News
Best Buy for Business Teams with Ingram Micro Services Network
- By Scott Bekker
- September 24, 2007
When the job is too big for the Geek Squad, Best Buy for Business turns to the Ingram Micro Services Network.
Best Buy Co. Inc. and Ingram Micro Inc. on Monday unveiled an agreement Monday to make the Ingram Micro Services Network (IMSN) "the premier on-site IT service provider for select customers of Best Buy for Business in the U.S."
Best Buy spread a wave of fear in the channel over a year ago with public talk about turning its Geek Squad and related Best Buy for Business specialists into solution providers that would compete with VARs near its stores. The plans progressed more slowly than Best Buy initially hoped, and more recently the company has been talking about partnering with local solution providers on complex jobs.
The new agreement with the IMSN follows public disclosure that Best Buy had run a beta program with the OnForce Network over the summer. In that program, qualified business opportunities were passed to solution providers in New York City-based OnForce’s pool of about 10,000 providers.
Best Buy for Business intends to use the IMSN, which consists of about 700 solution providers in the United States, for high-end IT installation and service engagements.
"By aligning with Ingram Micro and the IMSN, we are able to more effectively and efficiently service the complex IT needs of our larger Best Buy for Business customers, and offer on-site service and support to areas of the country where we don't have coverage today," David Hemler, president of Best Buy for Business, said in a statement Monday.
Justin Crotty, vice president of the Ingram Micro Services Division for North America, called the arrangement "a big win and a ringing endorsement of the professionalism and world-class, on-site IT services expertise found within the IMSN."
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.