Ingram Micro Opens New Technology Solutions Center For East Coast Cust

SANTA ANA, Calif., April 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Generating demand for new technologies and developing valuable resources for its customers, Ingram Micro Inc. today announced the opening of its East Coast Solutions Center, a multifunctional development, testing and training lab designed exclusively for North America technology solution providers and vendor partners.

Located in Buffalo, NY, the highly anticipated East Coast Solutions Center marks Ingram Micro's second multi-million Dollar education, and training facility and is the first center to feature emerging Digital Home and Digital Signage solutions and demonstrations. Equipped with more than $5 million in technologies and featuring more than 85 vendors, 28 market categories and solutions and a team of highly skilled and trained technicians, Ingram Micro's Solutions Centers offer a unique and compelling sales resource for solution providers and vendor partners.

"Ingram Micro's East and West Coast Technology Solutions Centers give us and our customers a competitive edge," said Kirk Robinson, vice president, customer solutions marketing, Ingram Micro U.S. "In just four short years, more than 10,000 solution providers have experienced our West Coast center in Santa Ana, Calif., and we've conducted well over 525 hands-on and remote training sessions and featured or demonstrated hundreds of market solutions - that's a distinct value that's exclusive to Ingram Micro's customer base."

Similar to the company's West Coast facility, which opened in 2001, the East Coast Solutions Center includes an 18 seat classroom with networked workstations, access to an 80 seat seminar conference room, a solution demonstration room containing rack-mounted solutions and demo stations, a private conference room for sales meetings, and remote access. The Center also features a multi-vendor Digital Living room, which will be rolled out in a multiphase approach, as well as Digital Signage products throughout. The West Coast Solutions Center will debut its Digital Home showroom and Digital Signage solutions in mid-May. Both Centers are operated and maintained by engineers from Ingram Micro as well as participating vendors.

Ingram Micro's state-of-the-art Solutions Centers also feature technology platform neutral environments that are ideal for:

* Solutions or technology proof of concepting * Live, hands-on product and solutions demonstrations * Remote access product and solutions demonstrations * One-on-one technical briefings and training on targeted solutions * Live remote and web-cast training with archive capabilities * Video demonstrations on multiple solutions and vertical markets * "One stop solution shop" from best of breed partners * Specific vendor training sessions for a targeted group of solution providers * Fast track training for solution providers who want to use the Centers as an extension of their sales force or train their own team

"Ingram Micro's Solutions Center is second to none," said Larry Baum, CEO, The Computing Center. "The opening of the East Coast Center is big news for solution providers on the East and will surely help ring in more sales with added resources for building complex technology solutions both in mainstream and vertical markets."

Ingram Micro's West and East Coast Solutions Centers were developed through resources from Ingram Micro and more than $10 million in product and solution sponsorships from several leading vendors including Cisco, Citrix, HP, IBM and Polycom. Other sponsors include Axis Communication, Belkin, Enterasys, InFocus, Fujitsu, Liebert, McAfee, NEC Display Solutions, NET IQ, Peerless, Planar, Sony, and Viewsonic, along with over 50 more vendor partners.

For more information on Ingram Micro's East or West Coast Solutions Centers, please contact your Ingram Micro Account Executive, visit http://www.ingrammicro.com/solutioncenter or call:

West Coast: 1-800-759-3003 Ext. 23340 East Coast: 1-800-456-6783 Ext. 67713 About Ingram Micro Inc.

A vital link in the technology value chain, Ingram Micro creates sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programs, outsourced logistics services, technical support, financial services, and product aggregation and distribution. The company serves 100 countries and is the only global IT distributor with operations in Asia. Visit http://www.ingrammicro.com/.

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