By
Jennifer Lawinski
17 August 2007 11:00AM
Tags:
ingram | partners | incensed | avnet | execs | comments
Avnet executive Jack Morris said he meant no insult to the Ingram Micro Service Network (IMSN).
Avnet executive Jack Morris said he meant no insult to the Ingram Micro Service Network (IMSN) in recent comments comparing his company's new services network with the Ingram network. Morris said in a ChannelWeb article that Avnet's OneTech program, when compared with Ingram's decade-old service network, is "different because we're taking an interest in ensuring the quality. Ingram just puts two partners together.
They're doing more partner facilitation." Ingram partners took offense to the statement, commenting on ChannelWeb that the article, and Morris, missed the point of the IMSN. "That one hit a nerve because I am so passionate about the IMSN," said Bernie Bourgeois, CEO of CompuVision Systems, an Edmonton, Alberta-based solution provider, who commented on Morris's statements. Bourgeois credits the IMSN with helping his company win a major deal in 2001 involving both 14 large plants and 135 remote sites, taking his company from a $1 million to a $7 million solution provider in one year.
"It ticked me the wrong way. This network has made my company what it is today. It's as simple as that," he said. Brian Okun, director of Prevalent Networks, New York City, also felt the article and Morris didn't portray the IMSN correctly. "From [his comments] I inferred that Mr. Morris didn't have a good handle on the value that IMSN brings to its members," he said. "My firm has been an active partner of IMSN since I came aboard and even before that We've really been able to leverage and utilize the IMSN to grow." "IMSN is much more than a break-fix service facilitation engine, and it's much more also than just a partner-to-partner facilitator," he said.
"It's gone through a lot of evolutionary growth, so I can't imagine someone coming out of the gate and being able to mirror everything that Ingram has built overnight. I just can't imagine that happening, but kudos to Avnet if they can." Morris said that he was not attacking Ingram's program or its memebers. "I don't profess to have the expertise on other distributor's programs, I just know from what I've learned and what I've read, and what I've heard from some of my mutual customers how their network at a very high level functions," said Morris, vice president, technology and market solutions, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas.
"It wasn't to say they're not being successful or their model is wrong. Ours is just different in our approach. We think we need to be at that level of engagement to really address building that practice to get the total solution delivered to pour partners end-users," he said. "For us, we're really trying to build this out ahead of our solutions distribution focus as we start to unroll it to customers and get into new practice areas."