Telarus Partner Summit: TSB, Partners Declare War on Global SIs

TELARUS PARTNER SUMMIT — Telarus executives are proclaiming the supremacy of the technology adviser model at the company’s annual partner summit.

Chief revenue officer Dan Foster said Telarus agents won customers deals over global systems integrators on multiple occasions in 2021.

Telarus’ Dan Foster

“We together beat out Accenture, Deloitte and KPMG in 2021, and we intend to kick some butt in 2022 and beyond with this technology stack that we’re chasing,” Foster said to the partner audience Wednesday in Salt Lake City.

Telarus CEO Adam Edwards likened the agent model to preventive health care. Compensating medical professionals for the overall health of their patients would lead to better outcomes than compensating them to fix something, Edwards said.

The agent model, which Telarus supports, compensates partners with monthly commissions on deals they sell through a massive portfolio of suppliers. Edwards said this recurring model incentivizes partners to pair their customers with vendors that will support them well in the long-term.

Telarus’ Adam Edwards

“If you’re a reseller, you can only resell a couple of manufacturers to your customer. A consultant bills for a few hours and issues a report,” he said during his Wednesday morning keynote. “But this channel has a fundamental difference. We depend on a great outcome for that customer. And if that customer has not received a great outcome, we need to do something about it. That will continue to propel this channel into the future, to dominate the delivery of technology and expertise through this channel.”

Telarus’ total new bookings grew 34% in 2021. Compare that to 28% in 2020 and 27% in 2019.

“You sold more technology over the last year than ever before,” Foster said.

TCG Acquisition

Telarus in June announced its acquisition of Florida-based TCG. The deal expanded Utah-based Telarus’ regional footprint. Moreover, Edwards said TCG brought a unique base of sales partners.

“They were actually bringing more new entrants into the channel than we’ve seen anybody else do. And that matters to all of us,” he said. “Whatever your position in the channel is, whether you are selling partner, a supplier or a TSB, more entrants into this way of selling this community is good for all of us.”

Although the channel has faced a great deal of M&A over the years, the consolidation historically occurred on the vendor side. However, private equity firms now are pouring money into a variety of TSBs and customer-facing agencies. For example, Bridgepointe Technologies, Avant, Upstack and Bluewave have taken investments and vowed to scale.

“Some people look at the consolidation among partners among TSBs as the end game. I would submit to you this is anything but the end game,” Edwards said. “We’re simply setting the pieces on the board for what’s truly going to happen in this channel. What Telarus has been building is scale, so that we can give you more resources — access to better technology, information, data that you need – and ultimately – what your customers need.”

Next-Gen Technology

Foster said partners are cross-selling and upselling more and more. As a result, deal size increased almost 25% in 2021.

“The diversity of deals that you’ve sold has never been greater. You sold customer experience projects. You sold cloud global optimization projects and networking throughout the world. You sold ERP. You sold marketing stacks,” Foster said.

Foster said that five years ago, network accounted for 90% of partner sales. However, advanced solutions now comprise 60%. That includes triple-digit cybersecurity growth.

But the technology stack will evolve further, Foster said. For example, extended reality, which will soon enable virtual changing rooms for retailers. He also noted robotic process automation, which is allowing businesses to automate data organization.

“Where there’s complexity, there’s margin. And we’re all about preserving your margin and driving the opportunity for you to sell more,” he said.

New Hall of Famers

Telarus added more partners to its Hall of Fame, which honors partners for long-term achievements with the TSB.

Elite Telecom Solutions was a top partner of both Telarus and CarrierSales before Telarus bought CarrierSales in 2017. The company has evolved beyond network over the years to excel in contact center sales.

Elite Telecom Solutions’ Todd Gorringe

“Early on, our more significant deals were SIP, and we partnered with different phone system VARs. So it was a natural progression for us to shift our focus over time to [customer experience],” Elite co-founder Todd Gorringe told Channel Futures. “Today almost every project we work on is CX, from the most basic to large global projects, bringing together multiple solutions together for our customers from voice/Omni/AI to outsourcing.”

Gorringe and co-founder Darlene Stephens accepted the recognition.

In addition, Eric Ryan Corp. (ERC) joined the Telarus Hall of Fame. Chief operating officer Rebecca Hink accepted the award on behalf of ERC.