In an exclusive interview to CRN India, Navneet Singh Bindra, Vice President & Country Chief Executive, Ingram Micro shares channel directions and technology roadmap for partners
What are some of the technologies that will change the dialogue in 2022?
Edge will become the new battleground for data management as data management becomes a new class of workload. We are already seeing this shift today. As we move into 2022, we expect edge platforms to become more capable and pervasive. Data management and the edge will increasingly converge and reinforce each other.
The security industry is constantly changing and evolving and now moving from discussion of emerging security concerns to a bias toward action. Enterprises and governments are facing threats of greater sophistication and impact on revenue and services. As a result, the security industry is responding with greater automation and integration. The industry is also pivoting from automated detection to prevention and response with a focus on applying AI and machine learning to speed remediation.
Rise of Everything-as-a-service – It has accelerated the pace of adoption of digitalisation in the professional as well as personal lives. As the organisations are embracing a digital-first strategy, they continue to see the benefits in terms of business agility, eliminating redundancy, and driving efficiency. Besides, they are increasingly investing in new technologies to churn out business intelligence, build new business models, and create business value.
Advanced Automation – It plays a pivotal role in driving innovation which will become a key differentiator in 2022. Automation is emerging out of the back office to become a potent enabler of new business and operating models. To reach this state, enterprises must define an automation fabric as a framework to build, orchestrate, and govern a hybrid workforce of human and digital workers. This also links AI-based and traditional automation components, along with a proactive program for innovation. Companies like Amazon and Unilever already have long-running, sustained automation programs to unlock innovation and create an overwhelming competitive advantage and not just to reduce process execution costs.
The interplay of multiple technologies to support the rapid growth of smart infrastructure. Infrastructure investment is an effective way to stimulate GDP. Internet-of-things (IoT) and edge technologies that ride advanced networks like 5G have demonstrated that they can empower smart, connected ports, roads, and trains. It’s a strong match, and in 2022 we expect smart infrastructure investments to gain remarkable growth, powered by a government spending windfall in all geographies. Stakeholders will also harness insight captured from edge devices and IoT-enabled infrastructure to modify traffic patterns to reduce congestion, evaluate multimedia data to deliver insight for security applications, and/or combine 5G, vehicle-to-everything (V2X), and edge technologies to enable autonomous vehicles.
Can you share the top 2-3 learnings of 2021? What are the new areas you ventured into and why?
We need to be digitally ready as the drive to adopt data-driven technologies is rapidly changing the face of today’s workforce. The journey towards a digital transformation begins with a digital readiness assessment of an existing technology framework to identify where the organization currently stands. This is an important preliminary step as the rest of the process would largely depend on its outcome.
We need to have a quick response mechanism to act fast to any situation especially to new areas ventured i.e., high-end technical services through navigating new and ever-changing demands of the market.
IMEcom – an award-winning B2B portal at CRN Summit 2021, CRM, B2B2C, and Digital Workforce Transformation was the few initiatives where we did a lot of work with the support of our customers, vendors, and associates, and all the external stakeholders to expand the market visibility around all ecosystems.
What are the key growth engines of your company?
Ingram Micro started as a technology distributor for electronic components, computer peripherals, growing and developing into a value-added distributor. The strategic acquisition of vendor logos in our vast portfolio allows us to move along the transformation journey where we currently play an important role as a solution aggregator in the channel ecosystem.
Our go-to-market closely surrounds our four main transformation pillars: IT, Security, Digital, Workforce. It is also our mission to provide support to our partners as solution aggregator to join us in this journey. We aim to be at the forefront of technology evolution, where we continuously innovate the services and expansion into adjacencies.
What to look for beyond 2022. How are you preparing your company for new opportunities?
We are expanding our footprint around the world with our task force which helps in sustainable growth and driving opportunities for getting future-ready to fulfill more and more customer expectations. We scan the environment and prepare ourselves for “new next” towards future goals and opportunities which may occur in the market.
With all of that in mind, prioritizing security in this new normal is about choosing robust, secure solutions and then training employees on how to use the technology. Moreover, we are reinforcing the adoption of work culture norms while enhancing skills of associates through shifting from work from home culture to Hybrid, providing flexibility to the employees. Lastly, working closely with partners to identify and engage on rapidly evolving end customer needs.
