Nextiva Brings Back 8x8, RingCentral Alum to Steer Channel Marketing

Channel marketing veteran MeiLee Langley is returning to Nextiva, where she worked for nearly two-and-a-half years between 2019 and 2021.

During her first stint with Nextiva, the unified customer experience management platform company launched the initial iteration of its channel partner program.

This time, the Nextiva channel marketing head told Channel Futures she's even more invested in the company's vision and plans to revamp Nextiva channel marketing.

Eventually, Langley said, she hopes to expand her marketing efforts to address partners beyond its traditional technology advisors (agents).

"In my time away, I worked at [LiveVox], a contact-center-as-a-service company, and gained a lot of knowledge there as I tried to figure out my next move; then, Nextiva reached out to me," Langley said.

After LiveVox, Langley spent a year heading up marketing at cybersecurity vendor Xcitium. She's also an 8x8 and RingCentral alum.

Nextiva's MeiLee Langley

She said it was an easy sell to come back on board, as she already knew the leadership team and had followed their progression.

In February, former Dialpad chief revenue officer Jim Nystrom, who spent time at CCaaS provider Five9, took over as Nextiva's newest CRO, fresh off the heels of buying artificial intelligence (AI) centric contact center provider Thrio.

Related:CF20: 2023's 20 Top CCaaS Providers You Should Know

In April, ex-Vonage and Telarus executive Scott Forbush became Nextiva's channel head, boasting more than 27 years of industry experience.

Nextiva Channel Marketing Head Pursues Uncomplicated Strategy

Thrio's technology relies on a communications-platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) approach to building CCaaS architecture, which Langley says is a big reason she's rejoining Nextiva.

"Differentiated from the traditional players we see in the CCaaS channel today, it extends the ability to have that CPaaS foundation [that] enables Nextiva to innovate faster, create more customized solutions, and be more agile," Langley said.

It's also something the Nextiva channel marketing leader assumes will work to the channel partner's advantage when they go to market with the company's platform.

Langley says the scope of her work has expanded as Nextiva seeks to target other partner types to get its offer into the hands of more companies.

Nextiva, Langley, contends, is a radically different company than when she last worked for it.

Known primarily for her demand-generation-heavy approach, Langley says she will steer clear of "campaigns in a box."

"Many vendors create this prepackaged material, but that doesn't work in the channel because so many of our channel partners are sales-first organizations, with limited marketing resources," she shared.

Related:Xcitium Names LiveVox, 8x8, RingCentral Vet VP of Global Marketing

Langley noted that she wants to make channel marketing easier for partners so they can focus on what is most critical.

Forming a High-End Demand Generation Agency

Among the many initiatives Langley appears passionate about are her efforts to launch a demand generation agency where Nextiva channel partners will gain access to a menu of high-end demand generation services.

"Partners can take advantage of these to drive growth. That's everything from integrated campaigns to SEO to paid search, event management, content creation, etc.," Langley told Channel Futures. "I want this to be about the value the partner brings to the table, and the goal of doing so in an agency format is to make marketing manageable for the channel so they can pick the services they want and have a field marketing manager help them with things like measurement and optimization."

Beyond that, Langley conveyed that channel partner enablement remains critical, particularly with Nextiva's evolution from UCaaS to more of a customer experience model.

Also, with plans to dive deeper into the trenches of unified customer experience management (UCXM), Nextiva launched a novel flagship offer at June's Customer Contact Week that merges Nextiva's core forces.