7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Verizon, Brightspeed, Okta, Nutanix, More
CCaaS market revenue will grow by a record 216% by 2027, according to which organization?
August 19, 2022
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Okta has hired Splunk vet Bill Hustad as its new global channel chief, replacing Steve Dodenhoff, who recently left the company. Hustad will lead Okta’s global partner team. He’ll be responsible for Okta’s indirect go-to-market (GTM) strategy, execution and bookings globally.
Hustad made waves, known for driving long-term growth with strong business development practices across geographic and market segments. Hustad is well-known in the industry for his “standout leadership and experience” in driving successful partner programs, company spokespersons said.
Learn more about Okta and how it helps organizations around the world to securely connect people and technologies.
Brightspeed executives said the company’s go-to-market strategy will cater to partners following the completion of the Lumen ILEC divestiture.
Lumen announced a year ago that it was selling the majority of its incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) business to private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Lumen retained its ILEC operations in most western states, as well as Florida. Late in 2021 Apollo announced the branding of its new ILEC assets. It said Brightspeed will target historically underdeveloped areas for fiber investment. That initiative corresponds with the massive investment the federal government is making in broadband with the Infrastructure Act.
In this climate, Brightspeed’s channel engagement strategy is taking shape. Andy Rodriguez, Brightspeed’s vice president of enterprise sales, made waves for the initiatives he’s spearheading at the company.
“Brightspeed is developing its own partner agreement. In the near term, we will offer this agreement to the larger technology services distributors (TSDs) that are affiliated with revenue and commissions transferred from Lumen,” Rodrigues said. “Eventually, we will expand our relationships and offer this agreement to new TSDs.”
Read more from James Anderson’s interview here.
Kaseya has made changes – rather significant ones – to its auto-renewal policy. Partners are cautiously optimistic. It’s a particularly interesting move in light of the recent turmoil regarding the acquisition of Datto.
In a letter, Kaseya president and chief customer officer C.J. Wimley made waves when he declared all auto-renew agreements will renew at the same number of months as the previous agreement.
Learn more about the policy in Allison Francis’ article.
CCaaS market revenue will grow by a record 216% by 2027, according to a new study by Juniper Research.
Elisha Sudlow-Poole is a research author who made waves for her study’s findings. Three CCaaS vendors came out on top in her research for breadth of offerings, service innovation and futures prospects.
Find out which vendors made the list.
Avaya has had its share of financial worries as of late. And partners are speaking out about them, including sharing their fears that the company will file for bankruptcy again.
Eric Asquino is president of Los Angeles-based ACS Cloud Partner. He made waves this week when he voiced concerns about Avaya’s products and whether they would be viable.
“If a customer were to make a change away from Avaya, they would need to purchase all new equipment. This could lead to some customers taking a wait-and-see approach to avoid the potential additional cost,” he said.
To read about Avaya’s response to partners, go here.
Cloud computing company Nutanix expects to lay off 4% of its workforce, or 270 employees, by the end of October. According to a SEC filing, the reduction in headcount “is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to drive towards profitable growth.”
One analyst said the layoffs are “long overdue” and that the Nutanix CEO’s predecessors had “significantly overspent.”
Despite these concerns, Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami made waves by focusing less on the negative.
“We don’t believe these challenges reflect any change in demand for our hybrid multicloud platform, and we remain focused on mitigating the impact of these issues and continuing to execute on the opportunity in front of us.”
Discover more about the company from information gathered from the recent earnings report.
Sarah Marsh, a 16-year Verizon alumna and a key figure in the carrier’s partner strategy, made waves due to her tenure at the company. However, Marsh is moving to a new opportunity and leaving Verizon. During her time at the company, Verizon expanded partners’ product portfolios and tackled channel conflict.
Marsh has been working in channel leadership for the last seven years at Verizon. Among her accomplishments is the launching of a two-tier agent channel for wireless in 2019. This program lets partners sell both wireless and wireline offerings, Marsh said.
Find out more here about the evolving Verizon partner strategy.
Sarah Marsh, a 16-year Verizon alumna and a key figure in the carrier’s partner strategy, made waves due to her tenure at the company. However, Marsh is moving to a new opportunity and leaving Verizon. During her time at the company, Verizon expanded partners’ product portfolios and tackled channel conflict.
Marsh has been working in channel leadership for the last seven years at Verizon. Among her accomplishments is the launching of a two-tier agent channel for wireless in 2019. This program lets partners sell both wireless and wireline offerings, Marsh said.
Find out more here about the evolving Verizon partner strategy.
Channel people at Verizon, Brightspeed, Okta, Nutanix and more are among the individuals making waves this week. Channel Futures’ Channel People Making Waves showcases those who have made an impact over the last seven days. (See our slideshow above.)
The news wasn’t great for one UCaaS company during the last two weeks, and we’ve covered its financial distress. However, in the midst of all this news is one bright spot for the organization. A Juniper Research study has ranked the company as a top provider of CCaaS offerings. It’s not exactly a silver lining but it should improve some spirits. The article about the study came in at No.4 on this list.
Speaking of good publicity, Kaseya received some positive reviews from partners surrounding its auto-renewal policy. If you haven’t seen Allison Francis’ article describing the agreement, check out her story, which ranked No. 5 this week.
Lastly, after 16 years of service, a Verizon vet is moving on to a new position. Read about her legacy in our No.1 story of the last 7 days.
And, if you didn’t catch our previous edition, you can find it here.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Claudia Adrien or connect with her on LinkedIn. |
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