Channel Program Roundup: Revolabs, Infoblox, Thinking Phone Networks

Welcome, weary traveler, to Channel Partner Program Roundup, where we’ve conveniently gathered some of the hottest channel partner stories of the week in one handy location. Have a seat and get ready to hear the latest news from channel partners such as Revolabs, Infoblox (BLOX) and Thinking Phone Networks.

Revolabs: Audio solutions provider Revolabs has appointed Jim Fairweather as executive vice president of Global Sales. In his new role, Fairweather will be responsible for the worldwide management and recruitment of the company’s sales organization as well as the growth and profitability of the entire Revolabs portfolio, according to the company.

"With the substantial changes Revolabs has recently undergone, from our recent acquisition to the launch of several new product lines across multiple verticals, we saw a need to strengthen our sales team," said JP Carney, CEO of Revolabs, in a statement. "Jim possesses a deep understanding of the industry, and we are confident that he will play a big part in ensuring the success of Revolabs' new product launches and round out the team with his proven leadership skills, dynamic channel strategy, and solid customer and industry relationships."

Fairweather is a 30-year veteran of the IT industry, and most recently served as vice president of Worldwide Channel Sales at Vidyo. He also held high-level positions in several other companies, including tenure as vice president of Worldwide Sales for Hewlett Packard’s (HP) Visual Collaboration Business Unit.

Infoblox: The network control company's Infoblox Automation Solutions Architect (IASA) program has trained and certified more than 900 pre-sales engineers worldwide in the two and a half years since the program launched, the company announced. The IASA program is designed to help channel partners grow their businesses by providing more intense and comprehensive training sessions than other solution providers, according to the press release.

Infoblox instituted the program in February 2012 and in July reached the 900 mark. The IASA program includes a customized two-day workshop that introduces pre-sales engineers and solution architects to Infoblox’s full product portfolio. Each workshop is designed to help partner sales engineers to understand Infoblox’s value proposition and build appropriate solution offerings, the company noted. Additionally, Infoblox recently added a new DNS Security Expert certification to its training program, giving partners a more intricate look at the company’s layered security approach for its Advanced DNS Security portfolio.

“Taking sales engineers and solution architects out of the field for two days is a significant commitment, and we’re deeply grateful for the enthusiastic support of our partners in growing the IASA program much faster than we expected,” said Tim Colby, vice president of Worldwide Channel Sales at Infoblox. “Many of our partners have told us, after completing IASA training, that the program helped them uncover new opportunities with their customers. With an increase in DNS attacks since 2012, we expect to see strong interest from our security-focused channels in our new DSE workshops to help them extend their security approach with their customers with a stronger emphasis on DNS.”

Thinking Phone Networks: Unified communications-as-a-service provider Thinking Phone Networks acquired Whaleback Managed Services this week, a company that provides managed, cloud-based services to midsized businesses in the healthcare, financial services, real estate, retail and non-profit sectors. The addition of the Whaleback team will allow Thinking Phone to expand its voice over IP services and attract new business customers.

“Whaleback has built an enviable reputation as a provider of high-quality communication services and brings a loyal customer base,” Thinking Phone Networks President and CEO Steve Kokinos said. “Our mission is to empower our business customers to capitalize on the disruptive shift in communication that is being driven by mobility in the enterprise. The team at Whaleback shares this vision and the combination of the two companies will further support our ability to innovate and grow as a leader in the space.”

The company promised current Whaleback users won't experience any kind of service interruption during the transition. All customers will, however, gain access to additional services from Thinking Phone, including business analytics and an expanded web portal. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Now that you’ve read through this week’s most important channel partner news, you should be ready to make the final stretch until Friday evening for the start of another much deserved weekend. Thanks for stopping by, and we hope to see you back here next week. Until then, stay safe.