Ingram's new MD says 'we have to look at our discretionary spend'

Miley was speaking about his new role during a visit from Ingram’s CEO Gregory Spierkel last week.

He said it was too early for him to comment on exactly where he hopes to take the company with the A/NZ channel but his priority for now was to talk to its partners.

“The direction we need to take for the Australian channel is to focus on licensing and the solutions business.

“Even though it is too early for me to comment on where I am going to take the business I need a couple of months to talk to our vendors and reseller constituencies.

“Also I want to speak to the employees here at Ingram because they have got some great ideas and a deeper knowledge of the market than I will ever have,” he added.

Miley, who is originally from the US said he was ‘excited about coming onboard’.

He has more than 14 years experience at Ingram Micro across a range of senior roles and since January 2007, he was the managing director of Ingram Micro New Zealand.

“From my perspective it’s not something that when I went over to New Zealand that I expected. I moved to the country in January after the incumbent decided to retire.

“I had no expectations of what that assignment would be like but it turned out to be one of the best experiences in terms of running a business.

“I expect I will have the same type of experience here as there are some parallels. I like to work hard, play hard, and the aussies share that type of mentality from what I’ve seen so far,” said Miley.

Speaking about some of the criticism Ingram faced for announcing a nine percent increase in freight charges and an additional $5 charge on Drop Ship orders he said everyone was facing the same challenges.

“For us to continue to make investments we have to look at our discretionary spend and this is a major element of our cost structure.

“If we had to make choices between A or B, this is an area that makes sense. We don’t expect resellers to be overly excited about it but they understand because they share the same challenges,” he added.