Ingram targets $20B+ service opportunity 3 April, 2006 By Steve Wexler

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"The channel market is trying to figure out how they migrate their businesses from hardware to services. Everybody is struggling with how to make that happen," said MaintenanceNet CEO Scott Herron. "This tool empowers Ingram Micro partners with a whole service annuity opportunity. It's not new leads. It's essentially data mining at its best around the services opportunity."

To be formally launched later this week at Ingram's VentureTech Network Spring Invitational in Montreal, the portal is initially targeted at Cisco, HP and IBM products. The portal offers a variety of tools and resources intended to make it easier for the distributor's partners to drive incremental revenue on product sales.

There's a lot of pent-up demand, said Jason Beal, group manager, Ingram Micro Services Network, and additional vendors will be added as quickly as possible.

"We only see upside with this. We started a beta in February with 400 HP resellers and received excellent feedback." Cisco and IBM products were added for the official rollout and other vendors will be signed up. "There's a lot of interest out there."

According to a statement from Justin Crotty, vice president, channel marketing, Ingram Micro North America, the portal takes the headache out of renewal services by automating the process. "MaintenanceNet gives us a simple Web interface that tracks maintenance contracts, warranties and leases, and helps solution providers maximize their services contract annuity revenues." Key features of the Reseller Services Portal include: automated e-mail notifications; online access to contract renewal information; unattached/warranty products and online product registration. In addition, solution providers can use it to organize and list customer's service contracts by expiration status (30, 60, 90 days). Other features include: filter and list contracts by manufacturer, distributor or end-user; search by purchase order numbers, system handles or serial numbers; view individual contracts by coverage number; add contract-specific notes; create total inventory reports on all assets for a particular end-user; generate customer reports based on select criteria; list and add users with ease; and access to training materials and resources.

But renewing service contracts more easily is only one of the benefits, said Herron, who expects a big change in this market. Manufacturers need to drive more services and better manage these programs. This has opened the door for distributors -- MaintenanceNet is currently working with a number of them -- and now solution providers are starting to pay more attention.

Two years ago very few VARs were actively pursuing renewals, said Herron. "This year, when we're out talking to the same VAR, the understanding is there." It's a huge change, one that increasingly involves end users, he added, who have been struggling with how they receive this information, which is typically paper based.

The other big opportunity, after signing more maintenance contracts, he said, was selling new products. "Partners love their renewal information, but now they also get to go out to sell new hardware and software, replacing stuff that's three years old."

It's a win-win-win situation, added Beal, helping all levels of the market. "The end users get to protect their assets and increase uptime. It obviously helps VAR trying to juggle multiple terms of contracts, and helps them increase revenues with existing customers. And it helps manufacturers because manufacturers have an interest in increasing service contracts. That's a critical aspect of a services portal -- it provides benefits to everyone."