Ingram Micro Australia laid off an unknown number of staff yesterday, 12 days after the US head office posted a 13 percent drop in global sales and a 23 percent drop in Asia Pacific sales.
Miley said the changes will ensure that the company can better serve the needs of local channel partners in the prevailing market conditions.
He said customers require Ingram to be a true strategic partner, adding value to every interaction it has with them.
"In the current economic climate it is essential that we have the right people in the right positions to ensure we do this successfully," said Miley.
"The main focus of the changes is to introduce efficiencies and deliver a company structure that can focus more closely on the needs of Ingram Micro's customers.
"The restructure is designed to make it easier for us to provide better, faster, more efficient service to our customers.
"It also enables us to align our expenses to ensure that we can operate effectively in the challenging market conditions in which we all operate, and gives us the flexibility to grow the areas of the business that have the most future potential."
The new changes include;
Formation of a new commercial sales and marketing team, led by John Walters.
Ingram said 'this closer alignment between sales and marketing will enable Ingram Micro to be more flexible and responsive to changes in the market. We will also be adding to our investment in the post-sales Customer Service team also reporting to John'.
The Volume Business Unit and Consumer Sales Division will combine under common management and will be led by Matt Sanderson.
This change will co-ordinate the retail and consumer parts of the business.
The various HP divisions of the business will be combined under a single, solutions-focused HP group which will report to Matt Sanderson.
A new Microsoft business unit will be established to deliver a unified approach to Microsoft products and services.
This group will also report to Matt Sanderson.
The Solutions Group will be renamed the "Enterprise Technology Group" (ETG) and will be led by David Lenz.
David will focus on delivering networking, security and infrastructure solutions into the market.
New positions will be established in the group to support sales efforts and help Ingram Micro develop business for both vendor and reseller partners.
Miley added that the changes announced today are 'not simply prompted by tough economic conditions'.
"We have a duty to ensure that we're sensible in aligning our costs and revenues.
"That has certainly meant we've had to look hard at where cost savings can be made without impacting on the service we provide to customers. And yes, unfortunately, that has meant there will be some job losses as a result of this restructure", he said.
"But many of these changes needed to be made anyway in the interests of ensuring that we are nimble, responsive and completely focused on the needs of our customers.
"The restructure allows us to open up a number of new positions to be filled, and provides great career opportunities for people within the business to step up into new and bigger roles.
"It's always hard to make changes that involve redundancies, particularly when some of the people affected have been with Ingram Micro, and Tech Pacific before that for a number of years. We're sad to see them leave.
"But it's also critical to ensure that the company is well prepared for the current climate and that we're positioned to take advantage of growth opportunities both now and as the economic situation improves.
"That means having the right skills in the right positions and maintaining an unwavering focus on our customers."
Miley said that discussions with staff over the restructure are still underway, with a number of staff taking on new roles and responsibilities.
The final number of net positions that will be made redundant as a result of the restructure is expected to be less than 7 percent of the total headcount.
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