While being named Hardware Distributor recognises Ingram’s traditional might in distributing physical products, Freeland reckoned its competencies around software licensing were becoming an increasing area of strength.
Although its rivals, Express Data and itX, have historically earned more accolades and renown for software licensing, Freeland was adamant Ingram was already a significant contender with larger overall sales volumes and was eyeing off the Software Distributor Award for 2009. Its improvement plans for software licensing over the next year are concentrated on introducing more automated processes.
“We’ve got upwards of 85 per cent of transactions between us and vendors fully automated,” Freeland said. “We’re now starting to focus on improving that capability with resellers. We’ll aim to achieve this in three ways: Developing electronic data interface [EDI] links with our top customers, then using the Intersell Licence Tracker to push software licensing out to the next 150 resellers. For the remaining 2300-odd resellers, we are making some changes to the TechLink platform around handling transactions and providing tools for automating quoting licences, following up renewal opportunities and transacting with us.
“There is a clear and achievable opportunity there to have end-to-end [licensing] opportunities via an electronic pathway.”
While there have been plenty of good things over the past 12 months, Freeland said Ingram had experienced some transportation disputes which it had strived to improve. The distributor has since introduced more SLAs across back-end processes to ensure ease of doing business.
Over the next year, he agreed market conditions would make it an even harder slog for distributors and resellers than ever before and take their toll on credit limits, funding and spending. Ingram’s main objective was to continue remaining relevant.
“As soon as we aren’t relevant, we will know quickly because people will stop coming to us – there are plenty of choices out there,” Freeland said. “We’ll continue to do the basics around stock management and inventory and make sure during these tough times that we are getting the balance right. Credit is necessary to run a business in this industry, so we’re being as flexible around limits as we can be. The cash cycle has tightened up and we have our own limits, so we have to manage the best that we can.”
