PlanetOne Adds Cloud Practice, Chooses Birch Vet to Manage

**Editor’s Note: Click here to see which channel people were on the move in April or here for a list of April’s important channel-program changes you should know.**

PlanetOne Communications on Tuesday said it is expanding its focus on cloud services with the addition of a dedicated Cloud Practice.

The new practice focuses on enabling preferred vendors, agents and MSPs to identify cloud-ready sales opportunities, “perfect the pitch, close the deal and blow the customer away with exceptional execution and ongoing service,” according to the company. It comes six months after the launch of the master agent’s Cloud 411 program, which offers a centralized, online education and resource center for its channel partners.

“Our cloud business has grown from 5 percent to 35 percent of our business over the last year,” said Ted Schuman, PlanetOne’s founder and CEO. “We’ve closed record-setting deals with a number of our preferred partners, including Megapath, Mitel and Rackspace, and motivated and inspired our channel partners to replicate this success and expand their business, expertise, reach and profits with cloud services.”

As part of the business expansion, PlanetOne has hired Jim MacWilliam as Cloud Practice manager. His previous roles were account executive associate with FusionStorm, and account executive with Birch Communications.{ad}

“PlanetOne has a phenomenal company culture,” he said. “Ted and Lauren (Shapiro, PlanetOne’s president) have created an inspired environment where people love what they do and who they work with and for. My top priority is to help PlanetOne’s growing partner base make money with cloud services and expand their business to better serve their customers.”

To date, PlanetOne has managed and closed cloud deals with its partners ranging in contract value from $4 million to more than $60 million.