Ex-Telarus Exec Scott Forbush Leaves Upstack for PPT Solutions After 5 Months

Scott Forbush has left Upstack after five months to head agent channel development at PPT Solutions as senior vice president of global sales.

In this newly created role, Forbush will be responsible for driving contact center as a service (CCaaS), business process outsourcing (BPO), and other contact center-related revenue with the agent community.

At Upstack, Forbush was responsible for strategic revenue growth and adoption of the company’s IT platform. Before joining Upstack, he was Telarus’ senior vice president of global sales.

‘Very Difficult’ Decision

PPT Solutions’ Scott Forbush

Forbush said it was a “very difficult” decision to leave Upstack.

“I believe in their strategy,” he said. “I believe in the private equity firm behind them, Berkshire Partners. But ultimately it wasn’t a good fit for me. With the opportunity with PPT and my work experience, the team that’s over there is a much better alignment for me both personally and professionally.”

Forbush said he’s developing PPT’s agent channel. The focus is specifically on all things customer experience (CX) and BPO.

“Specific to my time at Telarus, that’s one thing that we really focused on, agent development, getting them to break outside of their boundaries and sell more complex type services,” he said. “At Telarus, we had a very broad approach to every type of service out there. At PPT, we take all of that and focus on one offering, contact center and BPO services.”

Agent Channel Strategy Accelerating

Forbush is working with Roger Blohm, also a Telarus vet, to develop PPT’s agent strategy. Blohm is PPT’s senior vice president of partner solutions.

Forbush and Blohm are focused on helping agents better meet their customers’ changing needs due to remote working and the hybrid workforce.

“Roger and I are putting together some programs to educate agents on how to engage on these opportunities,” Forbush said. “Once they identify the opportunity, we will work with them on all of those things — consulting, vendor selection, implementation and managed services. They will work with our team and joint-sell it.”

Agent channel development is happening quickly, he said. PPT is hosting its first invitation-only agent education session later this month in Dallas. PPT will continue hosting education sessions in major cities across the United States.

Kris Kramer is PPT‘s managing director.

“As we continue to invest into the channel with a focus of enhancing the agent experience, Scott’s proven track record of accelerating growth will fuel the engine that PPT has built for their agent community,” he said. “His exceptional leadership and strong background in attracting and developing top-selling partners will further strengthen PPT Solutions’ channel growth strategy and standing as an industry leader.”

Despite Forbush’s exit, Upstack has been a real mover and shaker in the channel this year. Just this spring it closed what it called the largest private-equity investment in the history of the agent channel. The company has since hired a number of experience channel veterans to take it to the next level.

Upstack’s latest move is acquiring Cloudwirx, a global technology infrastructure solutions firm serving large enterprises. Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed.

The acquisition is part of Upstack’s strategy to accelerate the growth of its platform, which combines advisors with advanced technology, support resources and data.