Spend management platform Ramp announced a strategic North America agreement with technology distributor Ingram Micro to help channel partners and the businesses they serve modernize how they manage spend, procurement, accounts payable, expense reporting, and accounting workflows.

The announcements open two complementary routes to market for Ramp. The company's listing on Microsoft Marketplace gives partners and customers another way to purchase Ramp through their existing Microsoft relationships, while also allowing them to apply Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACC) toward eligible Ramp purchases — a detail that matters for enterprise buyers, since organizations that have committed to a level of Azure spend can count eligible Ramp purchases toward those existing commitments.

“Businesses shouldn’t have to change how they buy software to get better finance tools,” said Guy Cartwright, GM, Channel and Global Partnerships at Ramp. “Ingram Micro and Microsoft Marketplace make it easier for partners to bring Ramp to customers through the channels they already use. That means finance teams can spend less time on manual work and more time running the business.”

Ramp applies artificial intelligence across core finance workflows, using the technology to cut manual work, flag issues earlier, and help finance teams move faster across spend, procurement, accounts payable, expenses, and accounting.

“We’re pleased to welcome Ramp to Microsoft Marketplace,” said Cyril Belikoff, Vice President, Microsoft Azure Product Marketing. “Marketplace connects trusted solutions from global partners with customers worldwide, making it easy to find and deploy apps that work seamlessly with Microsoft products.”

Under the agreement, Ingram Micro's network of resellers and managed service providers (MSPs) gains access to Ramp, along with support for partner training, sales, and customer deployment across North America. Distribution deals like this one are a standard feature of enterprise software go-to-market: a distributor connects a vendor with the resellers and service providers that already hold day-to-day customer relationships, extending the vendor's reach without it having to recruit each partner individually.

“The channel is increasingly being asked to help customers operationalize AI in ways that drive immediate business impact,” said Cheryl Rang, Vice President, Technology Solutions for Ingram Micro. “Adding Ramp to our solutions portfolio expands existing and introduces new engagement opportunities for our joint channel partners—enabling them with the talent, technology and support needed to help organizations modernize and better manage their accounting operations.”

The agreement is scoped to North America, and the announcement did not include financial terms. Partner uptake of the training and sales support, along with purchase activity through the Marketplace listing, will be the near-term markers of how the two routes to market develop.

The announcement was first reported by Global FinTech Series.