Ingram Micro Financial Services Helping Partners During COVID-19 Pandemic

Channel partners are giving more financial flexibility to their cash-strapped customers via Ingram Micro financial services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ingram Micro is among several companies in the channel responding to rapidly changing needs due to the pandemic.

There are two new Ingram Micro financial services for channel partners in the United States and Canada. They are called “90-Days Same as Cash” and “Bakers Dozen.”

With 90-Days Same as Cash, partners offer customers the option to lease or pay cash for new technology after 90 days. And Bakers Dozen extends a typical 12-month financing deal to 13 payments at no additional charge.

Anthony Mackle is senior vice president and chief finance executive for Ingram Micro’s U.S. and export businesses. He said Ingram Micro financial services are all about the partners and their customers.

Ingram Micro’s Anthony Mackle

“Our purpose with these financial programs is to ease the cash-flow burden for our partners and their end-users during these challenging times,” he said. “We’ve extended terms, developed new financing options, provided support and clarification on the CARES Act, and have kept the lines of communication wide open with our partners and alliances.”

Financing separates Ingram from the competition and is a problem-solver for the distributor’s partners, Mackle said.

“And now, it’s more important than ever and we’re seeing tremendous traction,” he added.

Ingram Micro lowered financing terms for its new Future Funds program from 1.5% to 1% of the total purchase price. Future Funds offers interest-only payments for six months. And in month seven, customers can pay off the balance or finance the balance for an additional one to five years.

Kevin Tomlin is inside sales manager at Oxen Technology, an Ingram Micro partner.

“Right now due to COVID-19, we can’t go onsite to clients,” he said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty out there and people are a little apprehensive to spend money. With the creative financing options Ingram Micro provides us, we’re able to talk to our clients and prospects about different ways to accomplish what needs to be done for their business.”

Financing options give business owners the flexibility to keep projects moving forward with minimal upfront investments, Tomlin said.

“When you hand over a proposal, the customer goes right to the bottom line,” he said. “How much is this going to cost? Instead of showing an all-in cost, we’re able to show them a monthly service or monthly payment term that comes with management and technology refresh cycles included. Offering a variety of creative financing options allows us to talk with our customers about other ways to accomplish the same thing.”

Convey Services

With the pandemic making live events impossible, Convey Services, a SaaS technology company, this week unveiled its new ConveyLive virtual trade show platform.

ConveyLive delivers live virtual events, conferences and expos. It creates an interactive experience for attendees, exhibitors and sponsors.

Convey Services’ Carolyn Bradfield

Associations, trade groups, event managers, publishers and business organizations can use the solution. They can engage audiences with interactive exhibit space, live or recorded sessions and networking opportunities.

“COVID-19 caused us to adjust our expectations for in-person events, opening up the use of a virtualized experience to replace postponed or cancelled conferences, trade shows and expos,” said Carolyn Bradfield, Convey’s founder. “ConveyLive is not the first virtual trade show solution, but it is an easier-to-manage, off-the-shelf platform that any-size organization can brand and manage to get their virtual event online quickly and professionally.”

The solution delivers many elements of …

… a live event, she said. And it makes the virtual environment “fun, interactive and educational going well beyond just a collection of webinars,” she said.

ConveyLive manages all aspects of a virtual event. That includes attendee registration and management, scheduling sessions, outbound email promotional campaigns and more.

Exhibit booths educate attendees. There is also live chat and the ability to schedule meetings or demos. In addition, peer discussion forums help attendees interact and exchange viewpoints.

And attendees get a custom dashboard to manage their sessions.

“A virtual event reaches people where they live with no risk associated with travel,” Bradfield said. “When business returns to a little more normal in the coming years, live events will reappear. But many people may be reluctant to become part of large groups. For the near future, the safest and most effective tool to capture an audience and generate leads or revenue will be the virtual event, trade show or conference.”

Salesforce

Salesforce announced the AppExchange COVID-19 Resources for Business page. It is a dedicated resource of more than 65 solutions built by partners and Salesforce Labs.

Partners are innovating for customers, employees and communities during the pandemic. Salesforce assembled the page with the available tools to ease access to these solutions.

Salesforce’s Woodson Martin

Woodson Martin is general manager and executive vice president of Salesforce AppExchange.

“Partners have always been a critical part of the Salesforce ecosystem,” he said. “By building solutions on the Salesforce platform and listing them on AppExchange … they extend the power of Salesforce to customers around the world and across industries.”

The page includes tools for business continuity, health care and life sciences, team collaboration, customer support and crisis communications. Salesforce adds new solutions and categories frequently.

Geneia, Lifeguard Solutions, NICE InContact, RingCentral and other partners have solutions listed on the page.

Nice inContact CXone Omnichannel is a call center solution. It unifies the agent experience within sales and service cloud to increase agent efficiency, allowing an improved customer experience.

RingCentral for Salesforce enhances customer relationship management (CRM) experiences. It integrates cloud business communications to improve workforce productivity, increasing call efficiency and enhancing customer interaction.