The wholesale technology supplier California will offer hosted software from application service provider partners Exenet Technologies, FutureLink and Wizmo. The initially targeted customers will be independent resellers of products from Sun Microsystems, Cisco and Citrix Systems, who will then target their own end users, but could also use the software internally, Ingram officials said.
New York-based Exenet will supply the infrastructure, bandwidth, directories and database services; FutureLink will offer its Workforce IQ and Microsoft's Office and Exchange. Ingram will soon announce the software from Wizmo, a maker of virtual desktop software.
"I've decided that [hosted applications] are too expensive to do on my own," said Arlin Sorensen, president of Sorensen's Computer Connection, "We see [Ingram's service] as a viable option to take care of upgrades and get rid of headaches."
Most of Ingram's 10,000 eligible resellers have not yet been approached about the new services, officials said.
"They haven't got their market and strategy aligned," said Art Williams, an analyst at Giga Information. "There's no indication that they're coming to market knowing who their customers might be or how to get to them."
Another problem Ingram may face, Williams said, is that while its established customers are in-the-trenches technology staff, the ASP sell is best delivered to management. "I have a ... dim view of aggregators. They're solutions looking for a problem," Williams said.
