Ingram Micro 2010 Annual Report Download - page 13

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access to our product inventory data. By providing improved visibility to all participants in the supply chain,
we allow inventory levels throughout the channel to more closely reflect end-user demand. This information
flow enables our high quality execution and our ability to provide favorable order fill rates to our customers
around the world while optimizing our investment in working capital. We continue to invest in significant
system upgrades that are being rolled out across our global operations in a systematic fashion. We are also
rolling out an enhanced global Web capability, which features significant functionality improvements,
merchandising and analytical tools and an overall improved e-commerce customer experience.
Through our data analytics capabilities we are able to leverage our extensive database of end-user shipping
and purchasing records to provide valuable data for our vendors and resellers in North America. Our vendors
can utilize this information to achieve a higher return on their marketing campaigns through more effective
targeting and messaging, while resellers benefit from tailored sales leads. Ingram Micro North America’s
Business Intelligence services have been expanded to provide customizable business-building services and
programs on a fee-based platform.
In the U.S. and Canada, we host channel communities covering more than 5,000 customers. Leading our
community portfolio is the exclusive VentureTech Network (“VTN”), our premier group of North American
solution providers. For over a decade, we believe that VTN has set the channel standard in peer collaboration
and development. New, exclusive, fee-based programs have been added to VTN community offerings,
which we believe will drive additional growth and differentiation for this base of resellers. In addition, our
SMB Alliance community provides networking opportunities, tools and support for a broader base of our
emerging small and midmarket resellers. We host communities to address the needs of resellers focused on
the government and education sector (GovEd Alliance) and system builders (System ArchiTECHs).
Collectively, we align the partners in our communities with the relationships, resources, and programs
to enhance their growth strategies.
Our commitment to a customer-centric focus has been widely recognized throughout the IT industry, as
evidenced by a number of awards received by Ingram Micro over the past year. In 2010, Ingram Micro was
honored by Cisco as the “Cisco Worldwide Distributor of the Year” as well as “Distribution Partner of the
Year” for seven of our country and regional operations. Infochannel magazine awarded our operation in
Mexico “Favorite Wholesaler of the Channel” and the winner of nine out of eleven categories. Our
Australian operation was honored with a number of awards from Australia Reseller News, including “IT
Channel Choice Distributor of the Year.” Among the many awards our regional and country operations have
received from vendor partners are IBM’s “Best Growth Partner” for our value division in Germany,
Lenovo’s “Distributor of the Year” for our Australian operation, several top awards from IBM for our
operation in Singapore, Juniper Americas “Distributor of the Year” for our North American operation, and
Microsoft’s “Distributor of the Year” for our Canadian operation.
Customers
As was previously mentioned, our broad customer base is one of our key strengths and is divided into segments
which include VARs, corporate resellers, retailers, systems integrators, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers,
independent dealers, reseller purchasing associations, and PC assemblers. Many of our reseller customers are
heavily dependent on distribution partners with the necessary systems, capital, inventory availability, and distri-
bution facilities in place to provide fulfillment and other services. We also provide supply chain management
services to a variety of customers, including retailers, Internet resellers, and vendors. Within our mobility business,
we provide activation services for mobile product vendors, and sell mobility products to wireless sub-dealers and
independent software vendors.
We conduct business with most of the leading resellers of IT products and services around the world. In most
cases we conduct business under general terms and conditions, without minimum purchase requirements. We also
have resale contracts with our reseller customers that are terminable at will after a reasonable notice period and have
no minimum purchase requirements. In addition, we also have specific agreements in place with certain man-
ufacturers and resellers in which we provide supply chain management services such as order management,
technical support, call center services, logistics management, configuration management, and procurement
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