GTT Adds AT&T Alum Chris Jones in Major Channel PushGTT Adds AT&T Alum Chris Jones in Major Channel Push

Networking and security service provider GTT Communications continued its streak of channel-related hires with the appointment of AT&T alumnus Chris Jones.

Jones will work as national vice president, partner channel, Americas, reporting to Sara Seegers, whom GTT recently hired as senior vice president of Americas channel and partner program. Jones will oversee GTT's efforts with technology service distributors (TSDs). It's a role that he performed for the last several years at AT&T. He built AT&T's TSD channel, which existed inside of the AT&T Alliance Channel and ACC Business, from the ground up and played a key role rebuilding AT&T's reputation among TSDs and technology advisors (agents).

"We are doubling down on the channel, and there is no face I'd rather have representing us in front of the partner community," said Seegers, who is overseeing a broader swath of indirect activities, including MSPs, resellers and system integrators.

In addition to Jones and Seegers recently joining GTT, Michael Hiatt has come over from Lumen to serve as vice president of channel for the West. He, Chad Weiss (Central) and David Longo (East) will report into Jones.

“I’m excited to join GTT. The commitment they are making in indirect is significant,” Jones told Channel Futures. “I am looking forward to working with them to grow the business through the channel.”

Related:AT&T Channel Veteran Chris Jones to Leave the Company

Richard Murray, chief commercial officer of GTT partner Telarus, said Jones' appointment, "propels GTT into a different conversation within the channel."

"Chris knows how to drive change, build relationships, and garner visibility," Murray told Channel Futures. "GTT has committed to becoming more focused on the channel, and they've built an industry leading team to do it." 

Telarus' Richard Murray

GTT Channel Program Changes

GTT is currently working on new contracts with its TSD partners to reflect an "industry-leading" approach to channel partners. The company removed direct-locked customer accounts from its sales organizations as part of a larger shift toward channel integration. All enterprise sellers will be "completely compensated" to share deals with channel partners, said Janet Schijns, CEO of the JS Group. The consultancy helped recommend and design the changes.

Schijns added that GTT is updating its rules of engagement to include more protection for partners.

Many internet service providers (as well as vendors in general) disallow channel partners from selling into large enterprise and even upper mid-market accounts, Seegers said. But GTT is trying to buck that way of thinking, she said.

Related:GTT Adds Lumen Alum as Channel Leader

GTT's Sara Seegers

"We are not leading partners towards segments. We are building a model that leans toward where partners want to be, not where we want them to be," Seegers told Channel FUtures.

Seegers reports into Joan Logan, president of GTT's America's division, as do leaders for enterprise, wholesale and SMB routes to market. Schijns said Logan has taken a top-down view of the channel that integrates channel into all three aforementioned routes.

"The partner is the growth engine across all segments," Seegers said. "Instead of me creating a secondary sales/support engine. We are a purpose-built ecosystem where the customers are and where the partners are, versus silos of support."

Within the channel organization, Seegers said GTT is working to create more clarity on how to engage its resources and create a more consistent experience. That consistency will come in a single model and support team that will wrap around customers, regardless of if solutions are purchased directly or indirectly. Partners had been asking for that, Seegers said.

Ultimately, this "take cost out of the business" for GTT so that GTT can make more investments in its partners.

"I'm not creating a second cost model internally," Seegers said. "I'm taking cost out of the business at GTT so I can bring greater value to the partners in the model we've created."

The move comes at a time when local exchange carriers are heavily reducing headcount, and partners are reported a downtick in support.

"Reducing our operating cost model internally by optimizing resources around the partner lets us all win and bring the life cycle resources that they're seeking," Seegers. "Where [CEO] Ed Morche has chosen to create a growth engine, others are continuing to reduce op-ex."

Schijns said the ILECs have "overcut" in their channel organizations and "undercut" in direct. And spurning the channel will eventually negatively effect their sales, she said.

"They're cutting channel marketing resources. They're cutting channel enablement resources. They're not investing," Schijns said. "But GTT is actually incrementally investing."

Rise of the Challengers

GTT is using the term "networking as a service" to describe itself, making a small but important deviation from the phrase "network as a service." Seegers said challenger brands like GTT and network aggregators are performing true "networking as a service," which to her means "bringing simplification and orchestration to a partner and to their client."

"Some of the big five have to hire people [for the TSD's] back office because of the complexity to do business with them," she said. "I'm hoping they don't need to, because I'm going to carry a model of the simplicity that we can do to service them globally. That's going to be a difference, especially compared to those owned by PE that say, 'How do we cut out the cost to do business with some of the partners?'"

She added that GTT intends to implement automation, including a partner relationship management tool and portal.

Seegers added that GTT intends to continue to work with JS Group for channel consulting.

JS Group's Janet Schijns

"JSG was honored to support GTT in the development of an enhanced channel strategy and channel program that enhances the partner experience, creates a level playing field for channels with no blocked accounts even in large enterprise, and an operating model that will support partners with the enablement they need to grow profitably as a true challenger brand in the channel," Schijns said. "A large part of that growth equation for any vendor in the channel is talent and GTT gets that in spades. GTT now has an amazing bench of talent to support the channel – and you can hear the channel applauding that both Sara Seeger and Chris Jones are being dedicated to the channel along with industry alums like Dave Longo, Chad Weiss, and Michael Hiatt. I am excited to continue working with GTT and watching their amazing success in the market."