SANTA ANA, Calif., May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Ingram Micro Inc., the world's leading wholesale distributor of technology products and services, is launching its 1998 Services that Sell seminars for value-added resellers (VARs). The series premieres this next week in San Francisco, and will hit five additional U.S. cities over five months.
At Services that Sell, resellers will garner valuable information from several industry speakers on service opportunities, including warranties, repairs, help desk, hardware and software maintenance and networking. Ingram Micro's Randy Jones, vice president of services, and Jeff Neumeister, director of service delivery, will present the growing opportunity for resellers to sell services. Traci Gere, director of support and operational research for International Data Corporation, will address service industry trends.
"Selling services is exciting because it offers incremental and continuous sales opportunities throughout the life of products. It is so easy for resellers to add services to almost any sale. We want to give our resellers the information and tools they need to be successful in this market. This seminar is our way of giving them an inside look at the market and sales opportunities," Jones said.
The series is sponsored by Ascend, Cisco Systems, Digital Equipment, Hewlett-Packard, Decision One, IBM, and Toshiba.
Registration and breakfast will take place from 7:45 - 8:15 a.m., with the seminar following from 8:15 - 5 p.m. Lunch will be served and a social hour will take place from 5 - 6 p.m.
Services that Sell will take place on the following dates: -- May 14 in San Francisco at the ANA Hotel -- June 4 in Chicago at the Wyndham Hotel -- June 16 in Dallas at the Intercontinental Hotel -- Oct. 1 in Atlanta at the NE Hilton -- Oct. 15 in New York City at the Marriott Marquis -- Oct. 27 in Los Angeles at the Regal Biltmore
Ingram Micro premiered the Services that Sell seminar last year in Newport Beach, Calif. Ingram Micro received many requests from resellers wanting to attend the seminar in their region so the seminar was expanded to six cities this year.
Ingram Micro reseller Don Maxwell, a sales supervisor for the San Diego, Calif.-division of SGL Technologies, attended last year's seminar in Newport Beach, Calif. "Services that Sell provided me the opportunity to meet face- to-face with Ingram Micro and their service providers to learn how to grow our business. I gained valuable insight on new opportunities and, since then, our service sales have increased and in turn so have our margins."
"Ingram Micro carries the broadest range of prepackaged and custom services, which means we can source from one distributor all the services our customers need. Our clients appreciate the value of putting the service in with the product quote. I think this is a worthwhile event for both established services resellers and resellers who may want to break into this market," Maxwell said.
Ingram Micro Services
Ingram Micro offers a one-stop shop for resellers that provide services to end-users. Ingram Micro's services line-up includes custom and packaged service solutions from more than 30 vendors. This line-up includes classroom and self-paced IT training, certification, help desk, warranty upgrades, hardware and software maintenance, and networking support and installation. Channel assembly and custom integration services are also offered through Ingram Micro's Frameworks(TM) Total Integration Services. Finally, qualified resellers can join the Ingram Systems Group (ISG) or the National Services Network (NSN).
NSN is a group of independent resellers that offers service programs for regional and national customers. NSN resellers work together to extend their service capabilities globally. Members are selected based on service authorizations and geographic location.
ISG is a sales and service organization of independent resellers that focuses on Fortune 1000 corporations. ISG members also belong to NSN. By working together, ISG members provide products, consulting, design, engineering, installation and maintenance services to major accounts worldwide. ISG resellers are required to have Internetworking Services Practice Certifications (for systems engineering), sales authorizations and National Service Network Authorizations (for field engineering).
For more information on Ingram Micro services, resellers should contact their sales representative at (800) 456-8000. For custom service inquiries, resellers should call 1 (800) 705-7057.
About Ingram Micro Inc.
Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE:IM)
, headquartered in Santa Ana, Calif., is the world's leading wholesale distributor of technology products and services, and a leading provider of assembly and integration services, with 1997 sales of more than $16.5 billion. The company and its affiliates operate in 31 countries, distributing more than 145,000 products to more than 100,000 resellers in 120 countries. Ingram Micro can be found at http://www.ingrammicro.com/.
All rights reserved. Ingram Micro is a trademark used under license by Ingram Micro Inc. All other logos, brand names and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.
Source: Ingram Micro Inc.
Contact: Cindy Ragland, Media Relations of Ingram Micro Inc.,
714-382-3364, or cindy.ragland@ingrammicro.com
Website: http://www.ingrammicro.com/