Building—And Enhancing— Xvantage Platform Is A ‘Perpetual Journey’
BY CJ FAIRFIELD
Success Computer Consulting’s Brent Morris doesn’t think he’s ever gotten this level of involvement and interest in his company from an organization as big as Ingram Micro. “We do not produce the kind of revenue that would even register as a blip on Ingram Micro’s map,” Morris, vice president of business development at the Golden Valley, Minn.-based MSP, told CRN . “But they’re listening to us, and they’re implementing the changes that we recommend. The partnership level is different and more valuable than any other organization we’ve worked with.” Morris and his business partner Bruce Lach, president of Success Computer Consulting, were early adopters of the Irvine, Calif.-based distributor’s Xvantage platform, which launched last September. Through automation intelligence and machine learning, Xvantage aims to provide a personalized experience with data insight tailored to each Ingram Micro partner. That’s on top of the real-time transactional benefits such as up-to- the-minute order status, tracking, renewals, subscription billing and real-time customer service capabilities. The mass popularity of Amazon.com has people used to easy online orders that ship quickly with a clearly defined delivery time, Morris said, and that’s the type of experience Ingram Micro is now delivering to partners. “All of that stuff didn’t exist as cleanly prior to Xvantage, and now it does,” he said. “The life that I’m accustomed to
outside my job [as a consumer] is now very familiar inside my job.” Lach told CRN that it’s “almost unbelievable” how quickly the Ingram Micro team adds functionality and makes changes to the platform. “It’s refreshing to see that there are no releases, no next version and no downloads—it’s just there,” he said. “It’s so refreshing to have that as part of the experience as well.” Kirk Robinson, executive vice president and president of North America at Ingram Micro, told CRN that it’s all about being partner-focused. “We’re spending a tremendous amount of time with our partners making sure they understand Xvantage and all the functionalities that we’re bringing to them,” he said. “It’s really to help them be more efficient and effective in how they run their business and how do we enable them to grow their revenue and their profit through all the functionality we’re delivering through Xvantage.” Learning from the data inside the Xvantage platform is key to discovering what’s working, what’s not and what Ingram Micro can do to make it better, according to Robinson. “On both sides of the coin, what it’s doing for Ingram Micro is taking away the low-value work and allowing our associates to focus on high value, where that same thing is happening for our partners,” he said.
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