Ingram Micro Rolls Out Digital Experience Platform

Ingram Micro has launched Xvantage, its digital experience platform ecosystem, in the United States and Germany. The distribution giant plans to “go live” with the rest of world in early 2023. The company shared the news Wednesday during its in-person One LATAM event in Orlando, Florida. Channel partners and providers were able to view the platform in action.

Paul Bay is CEO of Ingram Micro.

Ingram Micro’s Paul Bay

“Ingram Micro Xvantage delivers a frictionless experience never before seen in technology distribution and accelerates the time to value for everyone — starting with our team, extending to our partners, their customers, our vendors and the tech ecosystem worldwide,” Bay said. “Xvantage is a game changer, solving for the complexity across our industry and providing a smarter, faster, better and more collaborative and profitable way for all of us to work and grow together.”

It took Ingram Micro only 15 months to introduce Xvantage into the marketplace. The company unveils feature updates every two weeks. A global real-time data mesh containing many years of operating and transactions data powers the Xvantage digital experience platform. It also has several proprietary engines which are enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

Ingram Micro’s integrates its cloud marketplace into Xvantage. This allows cloud solutions to be easily incorporated into solutions containing technology hardware, software and professional services. The platform’s intelligent and customized user interface, elevates and differentiates Ingram Micro Xvantage’s learning, partnering and buying experience.

Embracing Simplicity

Ingram Micro takes the complexity out of the process, the company said. Xvantage users will be viewing a single pane of glass to access the platform.

Ingram Micro’s Sanjib Sahoo

“It’s a very simple, easy to use, intuitive, front end to engage with us,” said Sanjib Sahoo. He’s EVP and chief digital officer at Ingram Micro.

“As the business behind the brand of today’s emerging and established technology partners and providers, Ingram Micro is simplifying the way we all need to work and enabling a new, and better experience grounded in value capture and value creation,” Sahoo said. “Xvantage is built for the infinite business model. As an industry, we must focus more energy on the art of possible. I am super proud of the work we have done and will continue to do around our new Xvantage platform. Together we are taking the complexity out of this industry and bringing consumerization to IT distribution!”

Ingram Micro plans to go live with Xvantage for associates and partners in several additional countries by the end of 2022. They will introduce the digital experience platform to Ingram Micro’s vendors in early 2023. Functions such as credit increases, order tracking, order management and purchases will also be seamless on the platform.

Channel Partners

Channel partners will benefit from Xvantage because they can now focus on selling solutions rather than selling only tech configuration.

“We’ll help our partners to grow their businesses and become more futuristic and strategic partners to their own customers,” Sahoo said. “Also, when partners engage with the platform, they make it more intelligent, and then they get better insights, better predictive analytics, better recommendations, which will actually make them stay ahead of the curve.”

IDC’s Jeff Newton

Jeff Newton is research director, infrastructure channels & ecosystems at IDC, who has been following the digitization of Ingram Micro.

“With Xvantage, Ingram Micro is solving for the complexity across the IT channel—applying the functionality of the B2C experience to the B2B technology industry—and making it easier and more effective to consume and build on the business value distribution offers,” Newton said. “It’s an important takeaway for the industry to see the prioritization Ingram Micro continues to place on the human aspect of the digital journey. When it comes to disruptive innovation, we must keep people, not just platform top of mind.”