Value eXchange Forum. It’s a programmatic title that Ingram Micro chose for the two days dedicated to meeting with the community of its customers.
An “exchange of values” that starts from what we want Giorgio Rovatti, Advanced Solutions Director it is the fulcrum of the event itself: relationships.
“Creating value means creating relationships”, he underlines, highlighting how the structure of the event itself is designed with this purpose: two intense days, dedicated to creating relationships and sharing content and knowledge.
But also two days to talk about the value that the Advanced Solutions Division is able to express.
“This structure exists and it is solid, we have consolidated it over the years, now we want to fully exploit it and tell the market. Especially because the market today demands something different. The backlog generated by post-Covid has run out. It’s time to get serious. And we will tell it on November 15th and 16th.”
A new supply chain idea
In particular, the first day is dedicated to building relationships between participantsto the creation of a network between the three main actors that make up the value chain: distributor, vendor, partner.
“We want to go beyond the concept of supply chain – explains Rovatti -. Vendors, distributors and resellers combine their skills and translate them into a product, a service, a solution that reaches the end user. This is why we decided that the desire to create a relationship must emerge on the first day. And a creation is created by sharing content, explaining our value proposition, bringing our specialists together with the vendor’s specialists and those of the reseller. This is how collaborations are born and this is how we arrive at defining the solutions that serve the market and customers.
Training and certifications: the focus of the second day
On the second day the format changes to focus on combination of innovation and technology and divided into topics ranging from AI to Cloud, from Cybersecurity to Networking, from Datacenters to IoT via Digital Signage and Unified Communication & Collaboration…, with a very specific focus: training, both in the technical and on the commercial one.
“We have created a path that develops over 8 rooms in which training courses are held from morning to late afternoon. Over the course of the day we will provide over 40 training courses on the most diverse topics”, explains Rovatti who then underlines: “Precisely because of how we have structured the Value eXchange Forum, we expect to involve different figures in the organization of our reseller partners. On the first day I expect managerial figures, interested in a scenario framework, while for the second day we expect technical and commercial figures. It is an inclusive event, which embraces both those who evaluate the strategic directions to be taken and those who translate them into solutions”.
The training paths
As regards the training courses planned during the second day, they reflect the offering of Ingram Micro, starting from cybersecurity, with a focus on the services provided by Ingram through its Bologna Centre.
We will talk about Zero Trust, with Cisco we will work both on Enterprise networking and on Meraki, with the possibility, in this case, of obtaining a sustainability certification on Meraki.
With HPE Aruba we will talk about Datacenters and Aruba Networking, with Zebra and Honeywell we will enter the industrial world, while with Samsung, LG Electronics and Barco we will talk about collaboration and digital signage.
And precisely because the focus is not on the products but on the solutions, it will be possible to see first-hand what has been done by combining Aruba and Zebra: in this case Aruba ESP acts as a connectivity platform to support the Zebra UXI solutions, with integration on Zebra client.
There is also no shortage of services, both in the cybersecurity and cloud fields, where, moreover, important innovations will be announced at the eXchange Forum.
For the distributor, a supporting role in new business models
The logic in which the division led by Rovatti moves goes beyond the concept of product.
“We always talk about technologies, or rather a set of technologies, which require skills to be sold and which require an integration of hardware, software and service components. Something that goes beyond pure technology”, explains the manager.
“Let’s think about the cloud, for example. More and more often we talk about hybrid models, which require interconnection between different components. Ingram Micro helps in the adoption and digital transformation paths and supports retailers in building a solution, especially where it is difficult to have all the skills that the market demands today. All this also thanks to our local and international capacity: when we do not have a certification in Italy, we are able to deliver a project to a reseller because we have the same certification in another country. We have created a network of centers of excellence, both in Europe and in the rest of the world, which we can draw on when we need specific skills.
Promote synergies
In the vision of Rovatti and Ingram, creating relationships also means creating synergies.
“It is possible, in some cases, to use the skills of one partner on another, playing the role of facilitator and mediator between the two in case they want to collaborate. The relationship between the partners is also the subject of the first day’s reflections: we don’t want them closed in their silos. And the executive dinner we organized with the top partners also goes in this direction, with the aim of getting them to talk and look for new ways of collaboration. Likewise, on the second day, we would like to create communities of specialists in the technical field, also with the aim of enabling synergies”.
The focus on sustainability
On the first day of work, an important role falls to Stefano Epifani, President of the Foundation for the digital sustainability.
“We asked Stefano Epifani for an intervention on digital transformation and sustainability, or on how a digital transformation that is not merely profit-oriented is possible. It seems important to us to offer participants food for thought on this topic, also taking into account that many of them already have or will have to present a sustainability report”.
Ingram Micro has chosen to give an important space to 3Bee, which will help in offsetting the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the event, with an in-depth LCA analysis, and the subsequent production of a detailed final report.
“We invited them because they are trying to build a network to work not on sustainability as an end in itself, but in a logic of concreteness, helping to evaluate the impact that companies can have on the environment and to understand how to compensate for it. We ask our resellers if they are interested in working on the topic, because we know that it is impossible to provide zero impact technology, but we also know that it is possible to compensate for the negative things we do.”