5 Trending Stories: Top Intelisys Partner, T-Mobile Channel Program, Influencer of the Year

A channel partner earned a major award this week.

Awards were a big theme in the second week of March, as Intelisys named its biggest sales partner yet. Moreover, the Channel Partners and Channel Futures teams named our “Influencers” for 2021.

Our editorial team also covered mergers and acquisitions, an updated Windstream Enterprise solution and a major carrier’s channel program.

Check out the five stories below to see what you missed this week.

5. Trending M&A: SolarWinds, Sangoma-Star2Star, BCM One

Sangoma and Star2Star are coming together in a major cloud communications consolidation.

Sangoma’s stunning acquisition news came at the end of an action-packed January. We covered channel-impacting M&A in the telecom and IT industries, which included IBM, BullsEye Telecom and SolarWinds.

Check out the gallery.

4. Windstream Enterprise Adds Mitel Contact Center to XCaaS

Google Cloud, Mitel and Windstream Enterprise teamed up around contact center.

Windstream enhanced its “XCaaS” service by adding Mitel’s contact center offering, which includes AI from Google Cloud. As a result, WIndstream customers can better personalize their contact center and improve customer service.

Edward Gately has the scoop.

3. Forget Platinum, Intelisys Names First ‘Palladium’ Partner

RDS Solutions earned an award that Intelisys sales partners have been chasing for five years.

RDS won the Drive for 5 competition, in which partners strove to earn $5 million in monthly net customer billings. As a result, Intelisys gave the channel partner a $1 million award. RDS has partnered with Intelisys since launching in 2005.

Learn about the honoree.

2. Partners Laud New T-Mobile Channel Leader, Collaborative Sales Strategy

T-Mobile announced its new channel sales leader earlier this month, and partners are expressing their excitement for her tenure.

T-Mobile’s Pat Watkins

Pat Watkins recently took the helm of the T-Mobile partner program and promised increased communication and collaboration. For example, she’s working to eliminate barriers between direct and indirect sales teams.

We talked to PlanetOne and Converge IoT about their experiences with T-Mobile. Both companies anticipate more deals with the “uncarrier.”

Read partners’ comments about T-Mobile.

1. 2021 Channel Influencer Awards

A popular analyst took home our Influencer of the Year recognition this week.

We honored dozens of people and companies in our annual awards issue. We also acknowledged 10 important business trends and five key technologies for 2021.

See who won the 2021 Channel Influencer Awards.