Long time channel veteran Dave Walsh finally cracked the Top 25 Newsmakers list by spearheading an innovative new program called the Canadian SMB Alliance.
As the vice-president of sales and marketing at Ingram Micro Canada, Walsh revamped the old SMB Alliance program in an attempt to, for the
first time, lead resellers and vendors down a straight path toward the end user.
The new program is based on eight strategic vertical markets such as education, manufacturing, legal, graphics, and medical.
The no-fee program also includes solutions-based education training, best practices sharing and partner engagements with vendors and resellers.
Walsh, who at one time was the general manager of NEC Technologies Canada, managed to gain the support of 21 vendors for the Canadian SMB Alliance program, including IBM and its software division.
Other vendors in the program include: SMC Networks, NEC-Mitsubishi, Lexmark, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Epson, Cisco, Symantec, and Viewsonic.
Bruno Pupo, area director for NEC-Mitsuibishi, said the Canadian SMB Alliance program goes beyond traditional distribution programs to target key vertical end-user customers, which saves vendors money.
Ron Moreno, director of sales and services for Toronto-based VAR Real Systems Inc., said this kind of a program helps his company work better with other resellers who play in the same vertical markets as Real Systems.
The Canadian SMB Alliance is expect to help 300 resellers in Canada.
Walsh was also instrumental in Ingram Micro’s latest warranty program. Ingram Micro will offer extended warranty packages on brand-name products for its North American reseller as well as its Venture Tech Network partners and Ingram Micro’s Service Network members.
He also furthered the distributors Venture Tech Network, by promoting it to resellers out west.
“”This is about aggregation,”” said Walsh of VTN.
“”This group represents a significant amount of business in the Canadian marketplace,”” he said.
