This guest blog entry was written by Robert Dutt of Channelnomics.
What a difference a year makes. In the 2012 Ingram Micro SMB 500 tally, solution providers in the southwest region were last in terms of overall revenue growth. The region still grew at 173.53 percent over 2011, but that number was the lowest regional growth rate around the country for partners in the Ingram Micro SMB 500, a program facilitated by The 2112 Group.
A year later, the southwest region – Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Hawaii – took the growth crown with gusto. SMB 500 solution providers from that region posted overall growth of 535.38 percent, almost double the regional growth of the next-best region, giving the Southwest an impressive year-over-year improvement of 361.85 percent.
The mid-eastern states leader posted a high growth rate over its 2012 numbers. Overall, the mid-east – Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana – took second place in terms of growth, although its 279 percent growth rate for 2013 came on the heels of an impressive 243 percent growth rate in 2012, making the year-over-year improvement marginal.
The same could be said of the Gulf states – Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee – which followed nation-leading 250 percent growth in 2012 with a 267 percent growth rate in 2013, but slipped to third place in overall growth thanks to the strong performance of the southwest and the mid-east.
New England – Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont – came in just shy of the Gulf states in terms of 2013 growth rate, with revenues for SMB 500 members in the region coming in at 263 percent. But coming off a 2012 performance that saw 188 percent growth across the region, that represents an almost 75 percent improvement in growth year-over-year, second only to the fast-growing Southwest.
East Coast states — New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey — took fifth place by region in terms of growth, besting its 219 percent 2012 growth number by 27 percent for a 246 percent growth rate in 2013.
Southeast coastal states – Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Florida and Maryland – were sixth in overall growth for 2013, but the 239 percent growth rate for 2013 was almost five percent off the region’s 2012 tally of 243 percent growth, one of just two regions to see negative revenue growth for 2013 over 2012.
The Western states — California, Utah, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado and Oregon — saw overall growth rate increase 37 percent over 2012’s numbers, finishing the 2013 Ingram Micro SMB 500 with a 233 percent growth rate.
Finally, it was a tough year for the Midwestern states — Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and North and South Dakota. The region saw its growth rate decline 25 percent from 193 percent in 2012 to 167 percent in 2013.
Of course, when dealing with comparisons of growth rates among the fastest-growing solution providers in the nation, all things are relative. The Ingram Micro SMB 500 is truly an impressive collection of solution providers that have been successful in growing their businesses. For many solution providers, even the 167 percent growth seen across the Midwestern states’ SMB 500 members remains an aspirational number, an indication of the kind of success solution providers on the Ingram Micro SMB 500 have realized.
