Ingram Micro offers service renewal opportunities to solution providers 19 March, 2009 By Liam Lahey

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Launched last August and powered by MaintenanceNet, Ingram Micros RSP is a comprehensive software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform designed to make it easier for value-added resellers (VARs) to quote, order and manage service contracts for their customers. The Web portal automates IT product service renewal contracts.

Offered for the past year at no charge to all Canadian Ingram Micro solution providers and in the U.S. for over two years, the RSP has already helped solution providers and manufacturers to realize dramatic improvements in their service contract annuity businesses. There are approximately 983 Ingram Micro resellers in Canada that access the RSP currently.

"We are very pleased to have HP Canada take part in the highly successful RSP," said Gus Marcelino, senior director of business development and operations, Ingram Micro Canada. "The importance of the RSP as a business-building tool for VARs cannot be underestimated. The Ingram Micro RSP is not only one of the core growth pillars within our services division, but it has also become indispensable to many of Ingram Micro's solution provider communities, including VTN. Its capabilities for our supporting vendors' service renewals and HP registrations are transforming the way our reseller customers drive new revenue opportunities."

Several vendors have already signed on with the Reseller Services Portal. Marcelino said Ingram Micro is in discussions with several other vendors. When introduced in Canada last year, Ingram Micro said vendors were looking at the RSP, but Ingram Micro was still in the process of demonstrating the return on investment to them.

Since then, Dawne Kostashuk, Client Program Manager for Ingram Micro's Services Division in Mississauga, Ont., said in addition to HP Canada, two additional vendors would be launching in the near future.

"We (also) have significant interest from other world class vendors. The initial launch with HP was successful and registration numbers have spiked," she said. "We anticipate taking this initial success received from the HP launch and translate it to all new vendors who sign into the program. Additionally, we have received traction with our reseller partners. The RSP has signed up a good mix of resellers, small and large with a business focus that encompasses SMBs to enterprise solutions."

The RSP provides the partners with visibility to new sales opportunities that they previously did not have visibility to, Kostashuk added.

"This new visibility gives them the opportunity to have very relevant conversations with their end customers at strategic points through their product/service contract lifecycles," he said. "In many cases these are opportunities that they would simply not have the visible into without the RSP."

Resellers say tracking renewals can offset money lost through shrinking margins. AgilIT Inc., a solution provider in Markham, Ont., uses Ingram's portal for tracking renewals and registering their HP warranties and will do more service contract business this year.

"It's a very lucrative business because typically it's higher margin, anywhere from 10 per cent to somewhere in the low 20s. The portal is more efficient and faster to track HP warranties. People know they need to support their mission-critical infrastructure," remarked Ahmed Zubedi AgilIT, IT operations manager, AgilIT.

Through MaintenanceNet's advanced registration services, vendors participating in the Ingram Micro RSP have increased service-related opportunities for VARs by as much as 180 per cent since the launch of the portal, officials said. In addition, the Ingram Micro RSP has enabled vendors such as HP to improve registration rates from a previous average of 60 per cent to a current average of 90 per cent.

"Higher registration rates not only strengthen customer relationships by ensuring that end customers are not denied the services to which they are entitled, but they also clearly translate into substantial increases in renewals on expiring service contracts," said Scott Herron, CEO for MaintenanceNet. "The end result is dramatic improvements in service revenues for both vendors and solution providers."

Unlike competing solutions, the Ingram Micro RSP is designed to support multiple data feeds from a wide range of supply chain sources including systems designed for point of sale (POS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), sales out and customer relationship management (CRM). With built-in tools for complete service contract management, the RSP's key features include automated registration services, identification of unprotected assets to present new service sales opportunities, discovery of product refresh and service renewal opportunities, and service quoting and ordering.

"The portal is free to resellers," Kostashuk said. "This is a great value-add to the resellers and their customers as it provides contract data right at their fingertips. Solution providers can also generate inventory and customer reports based on specific criteria."

Through its Web-based, SaaS platform, MaintenanceNet provides a "register, renew, refresh" methodology that offers an entirely new approach to service contract lifecycle management, making it easier for manufacturers and their channel partners to recover lost revenue opportunities and sell more services, officials said.