Ingram Micro’s independent software division CloudBlue has unveiled a standalone product that allows partners to manage and automate vendor procurement.
The new product is called CloudBlue Connect, a white-labelled vendor management portal that handles all aspects of procurement, from placing the initial order through to billing and delivery.
Partners can connect products from any vendor to Connect’s APIs to sell, regardless of whether Ingram or CloudBlue already has an existing relationship. If the vendor does already have a relationship with the distie, partners can use Ingram’s Syndication program to take advantage of pre-existing terms.
CloudBlue’s director, APJ, solution consulting YiLun Miao told CRN that connecting a new vendor to Connect from a technical standpoint could take as little as 10 minutes when starting out. It's just up to partners to sort out the commercial aspects themselves.
Partners can also integrate Connect with any other commerce platform that doesn’t have to be CloudBlue, such as Salesforce, Dynamics or Magento. Miao said this platform-agnostic approach was the reason why Connect was developed as a standalone product.
He used Amazon’s online sales platform as an example of what Connect is capable of.
“Rather than you having to build and invest the same amount of money that Amazon did for the same capability, we’ve created a standalone product called Connect which delivers you the capability that Amazon has at a fraction of the cost, completely white-labelled.”
CloudBlue said a number of customers are already using Connect as it soft launched within CloudBlue two years ago.
Brendon Foye travelled to Ingram Micro ONE APAC as a guest of Ingram Micro.
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