Ingram Micro, the world’s largest distributor of technology products, has signed an international distribution deal with Google Enterprise to distribute to Google Mini and the Google search appliance to small and medium sized business (the SMB market).
As part of this new agreement, Ingram Micro will provide Google with “key competencies of sales, reseller credit, marketing, technical support and logistics” to reach their target markets (SMBs) in what they’re calling a “cost-effective manner”.
Ingram Micro will create a comprehensive reseller recruitment plan in certain regions; the reseller recruitment plan will attempt to identify, recruit and train suitable reseller partners to sell both the Google Mini and the Google Search Appliance and provide technical support after the sale. Ingram Micro will extend the reseller recruitment plan to other regions on an as-needed basis.
The Goolge Mini and the Google Search Appliance are very customizable–and are designed to be used on a company’s intranet or extranet site to search. The Google Mini and the Google Search Appliance automatically discover and retrieve information stored on intranet web servers, file servers, content management systems and other locations. Information can also be found by the devices in more than 220 different file formats and in more than 100 languages.
The Google Mini is designed for Web site search and for small to medium-sized businesses. The Google Search Appliance is ideal for meeting the needs of the mid-market and other data and e-file intense organizations (e.g. legal firms, finance companies and medical offices).
The Google “OneBox for Enterprise” feature is available on both the Google Mini and on the Google Search Appliance–both retrieves real-time information securely from any business application, including employee directories and calendars, CRM, ERP and BI systems, all from the familiar Google interface.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ingram Micro has assigned a dedicated licensing desk to manage all orders for the Google Mini and the Google Search Appliance and their associated licenses. They’re working with Google to train the Ingram Micro Technical Support Department on the distinct capabilities of these two products. All orders will be placed locally by resellers in their respective regions and routed through the Ingram Micro Google Licensing Desk, which will make sure products are exported accurately and license keys are generated as required.