AT&T, Comcast, RingCentral Deliver Key Channel Updates

The channel’s top UCaaS providers and carriers are looking to grow their presence in the agent channel.

That much was clear last week at the Intelisys Channel Connect conference, where the master agent celebrated ongoing growth. Intelisys invited several influential vendors onto the keynote stage to offer updates about their channel programs. Below are five interesting remarks channel chiefs made.

AT&T

Stacey Marx, senior vice president and channel chief for AT&T Partner Solutions, shared sales advice. The most successful sales people, Marx said, are aiming their sales pitch at a new demographic.

AT&T’s Stacey Marx

“If you’re continuing to pitch to the IT staff, that’s somewhat of a winning proposition, but I would ask you to expand that to the line of business,” she said. “And when you do that you’re going to explore all of the various opportunities and solve the business’s real problems with solutions.”

Marx earlier this year updated us on AT&T’s channel strategy.

Comcast

Craig Schlagbaum, who runs the cableco‘s channel program, encouraged partners to take advantage of Comcast Business’s flexible ActiveCore software-defined networking (SDN) platform.

Comcast’s Craig Schlagbaum

“You can sell Comcast completely over the top, not even selling it with our network —  just over the top competing with Velo[Cloud] and Viptela, or you can sell it married with our network,” Schlagbaum said. “That’s a mammoth change for us. And it’s something that we’re pushing hard for with our partners.

RingCentral

Zane Long, the UCaaS vendor’s senior vice president of global channel sales, congratulated the Intelisys partner base for three consecutive years of growth. Intelisys and RingCentral formed a partnership in 2016. Intelisys partners doubled their revenue with RingCentral in 2018 and will do so again in 2019, Long said.

RingCentral’s Zane Long

He cited a data point that we’ve been seeing a lot lately; that the UCaaS market by many estimations is less than 10% penetrated. In other words, UCaaS is still in the early days. And Long said the ripe UCaaS opportunity goes well with SD-WAN — an equally hot technology.

“I know we don’t sell it, but you do, which makes it a perfect partnership. This is a time not just to double down but to triple down on these two products that your customers are making demands for.”

Spectrotel

The New Jersey-based telecommunication services provider is generating 100% of its sales from the agent channel, according to its president and chief operating officer Ross Artale. Spectrotel joined the Intelisys supplier stable in 2014 and has grown from $50 million to $100 million during those five years.

Spectrotel’s Ross Artale

“It’s the single best investment we’ve ever made as a business,” Artale said. “We’re humbled by it, we’re thankful for it, and it’s great to be part of this amazing community.”

Spectrotel aggregates voice, Internet and cloud services. It also partners with Telarus and Avant.

Spectrum Enterprise

Michelle Kadlacek, vice president, of Spectrum Enterprise’s channel program, said Spectrum is calling 2019 “the year of the partner.” Kadlacek, whom Channel Partners recently honored as a Top Gun 51 winner, said her company has been interviewing partners to identify improvement areas.

Spectrum’s Michelle Kadlacek

“We’ve got dedicated people that are in our back office [and] in the field supporting you, but at the end of the day, how do we digitally transform the way we do business with you to make it easier?” she said.

The panels included 8×8, Evolve IP, CenturyLink, Mitel, Nice InContact, Intrado and Masergy.