buying season warehouse storage at no additional charge (some restrictions apply). The Ingram Micro PSE community is actively supported by Ingram Micro's Public Sector Business Unit (BUs), along with other BUs and Divisions including Advanced Computing, Advanced Technology and Commercial Markets.

As members of SMBA and PSE, Ingram Micro channel partners also receive exclusive Ingram Micro sales support and discounted rates on services internal to Ingram Micro, as well as third-party business resource partners. In addition, community members receive customized marketing support, collaborative sales resources and other business-building tools. The total value of member benefits for each community will surpass US$7,000 annually for participating partners.

New Public Sector Organization Delivers Clear Business Advantage to Channel Partners

Led by Ingram Micro's Senior Director of Public Sector and Vertical Markets Michael Humke, Ingram Micro's new Public Sector organization features a dedicated East and West Coast federal team and field representatives, as well as dedicated state, local and education (SLED) teams and field representatives. The overall focus for the new Public Sector sales team centers on four key areas of partner support. These include market development, partner enablement, solutions development and delivery, and vendor support.

"Together, Ingram Micro's new PSE community and public sector sales organization offer greater opportunity for more peer-to-peer collaboration, consultative selling, best practices, true partner enablement and market differentiation," says Humke. "The synergies we've created between our Public Sector sales, marketing and technical support teams provide Ingram Micro channel partners with a clear business advantage that will drive high-impact results across the board now and well into the future."

More information about Ingram Micro's SMBA partner community can be found at www.im-smba.com. Additional insight on Ingram Micro's Public Sector Elite partner community can be found at www.im-publicsector.com/pse.

For more information on Ingram Micro visit www.ingrammicro.com.

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About Ingram Micro Inc.
As a vital link in the technology value chain, Ingram Micro creates sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programs, outsourced logistics, technical and financial support, managed and cloud-based services, and product aggregation and distribution. The company is the only global broad-based IT distributor, serving more than 150 countries on six continents with the world's most comprehensive portfolio of IT products and services. Visit www.ingrammicro.com.