Windstream Unveils More Advanced Channel Partner Portal

Windstream Enterprise has launched a new partner portal, providing real-time insight and additional capabilities designed to improve the customer experience.

The WE Connect Partners portal includes base management and insights, network analytics, reporting, location visibility and customer support features. Partners also can use the portal to access renewal offers and marketing resources, and to get support across multiple channels.

Matt Milliron, Windstream’s channel chief and head of strategic channels, tells Channel Partners that the “landscape of technology” is more complex for his company’s partners. Read our latest Q&A with Milliron.

Windstream’s Matt Milliron

“Our partners are transforming their business mindsets as well, from a legacy partner thought process to creating more of a metamorphosis into that MSP play and a lot of successful cases, and as a result we’ve built a portal by partners and for partners which we’re very proud of, in order to be a single pane of glass and experience for them and the support for their clients,” he said. “It’s built off of our WE Connect customer portal platform, so there’s a lot of strength inside of it, as well as probably the most exciting thing that I see is driving insights and information to our partnership community.”

As an example, the portal will show what percentage of a partner’s revenue is based within modern solutions versus legacy technology services, and it also can reveal big-data analytics around the best time to engage with specific customers and verticals in order to potentially present an offer of a solution or renewal, MillIron said.

“We’ve been running with specific beta partners for several months, dating back halfway through into 2019, allowing them to take the car for a test drive and seeking their input, their views into things that they want to see within the portal, as well as experiences they need to have to support their customer base,” he said.

Windstream is conducting multiple trainings this month with partners to get them logged in and set up within the new portal.

“And immediately following them becoming registered users inside this portal, they will be able to have a view into all of the functionality and features that the portal affords for today,” Milliron said. “One of our ongoing strategic priorities at Windstream Enterprise is to continue investing in the kinds of transformative technology solutions our partners need to maintain a competitive edge, and to support those investments with a forward-thinking, on-point go-to-market strategy that emphasizes channel integration. Developments like the … portal are the latest reflection of that commitment to our channel partners.”

The partner portal is part of ongoing national channel integration efforts. The launch comes just weeks after Windstream was recognized as a 2020 organization to watch by Channel Partners and Channel Futures.