Ingram Micro is Back to Defend IP!

By John Honovich, Published Nov 13, 2015, 12:00am EST

With $40+ billion annual sales, Ingram Micro is a mega distributor.

But they have never been anything in physical security. Their last major push a few years ago ended in disaster.

Now, they are back and are ready to ride the massive wave of IP camera sales.

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Comments (17)

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Ari Erenthal

Chesapeake & Midlantic
11/13/15 03:39pm

Speaking as a person who has been involved in the search for someone who can write well and is knowledgeable in surveillance technology, I can tell you this: it is surprisingly difficult difficult to find someone who can write well and is knowledgeable in surveillance technology. That's why I'm always sympathetic when I see things like this.

Still, this is pretty bad. The difficulty of doing a job well doesn't excuse doing a job poorly.

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John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Ari Erenthal | 11/13/15 03:49pm

If I had to pick (and I have), I'd pick technology knowledge over writing well. It's far harder to train people to be experts on niche fields than to write better or to edit more.

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John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to John Honovich | 11/13/15 04:09pm

Though, on the other hand, the cost for an English major to write a coherent, but technically wrong, post is a fraction of the cost of a technical expert.

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Konstantin Avramenko

In reply to John Honovich | 11/13/15 06:26pm

I do not understand why a cost of creation a team of a tech expert and an experienced writer is an issue for "$40+ billion annual sales" company.

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John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Konstantin Avramenko | 11/13/15 06:32pm

That's a good point. This chart excerpt can help explain it:

And that's gross, not net. They simply have razor thin margins, which means it is hard to spend on 'luxuries' like people who know what they are doing in the area they are doing it in.

Also, I bet they do not take such posts seriously. Some exec probably thinks, "Hey we'll get our marketing kid to throw up some posts, show people we are serious about video surveillance." And perhaps their core customer base has lots of buyers who know little about our market and find it compelling.

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Undisclosed #1

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Konstantin Avramenko | 11/14/15 05:24am

One thing that people sometimes misunderstand about Ingram Micro (and Tech Data for that matter), is that they sell technology, but they are not a technology company.

Unless that 'technology' involves how to move box a to point b for less than c dollars, they are probably less knowledgable than (gulp) Anixter. Possibly far less.

On the other hand, their renewed interest in the market does mean that they see enough volume there to justify the expense of stocking the stuff in warehouses. Which means greater availability of product for everyone, regardless of whether you use them.

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John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed #1 | 11/14/15 12:33pm

Here's Ingram's current physical security sales team and line card.

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Ryan McGovern

11/14/15 01:56am
Maybe they could hire someone with knowledge and passion for the technology as a product manager. Then give that person the freedom to communicate the benefits of their products to the end users. Then feed information to a sales team who hunt end users and pull the work through the integrator channel.
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Campbell Chang

11/17/15 09:59pm

It appears in Aus at least, that they've jumped on the right bandwagon this time.

About a month ago, they jumped into bed with Hik becoming Hik AU's 2nd authorised distributor.

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Hal Bennick

Trafficware, a CUBIC Company
11/17/15 11:27pm

I just outsourced some photoshop work to a guy on fiverr, and it was flawless. No way they got this there....

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Undisclosed

11/21/15 08:59am

Entertaining line card. q-see kt&c axis milestone exacq trendnet cisco microsemi. Sounds like they have a full range of products to bungle selling to IT departments used to trunkslamming their own video via purchases through CDW. Did anyone get a business card from TBD, the Inside Sales Supervisor?

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Undisclosed #1

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Undisclosed | 11/21/15 09:44am

Did anyone get a business card from TBD, the Inside Sales Supervisor?

We may not get one since I doubt TBD has the time for any flesh pressing; the guy is probably swamped. Apparently he is also filling in as the Senior Tech Solutions Engineer, as well as covering as an Ingram "Micro Manager" for outside sales as time permits.

At some point I'm sure the role of T.B.D. will clarify; we'll just have to see what happens then...

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John Honovich

IPVM | 12/06/15 01:34am

This is weird. I don't know if Ingram Micro is mocking themselves or serious:

A strange video to make...

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Undisclosed #1

IPVMU Certified | In reply to John Honovich | 12/06/15 01:54am

It's a great technique that I haven't seen before.

Exagerate the importance and impact of your features to such a degree that no one really thinks your serious. But all along the way get your message across as well. I learned more about that card than I ever would have had if it was a typical delivery.

Could it be adapted?

"These cameras even come with real WDR! They take two pictures for each frame, I guess. Unbelievable! Nobel prize stuff. What will these guys come up with next?"

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Undisclosed #1

IPVMU Certified | In reply to John Honovich | 12/07/15 06:20am

Compare Axis' approach. Warning - Video contains mild slapstick

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Undisclosed Integrator #2

12/17/15 07:58am

I was tempted to join Ingram recently, mainly because of long time experience on CCTV. Their first question was "how many customers can you bring to our company?" - and their second one was "who are they?"

Some friends working there, and managing more than 10 product lines by themselves, when it's supposed they should be "expert" on all that product lines. Of course, they aren't.

Not interested in technology, nor news or innovation, just getting figures quickly.

I joined another company.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #3

11/02/17 08:17pm

Is not the point of content marketing to showcase your value and expertise, not to shine a light on how clueless one is? 

"It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt." - Mark Twain 

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