Ingram Micro enhances CloudBlue platform, underpinned by automation

Ingram Micro has unveiled new updates to CloudBlue as part of plans to drive enhanced automation capabilities through the cloud platform.

Version 19 of CloudBlue Connect features an out-of-the-box plugin on the Zapier platform, a web-based process automation platform. The move is designed to offer providers and vendors improved extensibility to communicate and automate processes with applications, backed by new types of integrations.

The distribution giant has also rolled out a new subscription module, offering visibility on recurring subscriptions through a consolidated pane, alongside automated billing requests at renewal times.

“The latest version of CloudBlue Connect gives customers even greater operational efficiency and scalability to more easily grow their businesses,” said Tarik Faouzi, vice president of CloudBlue. “Our core mission is to help customers accelerate their time to market and revenue through increased business automation and continuous innovation.”

According to Faouzi, other new features include the ability to add products that require complex usage reporting, alongside automatically validating the availability of a product quantity and reservations before checkout.

Delving deeper, vendors can now specifically define products from one interface, while providers can find all product-related information in one central location. Vendors can also create a detailed SKU hierarchy so that providers can leverage clearer bundling and up-selling and cross-selling paths.

“We developed these enhancements as part of our long-term strategy for CloudBlue Connect and as a response to our customer feedback,” Faouzi said. “With businesses today being impacted by the current climate and the need for greater operational flexibility, our cloud and digital capabilities enable companies to look beyond the traditional ways of working to work from anywhere in the most efficient manner possible.”