Facility Used by Distributor's Customers to Test-Drive Products and Learn About New Technologies
WILLIAMSVILLE, New York, July 10, 2006 – The flat-screen is connected to the PC, the server is connected to the Internet, and millions of dollars of knowledgeable technology sales are connected to Williamsville.
Since its opening in May 2005, Ingram Micro's East Coast Solution Center has drawn nearly 1,500 people to Williamsville from as far away as California, resulting in better informed customers, deals won over lower-priced competitors and untold technology revenue.
Ingram Micro is the world's largest technology distributor and its largest business office in North America, including the Solution Center, is located in Williamsville. The center brings a boost to the local economy and keeps Ingram Micro's computer-dealer customers and their clients on technology's cutting edge.
So, what entices these business people, including many western New Yorkers, to give up valuable office time to make the trek to Wehrle Drive?
The center has hosted more than 270 events attended by more than 1,300 technology dealers and 150 end-user customers, plus vendor and Ingram Micro associates. The center includes approximately $10 million in infrastructure that the distributor's business partners can leverage to train, test and demonstrate for customers.
The distributor's East Coast Solution Center is a unique resource for training, demonstration and hands-on “test-drives” of technology products – from PCs and plasma monitors to complex networks for big businesses.
The facility includes an 18-seat classroom with networked workstations, an 80-seat seminar conference room, and a technology demonstration room containing rack-mounted servers, networking and storage solutions.
Additionally, the center has benefited the local economy through business travel to the local area and entertainment dollars as the distributor's vendor representatives, dealers, end-user customers and non-local employees regularly travel to western New York to attend Solution Center events.
“The Solution Center has proven itself to be a powerful sales tool for Ingram Micro as well as our vendor and reseller customers,” said Peter DiMarco, vice president and general manager of sales, Ingram Micro United States. “It is truly a unique resource in our industry that allows our customers and their clients to see and test highly complex technology solutions before making a significant financial commitment. And, with the Solution Center located here in Buffalo, it has been an additional draw to bring our business partners to the area.”
“Ingram Micro's Solution Center is a fantastic resource to have so close to home,” said Jon Leach, Account Executive, based at Annese & Associates Inc.'s Orchard Park office. Annese specializes in converged network communication solutions. “The center has given us a whole new way to approach our customers. It already has been an integral part of closing sizeable deals. The knowledge of the staff and the capabilities that the center brings to the sales process has enabled my company to show how the solutions we provide fit into a customer's existing technology and demonstrate lower cost of ownership.”
However, the center is not all about businesses. It also includes the Digital Living Room, which contains nearly everything the most fervent home technophile could wish for, including high-definition monitors functioning as faux aquarium and fireplace. Designed to drive the distributor's sales in the growing digital home market, this room features home entertainment products such as large-screen plasma monitors, state-of-the-art audio systems, universal remote controls and media center PCs, as well as home lighting and environment control systems, digital phone systems and dozens of styles of video surveillance cameras. The Digital Living room has proven to be so popular that the distributor has plans to expand it by 1,000 square feet by the end of the year.
Although originally created to specifically serve technology dealers in the Eastern United States, where the distributor has a large number of customers, the Solution Center draws attendees from across North America. It is one of two such facilities that Ingram Micro has in the United States. The other center is located in the distributor's Santa Ana, Calif., headquarters and has been open for approximately five years.
About Ingram Micro
As a vital link in the technology value chain, Ingram Micro creates sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programs, outsourced logistics services, technical support, financial services, and product aggregation and distribution. The company serves 140 countries and is the only broadline global IT distributor with operations in Asia. Visit http://www.ingrammicro.com.
Media Contacts:
Chris Kelly
Ingram Micro
Corporate Communications
714-382-3355
chris.kelly@ingrammicro.com
Nicole Trombly
Ingram Micro
Corporate Communications
714-382-5581
nicole.trombly@ingrammicro.com