AT&T Partner Exchange Celebrates 5 Years, Eyes Fiber, IoT

AT&T Partner Exchange says its partners can take advantage of the company’s new fiber and Internet of Things (IoT) offerings.

AT&T’s Randall Porter

Randall Porter, vice president of Partner Exchange, highlighted in a blog Tuesday the opportunity associated with the two technologies .

“As we expand our fiber network, solution providers should be ready to jump at the opportunity,” Porter wrote.

AT&T announced earlier this month that its global fiber route exceeds 1.1 million miles and approximately 400,000 lit buildings. And the company aims to expand its fiber footprint.

“It all starts with fiber. Fiber accelerates everything that businesses need to digitally transform. Without fiber, innovative solutions like highly-secure networking, cloud computing and 5G wouldn’t be possible,” said Mo Katibeh, chief marketing officer for AT&T Business. “As we continue to expand our national fiber network, we want businesses to take full advantage of our fiber highway that is essentially right to their doorstep.”

Porter exhorted solution providers to use Partner Exchange’s new internet API to deliver AT&T’s Internet Access portfolio, which will bring business customers speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps).

“From a technology perspective, I’d recommend our solution providers keep an eye on fiber,” he said.

Porter also highlighted IoT opportunities. AT&T’s indirect programs have consistently touted the technology, urging partners to adopt it at Partner Exchange events and even keynoting on the subject at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo. Partner Exchange began offering an IoT platform in 2016.

“In 2017, we launched a slew of new IoT resources. Now, I’m excited to see how our partners find new ways to make the most of IoT,” Porter said.

Porter wrote the blog to celebrate the five-year anniversary of the indirect sales program and preview the year ahead. The program started with five solution providers in February 2013 and recently surpassed 600.

“Our program is growing because business is transforming,” Porter wrote. “There are many business owners who want access to the power of AT&T, but prefer to buy their services through a solution provider.”

Brooks McCorcle retired from her position as leader of AT&T Partner Solutions last fall, promoting Zee Hussain to channel chief. Porter – who served as one of McCorcle’s chief lieutenants when she launched Partner Exchange – assumed responsibility for the program in October.

“The way I look at it is that Partner Exchange has reached a level of maturity now where we can run it under one VP leader,” McCorcle recently told Channel Partners. “And Randall’s a perfect choice. He’s been with me there since day one, and I have a lot of confidence in him as a leader.”

Rick Duran, executive vice president of sales for Partner Exchange member Creative Technology Partners, said in the blog that his company’s customers are …

… attracted to the program’s reseller model.

“…we heard customers telling us they like doing business with trusted partners. At the end of the day, customers like to deal with people. It’s a people business. In AT&T Partner Exchange, we have more control of the end-to-end experience for the customer, from quote, all the way through invoicing,” Duran said.

Zee Hussain, channel chief with AT&T Partner Solutions, spoke at a recent Bridgepointe Technologies event. He highlighted the major changes to  AT&T’s three indirect programs – Partner Exchange, Alliance Channel and ACC Business – over the course of the last half year. Hussain said the corporation’s leading executives want to “double down on the channel.”