Francis Choo (Ingram Micro)
Ingram Micro has increased investment across Asia Pacific through an advanced solutions strategy designed to guide partners across the key areas of technology, sales, solutions and support.
The move sees Francis Choo - currently vice president and country chief executive of ASEAN and Hong Kong - assume wider responsibilities across the region, including oversight of the new-look channel strategy.
Specifically, the strategy is centred around providing additional go-to-market sales, technical and solution architect resources within the Global Partner Engagement team, which is based in Singapore.
This is alongside an expansion of the distributor’s value-added services portfolio across Asia Pacific - spanning 10 countries - which includes the creation of a Centre of Excellence supporting partners seeking to specialise within cyber security, data centre and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
Such focus is backed up by added business intelligence, marketing, small-and-medium sized business (SMB) and emerging technologies support for partners region-wide.
“Building on our long-standing presence in Asia Pacific, Ingram Micro is now further differentiated by our Advanced Solutions go-to-market sales, technical and vendor management, and the value-added services of business intelligence, marketing, and financial services,” said Choo, speaking as country chief executive of Asia Pacific at Ingram Micro.
“The investments we’re making - including the addition of enterprise and SMB solutions architects who understand new digital technologies, as well as how best to integrate the - are impactful and will help our channel partners simplify the complexity of IT and deliver an exceptional service experience to their customers.”
In his new role, Choo - recently inducted into the Channel Asia Hall of Fame - will lead the expansion of the Advanced Solutions and Global Partner Engagement team, while continuing to oversee the leaders who run Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
“We will continue to invest in and expand our capabilities across all of the countries where we do business in Asia Pacific,” added Diego Utge, group president of Asia Pacific at Ingram Micro.
“We are listening to the needs of our partners, and their customers, and we’re taking a solutions-led approach within the ASEAN region, as well as in China, India, Australia, New Zealand, which brings tremendous value to the IT channel and will speed the sales cycle of new and emerging technologies in a profitable, and high-growth way.”
The move follows plans to establish global centres of excellence specific to IoT, with increased emphasis on key verticals, services and solutions.
Designed to accelerate market adoption via the channel, the new initiative is spearheaded by Sabine Howest as vice president of Ingram Micro, who will oversee strategic partnerships and solution development at the distribution giant.
“The markets across Asia Pacific continue to be a growing opportunity for Ingram Micro and our channel partners, which is why we’re investing to expand our presence and provide the technology sales channel with better support and more sophisticated solutions development,” Howest said.
“This team brings a new level of service and support around cybersecurity, hybrid technologies, cloud solutions, as well as emerging technology including artificial intelligence, Kubernetes and IoT to help our channel partners and providers do more and solve for business outcomes.”
