2021 Channel Partner Awards: Ingram Micro, Telarus, Microsoft, More
Masergy, Sandler Partners, LogMeIn and more also handed out awards.
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Another incredible class of Channel Futures Circle of Excellence inductees celebrated their win at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo. In fact, two classes got to toast one another.
That’s because, due to the pandemic, we weren’t able to host our annual Circle of Excellence dinner in 2020. So we doubled the celebration at this year’s event.
Inductees included:
Patrick Oborn, Telarus’ co-founder and chief product officer.
Lucas Chaya del Pino, head of Dell Expert Network — U.S. Small Business, Dell.
Salwa Scarpone, now an independent marketing and event consultant, was recognized for her work at AppSmart in 2020.
Tina Smith, 8×8’s vice president of North America channel and field marketing.
Christine Gassman, director of global channel engagement with Armor, was with Datto in 2020.
Shane McNamara, executive vice president of engineering and operations at Avant Communications.
Tiffany Dunn, head North America channel sales at LogMeIn.
Marcela Gonzalez Cagle, manager of partner programs at Vonage.
Bobby Hall, global vice president and channel chief at 8×8.
Dan Pirigyi, partner at Telecom Consulting Group (TCG).
Danny Jenkins, CEO of ThreatLocker.
Jim Glackin, senior vice president of global channel sales at Masergy.
Michelle Ragusa-McBain, global lead and channel community evangelist of MSP and XaaS at Cisco.
Lauren Grenier, marketing director at Granite Telecommunications.
Pat Watkins, vice president of partner and IoT sales at T-Mobile.
Richard Murray, COO and co-owner of Telarus.
Jim Regan, channel chief at Vonage.
Zane Long, senior vice president of global channel sales at RingCentral.
The nonprofit Alliance of Channel Women (ACW) honored a number of successful channel leaders with awards during last month’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo preconference event.
ACW presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to founder and past president Nancy Ridge. The founder of Ridge Innovative was instrumental in creating the ACW – then called Women in the Channel – in 2010.
ACW also named Kathy Flick, senior director of national partners at Nextiva, its Big Impact Winner for the third quarter. The group chooses the winner from nominees submitted by the channel community who are living the ACW Advocacy Pledge: Women Supporting Women.
In addition, ACW recognized the winners of its 2021 LEAD Awards. They go annually to exceptional female leaders in the technology channel.
This year’s LEAD winners are Vivian Chavez, senior director of channel programs at Comcast Business; Kelly Danziger, general manager and vice president of channel at Informa Tech (Channel Futures’ parent company); Theresa Garner, director of North America cloud partner growth, activation and enablement at Avaya; and Alicia Steward, strategic channel manager at Zoom.
Finally, ACW honored outstanding volunteers with its 2021 ACT Awards. Taking home hardware were Erin Knese, senior director of channel sales and training at Vivial; Kandi Philips, loyalty program manager at Telarus; and Michelle Young, vice president of sales at CrossRoad Technologies. All either chair or are members of select ACW committees.
The winners of this year’s MSP 501 Awards had their moment in the spotlight during last month’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo.
Our 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award winner was Tom Bowles of AllTek Services.
Chris McKewon, CEO of Xceptional Networks, received the Newcomer Award, which goes to a company that has not previously appeared on the MSP 501.
Christine Lee took home hardware as executive of the year. She’s the chief strategy officer for Texas Systems Group.
Our annual Vanguard Award goes to the company that best displays thought leadership in terms of digital transformation. Triton Networks was the 2021 winner.
IQ Interactive and its CEO, Omer Choudhary, were the only two-time winners of the evening, taking home the third place prize for MSP of the Year and also Digital Innovator of the Year.
MSP of the Year was Stronghold Data. The company provides fully managed IT for businesses in the Joplin, Missouri, area.
In September, Ingram Micro announced its partner awards. The awards highlight partners who drive end-user digital transformation within the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace. Key criteria included overall cloud business growth, peer-to-peer leadership, and level of engagement and alignment with Ingram Micro Cloud.
The award winners by country are as follows:
United States
Reseller Partner of the Year – Converge Technology Solutions
Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – GreenPages Technology Solutions
Solution Partner MVP, IaaS – The Henson Group
Breakthrough Partner of the Year – Lindsay Rae Perry Consulting
Solution Partner MVP, Business Applications – Bam Boom Cloud
Solution Partner MVP, Communication and Collaboration – Link Computer
Breakthrough Partner of the Year – Network Doctor
Solution Partner MVP, Security – WrightCore
Solution Partner MVP, IaaS – Oak Rocket (formerly Kaizen)
Austria
Reseller Partner of the Year – Axians ICT Austria
Solution Partner MVP, Security – MP2 IT Solutions
Chile
Solution Partner MVP, Security-IaaS – Ecomsur
Reseller Partner of the Year – Last Call
Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Tibox
Reseller Partner of the Year – EGS
Colombia
Reseller Partner of the Year – ITSE
Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Advanced IT Consulting Services
France
Solution Partner MVP, Security – Devensys Cybersecurity
Solution Partner MVP, Backup & Disaster Recovery – Document Store
Reseller Partner of the Year – Exakis Nelite
Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – JLL
Breakthrough Partner of the Year – LCS Group
Germany
Solution Partner MVP, IaaS – Basys EDV-Systeme
Hong Kong
Reseller Partner of the Year – Nova Technology
Hungary
Reseller Partner of the Year – Ingressus Kft.
India
Reseller Partner of the Year – Embee Software
Solution Partner MVP, Security – Logix Infosecurity
Breakthrough Partner of the Year – PSR IT Services
Solution Partner MVP, IaaS – Minfy Technologies
Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Techjockey Infotech
Solution Partner MVP, Communication and Collaboration – Sonata Software
Solution Partner MVP, Business Applications – Matrix Technologies
Mexico
Reseller Partner of the Year – Aevitas
Breakthrough Partner of the Year – Cadgraphics
Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Compucad
Solution Partner MVP, Security – Cyberpeace
Peru
Reseller Partner of the Year – Zeit Peru
Poland
Solution Partner MVP, Security-IaaS – CompuTec
Reseller Partner of the Year – Omega Enterprise Services
Spain
Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Abast
Reseller Partner of the Year – Ricoh Espana
Solution Partner MVP, Backup & Disaster Recovery – ACK Storm
United Kingdom
Marketplace Growth Partner of the Year – Example IT
In September, Broadvoice and RingCentral won big in Sandler Partners‘ latest partner awards.
Broadvoice claimed the service distributor’s MVP award. In addition, Broadvoice took home an award for operational excellence.
RingCentral also doubled up on awards, earning the largest revenue growth with Sandler and winning best unified communications supplier. They joined 8×8, Zoom, Comcast, Spectrum, Broadvoice and Dyopath in the list of vendors winning awards.
Furthermore, Chris Jones of AT&T won Most Influential Channel Leader.
Supplier Awards
Operational Excellence – Broadvoice
Top New Providers – 8×8 and Zoom
Largest Revenue Growth – RingCentral
Best of Cloud – Dyopath
Best of Cable – Comcast
Best of Fiber – Spectrum
Best of Unified Communications – RingCentral
Provider MVP – Broadvoice
Personnel Awards
Midwest Channel Manager of the Year – Jonathan Protass
New England Channel Manager of the Year – Scott Dragonetti
Metro New York Channel Manager of the Year – George Sountas
Mid-Atlantic Channel Manager of the Year – Bill Alessi
Great Lakes Channel Manager of the Year – Kirk Whitney
Southwest Channel Manager of the Year – Joyce Sherlock
West Coast Channel Manager of the Year – Hillary Corno
Southwest Channel Manager of the Year – Chris Simmons
National Channel Manager of the Year – Preston Carpenter
Most Influential Channel Leader – Chris Jones
LogMeIn partners including Telarus, Sandler Partners and more were recognized as top partners at its North American Partner Summit in August.
LogMeIn’s awards recognized partners selling products such as UCaaS, GoToConnect and GoToConnect Contact Center, as well as LastPass, its password management tool. The company selected the winners based on 2020 sales performance.
LogMeIn presented the awards to top partners who consistently identified and collaborated with customers on communication and collaboration solutions to enable work from anywhere success.
The full list of winners includes:
LogMeIn’s Top Performer: SHI International.
Top Master Agent: Telarus.
LogMeIn’s Top Vertical Specialist: Proton Technologies (automotive).
Top GoToConnect Deal: Sandler Partners – Dustin Riedel.
GoToConnect Contact Center Pro: ACS Cloud Partners.
LastPass Sharp Seller: SHI International.
Top New Partner of the Year: ASAP Software Express.
Telarus in July crowned its top channel and supplier partners. The services distributor recognized partners for largest deals and sales in each technology category. It honored vendors by category and for overall volume.
Among suppliers, AT&T was a big winner, ranking in the top five by volume. It also won most improved, and the carrier’s Chris Jones scored for top channel chief. Telarus named Comcast Business top cable supplier and recognized Lumen Technologies for most volume.
Last Mile Strategies was named top overall channel partner. It also won for biggest mobility deal and top mobility partner.
The following took home hardware:
Largest Partner Deals
UCaaS: ARG
CCaaS: Cloud Warriors
Cloud: b/digital
Cybersecurity: SD-WAN Experts
SD-WAN: Atlas
Mobility: Last Mile Strategies
Cable: Infobahn
Network: Tier4
Top Supplier by Category
UCaaS: RingCentral
CCaaS: Five9
Cloud: Flexential
Cybersecurity: Cato Networks
SD-WAN: Masergy
Mobility: MetTel
Network: Lumen
Cable: Comcast Business
International: Masergy
Top Partner by Category
CCaaS: PPT Solutions
Cloud: b/digital
Mobility: Last Mile Strategies
SD-WAN: Atlas
Cybersecurity: SD-WAN Experts
UCaaS: WTP
Top 5 Suppliers by Volume
Lumen
AT&T Alliance Channel/ACC Business
RingCentral
Comcast Business
Spectrum
Telarus 2021 Hall of Fame Inductees
Dynamic Network Advisors/Mike Sickle
Cynergy/Jeff Cohen and Mike Emanuelo
Partners’ Choice Awards
Best Overall Supplier: GoTo by LogMeIn
Best Engineering Team: 8×8
Most Improved: AT&T Alliance Channel
Best New Suppliers: Zoom, CyberCompass Security, For2Fi
Top Channel Managers
International: Ashley Allen, Zoom
Local: Lauren McNally, Lumen; Ken Barnett, 8×8; Jessica Martin, Genesys; Janet Atkins, ACC Business; Alan Kaplan, Broadvoice
National: Austin Holverson, Nice CXOne; Aaron Acree Nextiva; Charles Lomond, AireSpring; Kip Guerin, Lumen; Dani Pickens, Zoom; Shannon McFadden, GoTo by LogMeIn
Top Channel Chief
Chris Jones, AT&T
Million-Dollar Rock Stars
Advoda
CCI
Performance Networks
Sumo
vCom
Cynergy
Top 20 Partners
Last Mile Strategies
Teleplus Consulting Inc.
b/digital
Cloud Warriors
PPT Solutions
vCom
Athenium Technology Group
Invite Networks
Telecom Advisors
Outsource Wireless
Elite Telecom Solutions
BlueSky IT Partners
PeakView
Streamline Communications
Sumo
Complete Communications
Advantage
CompuNet
Cynergy
ChaseTek
In July, the first 8×8 Channel Partner Awards honored several North American partners, including PlanetOne, SHI International, Vertical Communications and more.
PlanetOne was named North American Technology Services Brokerage of the Year. It was based on year-over-year growth.
North American Subagent of the Year was SHI International.
Vertical Communications was named North American VAR of the Year.
8×8 North American Evangelist of the Year was Rob DeVita, founder and CEO of Mejeticks.
The North American Deal of the Year award went to CDW.
Stephanie Bouras, Intelisys‘ director of sales for the Southeast region, was named 8×8 North American Channel Manager of the Year.
Corporate Data & Voice Solutions (CDVS) was named North American Rising Star of the Year.
Wrapping up the awards, Comstar Technologies was named North America Experience Communications as a Service (XCaaS) Partner of the Year.
Chalk up five straight wins for Intelisys in Masergy’s partner awards.
In July, Masergy honored eight channel partners for their sales performance in fiscal year 2021. Intelisys once again claimed the top spot in the technology services brokerage category. It led in overall sales, as it has every year since 2017. Intelisys also led in SD-WAN sales.
However, Avant made some ground on Intelisys, earning the most UCaaS and security sales. Last year Intelisys led Masergy partners in overall, SD-WAN and UCaaS sales.
Advantage Communications Group joined them in the awards list with the highest year-over-year growth.
Technology Services Brokerage Award Winners
Top Sales: Intelisys
SD-WAN Sales: Intelisys
UCaaS Sales: Avant
Security Sales: Avant
Most New Logos: Avant
Highest Growth YOY: Advantage Communications Group
Selling Agent Award Winners
Top Sales: CDW Corporation
SD-WAN Sales: Blue Equinox
UCaaS Sales: UC Right
Security Sales: Cloud Communications Group
Most New Logos: UC Right
Rookie of the Year: Blue Equinox
Highest Growth YOY: Resourcive
Largest Deal: Blue Equinox
In July, Google Cloud honored its top partners, including Deloitte, Wix, Capgemini and a whole lot more. Many of these firms came away with trophies for their work during COVID-19.
DoiT International was named Google Cloud’s top reseller partner worldwide for 2020.
For the fourth year in a row, Deloitte ranked as Google Cloud’s global services partner of the year. It was also named global public sector partner of the year for 2020.
Consultancy Capgemini came away with the top industry solutions partner award.
Tata Consultancy Services was Google Cloud’s breakthrough partner for 2020.
Wix owned the title of expansion partner of the year.
Palo Alto Networks was named global technology partner of the year.
Thailand’s GoPomelo received the award for diversity and inclusion, a hot topic within the channel.
And Atos was named global social impact partner of the year.
Accenture, Capgemini and Ernst & Young prevailed in multiple categories of this year’s Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards.
The big winner was Accenture, paired with Avanade, which came out on top in seven of this year’s 56 subcategories. Avanade is a subsidiary of Accenture born in 2000. Both Avanade and Accenture expanded the venture with the formation of the Microsoft Business Group two years ago.
In the artificial intelligence (AI) subcategory, contract life cycle management (CLM) solution provider Icertis created its Discover AI solution using Microsoft’s Azure AI. During the past year, Microsoft said it has generated strong co-sell and customer success. Microsoft also recognized Capgemini for using the Azure Synapse analytics platform for Volvo Group’s transformation. And Insight won for Azure migration for a solution that enabled 150% year-over-year growth in Azure-consumed revenue over the past year.
The Accenture/Avanade group took three of its seven wins deploying business applications with Dynamics 365. It played a big role in selling and deploying Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to top Fortune 500 clients, according to Microsoft. In topping the Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Finance subcategory, Accenture and the Accenture Microsoft Business Group have developed what Microsoft describes as the most sophisticated practices, thanks to numerous ISV relationships and its centers of excellence. Microsoft also gave Accenture/Avanade top score for its Dynamics 365 Customer Service practice, where it grew license revenue by 178% and the installed base by 68%.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, growth of Microsoft Teams was fueled primarily by the use of virtual meetings and Teams calling. A leading Microsoft Teams partner, UnifiedCommunications.com supported 5,600 customers that deployed or expanded their use of Teams. Campana & Schott in Germany deployed a service for frontline retail workers that includes Teams, Microsoft Enterprise Mobility and Security, BizApps and Azure.
SHI International became one of the largest resellers of Surface Hub, Microsoft’s room conferencing system.
Microsoft has made a stronger push into enabling partners focused on key vertical industries. Blue Yonder, the winner of this year’s manufacturing subcategory, created 13-cosell offerings available in Azure.
In its new social impact category, Microsoft gave awards for three subcategories. The Community Response winner is uPlanner, a global edtech provider that develops and deploys higher education solutions. Schneider Electric won the Sustainability Changemaker award, for EcoStruxure, an IoT platform designed to integrate process and energy technology for buildings, data centers and infrastructure.
Ernst & Young was the first of the big four global accounting firms to build a dedicated digital transformation service based on the new Microsoft Services Group. EY developed various digital transformation services using Azure AI and Machine Learning, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform across industries and geographies according to Microsoft. EY also developed some key solutions, including the Global Tax Platform, Vaccine Management System and Grant Accelerator.
Microsoft also recognized F5 as an early developer of marketplaces and for its success in co-sell. Hyro, which offers an adaptive communications platform that provides conversational AI and natural langrage automation, won the Microsoft for Startups subcategory. It provided the Hyro COVID-19 Virtual Assistant free to health care providers, to provide information to health care professionals and support personnel. Its virtual assistants have served 3 million patients during the pandemic.
Five companies continued to stand out among AT&T channel partners in 2020.
AT&T Alliance Channel announced its Solution Provider Champions. The awards recognized 57 partners for their fiscal performance in 2020.
ABS Communications, Nordicom Technologies, Presto Tech Solutions, Spearhead Consulting and Telarus landed in the platinum elite tier again.
A variety of companies that sell directly and/or through subagents occupied the list. NetSpark IP & Telecom and Intelisys landed in the platinum category.
We have listed the 57 winners below.
Platinum Elite
ABS Communications
Nordicom Technologies
Presto Tech Solutions
Spearhead Consulting
Telarus
Platinum
NetSpark IP & Telecom
Intelisys
Gold
CC3 Solutions
Digital Management Solutions
Saturn Wireless
Talksouth
Advanced Communications
ADCom Solutions
BCDR Solutions
Five Star Technology Group
Longboat Mobility
Sandler Partners
Telecom Brokerage
TCG
Triple Play Wireless
White Glove Wireless
Silver
SMMA Wireless
KSJ Communications
AIE Solutions
BLU Telecommunication
Credico
Evergreen Telecom Services
Firefly IT Asset Recovery
Give Back Wireless
Simplify
Telapprise
CMI
TLG
Vomoda Group
Bronze
Bridgepointe Technologies
Openview Communications
Beast PC
Nextgen Solutions
Mobile Solutions Services Holdings
Speedstream Technology Partners
CelPro Associates
Centurion Communications
Signal Solutions
Baycom Allied
CenterLink Technologies
Configure
CPOA
Fast VoIP Communications
Infinity Communications Group
Interface Technologies
Marble Hall Group
Spohn Consulting
AppSmart
Teleproviders
VirsaTel
Nobilite Communications
The National Diversity Council recognized two Logicalis US executives as leading women in technology and business.
Sally Brandtneris, chief financial officer, was named to the council’s Power 50 list. The list recognizes C-suite leaders from top establishments who have a positive impact on diversity within their departments, companies and communities.
Nancy Saltzman, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, was named as one of the National Diversity Council’s Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology. Her recognition comes for being an accomplished leader who contributes to organizational growth and strategic direction while serving as a role model to other women in the industry.
Logicalis US is an international IT solution and MSP. It is part of the Logicalis Group, which has more than 6,500 employees and annualized revenues of $1.7 billion, from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa.
The National Diversity Council recognized two Logicalis US executives as leading women in technology and business.
Sally Brandtneris, chief financial officer, was named to the council’s Power 50 list. The list recognizes C-suite leaders from top establishments who have a positive impact on diversity within their departments, companies and communities.
Nancy Saltzman, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, was named as one of the National Diversity Council’s Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology. Her recognition comes for being an accomplished leader who contributes to organizational growth and strategic direction while serving as a role model to other women in the industry.
Logicalis US is an international IT solution and MSP. It is part of the Logicalis Group, which has more than 6,500 employees and annualized revenues of $1.7 billion, from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa.
Ingram Micro, Telarus, 8×8 and Google Cloud were among big channel names handing out channel partner awards in 2021. A bunch of vendors, distributors and technology solutions brokerages took home hardware too.
Many of the awards were given for top sales and revenue, and honorees’ accomplishments in helping their customers thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic. Awards also went to those for their efforts in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion.
This year also marked the return of our live celebrations of our Channel Futures Circle of Excellence inductees and the winners of our MSP 501 Awards.
Grab a glass of champagne and scroll through our slideshow above to toast recipients of this year’s channel partner awards.
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