Ingram Micro flags key pressures on Australian MSPs

Ingram Micro executive managing director for Australia, Hope McGarry, has outlined rising complexity, skills shortages and cyber security risk as key pressures facing local managed service providers, while pointing to strong growth among firms with a clear value proposition and focus on business outcomes.

McGarry spoke about the Australian market during Ingram Micro’s global ONE conference in Maryland in the United States. The event gathered the distributor’s executives, vendors and partners from North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Australia.

She said Australian MSPs operate in an intensely competitive landscape. Profitability remains the dominant concern.

“We are a highly competitive market,” she said. “A recent study suggested that 91 per cent of MSPs in Australia have listed profitability as their number one concern.”

McGarry said many partners also face structural limits on growth due to talent scarcity. She pointed in particular to skills gaps in cyber security, cloud and artificial intelligence.

She said the skills shortfall constrains expansion for local providers. Some MSPs have started large internal training efforts. Others now seek external support from distributors and specialist providers.

The shifting nature of the broader technology ecosystem adds another layer of pressure. McGarry said the channel no longer follows a simple linear model between vendor, distributor, partner and end customer.

“Our ecosystem, which was once linear, is now evolving rapidly, and it is a 360 ecosystem,” she said.

She said this evolution includes new licensing approaches, multi cloud environments and a larger mix of vendor solutions. Many customers now expect strategic advice in addition to technical services.

McGarry said a cohort of Australian MSPs continues to perform well despite these conditions. She said the most successful providers show clear strategic direction and focus.

“Where we see our MSPs with a very clear value proposition that they have defined and can execute against, we are seeing them have a great deal of success.”

She said those partners align their offerings with business outcomes that matter for customers. This emphasis remains a strong draw for decision makers under budget and risk pressure.

MSPs that struggle with market complexity often face weaker results. McGarry said these firms find it hard to position themselves and build depth within customer accounts.

“MSPs that are struggling with that complexity and not really able to navigate that are finding the market difficult,” she said.

She said providers now need a sharper view of where they add value and how they grow that value over time. Building skills and services inside key accounts has become central to retention and expansion.

McGarry said distributors now occupy a more active role in this environment. Ingram Micro sits between a large network of vendors and partners, which gives it broad market visibility.

She highlighted the company’s national Executive Connect program in Australia. The initiative engaged 500 senior leaders during the year.

“We work across so many vendors, and we are working with so many customers and partners each and every day. We get unique insight into where the partners are getting momentum.”

McGarry said this view of demand patterns shapes the distributor’s own investment decisions. She said the company has started to back new areas ahead of wider adoption by partners and end customers.

“We can invest ahead of the curve, make sure we have the right expertise and skill set to help get ahead of it and to augment our partner capabilities as well.”

Cyber security remains one of the most active areas for this early investment. McGarry said awareness of cyber risk now extends well beyond IT teams.

“We know that the cyber resiliency piece is absolutely critical,” she said. “Our partners are being asked to do more in that space. It is at the board level, conversation around Cyber Risk and Insurance that we’re seeing.”

She said Ingram Micro has built internal skills and services in security. Partners can use these resources directly or use them as white labelled offerings under their own brands.

This approach aims to address both the skills shortage and rising customer expectations in security. It also reflects the distributor’s broader move into services around cloud, AI and professional services.

McGarry said culture and people leadership underpin the distributor’s work with partners and vendors. She described her focus as centred on collective success across the ecosystem.

“I have an amazing team, and I think leading people is such a privilege,” she said. “Leading my team and supporting our customers to be successful and our vendors is really the motivation.”

She said the organisation shares both achievements and challenges with customers and suppliers. That shared experience, she said, creates a sense of joint ownership of outcomes.

“When we see our vendors growing, we see our partners winning, and we have played a role in that, it is exceptionally rewarding to see that.”

She said this mindset extends into day-to-day engagement with the channel.

“We live, breathe, eat and sleep it. We celebrate a lot of that with our customers when we see them have success.”

McGarry said the distributor expects ongoing change in the Australian MSP landscape as technologies mature and customer demands shift. “We truly are here to support our customers and our vendor success, and that is really all the motivation that myself and the team need.”