The technology industry is going through a digital paradigm shift that impacts everyone. From vendors to partners to distributors alike the entire ecosystem is working hard to refine their services and offerings to provide the greatest return and speed to value in the brave new digital world. With this shift comes unprecedented opportunity to deliver solutions with greater business impact across the board and especially in the Manufacturing sector. As the largest global distributor in the world, representing most of the world largest technology manufacturers, no company is better positioned to offer a perspective and insights on this digital shift and its impact to manufacturers than Ingram Micro. We’ve boiled these trends into 4 key areas.
The Reseller Model – Ingram Micro exists to support our partner ecosystem to continue to be successful applying technology for true business impact. The digital transformation has driven the need for our partners to redefine themselves to develop new competencies and shift their focus from a licensed, product transaction to a service deployment model leveraging hybrid on cloud, on premise managed service offering that seamlessly works within their customers technology environment. Given the complexity of the manufacturing technology environment this has opened up opportunities for savvy partners to help guide their manufacturing customers to make sure they’re evaluating their applications and workloads to ensure they are leveraging all new technologies ( i.e. big data, artificial intelligence and IOT to name a few) and varied deployment models (i.e. in customer datacenter, cloud or hybrid) for a tailored fit to meet their unique business needs.
Big Data – It starts with data. The amount of storage and compute power in today’s digital market has grown exponentially which is the impetus behind artificial intelligence and IOT. At Ingram Micro we help our partners build practices that enable manufacturing customers to tap into the power of their data to increase the accuracy, quality and yield of production through the integration of all of their systems. This gives manufacturers improved visibility and greater accuracy in predicting performance over time. Analysis of data also provides the ability to measure compliance and trace back to the source to improve productivity of both machinery and staff. Finally, analysis of data helps manufacturers sell the most profitable, built to order products that impact production the least. So while it starts with big data, it ends with operational improvement and increased profitability for manufacturers.
Artificial Intelligence – According to Forrester artificial intelligence will grow in the manufacturing sector by 300% in FY17 year over year. This is directly related to the Big Data trend and todays ability to access data and the compute power available to analyze and make sense of it. This means that soon, line workers will not only be having water cooler conversations with co-workers but also a dialogue with their “Manufacturing Siri” to determine ways to optimize inventory, supply chains and manufacturing. AI will be used to determine when to change a part before something breaks. As an example, this can be done through Digital Twins that emulate real life manufacturing environments to determine predictive failure with real-time data to reduce maintenance costs and downtime. The live transfer of data and reporting allows a manufacturer to cut production costs while testing out projects and new ways of doing things with virtually no risk. This leads to more up time, less down time and increased sales.
IOT – We see a trend of manufacturers looking to adopt and secure IOT applications in order to provide new and improved customer experiences. This obviously presents a huge opportunity for our resellers as they look to provide compliant, secure infrastructure to support these apps. This opportunity is confirmed by IDC where they expect the manufacturing vertical to spend the most on the Internet of Things in 2018, according to a December report. According to IDC’s report, manufacturing companies globally will spend up to $189 billion on IoT solutions, and worldwide spending overall will reach $772 billion in 2018. Staggering numbers by anyone accounts. We see this trend coming to life in 2018 through ongoing App development and implementation that create online solutions, progressive reporting that allows for instantaneous communication to sales to act on new opportunities while improving efficiency and the customer experience.
At Ingram Micro we’re excited about Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and IOT in the manufacturing vertical as it represents a huge opportunity for us and our partners to continue our digital journey and continue to refine our services and practices to help our customers succeed today and tomorrow.
About Ingram Micro Cloud
At Ingram Micro Cloud™, we view cloud not just as a single technology, but as a foundational platform to run and drive a whole new way of doing business. By leveraging our platforms and ecosystem, cloud service providers, telecom companies, resellers and enterprises can quickly transform and get up and running in the cloud within minutes, with little to no investment. Our portfolio includes vetted security, communication and collaboration, business applications, cloud management services and infrastructure solutions designed to help clients monetize and manage the entire lifecycle of cloud and digital services, infrastructure and IoT subscriptions. For more information, please visit: www.IngramMicroCloud.com
About Ingram Micro Inc.
Ingram Micro helps businesses Realize the Promise of Technology™. It delivers a full spectrum of global technology and supply chain services to businesses around the world. Deep expertise in technology solutions, mobility, cloud, and supply chain solutions enables its business partners to operate efficiently and successfully in the markets they serve. Unrivaled agility, deep market insights and the trust and dependability that come from decades of proven relationships, set Ingram Micro apart and ahead. More at www.ingrammicro.com
