6 Hot Channel Stories: New Avaya Channel Leader, Windstream Bankruptcy Request, New SD-WAN Rankings

Windstream is requesting more time for its bankruptcy exit and Avaya hired a vice president of North America channel sales.

Our weekly wrap features a wide variety of stories. There’s an acquisition piece, a market leaderboard story and a partner program update. AppSmart continued its master agent M&A streak, and several SD-WAN experts offered us advice in a new gallery.

We gather the most popular stories of the week into a single story each Friday to give you a streamlined information download. Scroll through the six mini-stories below to catch the latest news in the indirect IT/telecom sales channel.

6. 8 Factors to Consider When Selling SD-WAN

We gathered a list of things that partners should consider when delivering software-defined wide area networking to a customer.

Experts from Silver Peak Systems, Aryaka Networks and PlanetOne Communications shared recommendations that will help you deploy the most complete solution possible. These factors include security, legacy replacement and automation.

Take a look at the gallery.

5. Avaya Chooses Mitel Vet to Lead Channel Sales in North America

Avaya hired the former leader of Mitel’s cloud division as vice president of North America channel sales.

Jon Brinton will oversee the vendor’s channel strategy and support its resellers, distributors and other partners. Brinton most recently worked for Gerson Lehrman Group as a senior advisory consultant; he worked at Mitel for 11 years.

“Avaya continues to attract remarkably high-caliber talent, with a mandate to transform the company as the partner-of-choice for communications solutions spanning SMB to the enterprise with an emphasis on cloud and new subscription models,” said Avaya’s senior vice president of North America sales.

Edward Gately has the scoop.

4. HP Expands Financing with Multivendor Model

HP gave partners and customers more financing and leasing options.

The expansion brings more support for partners that want to dive deeper into contractual and as-a-service selling. HP is partnering with Hewlett Packard Enterprise Financial Services and a finance company to make the changes.

Read Lynn Haber’s story.

3. AppSmart Buys CNSG, Adds to Haul of Master Agents

The B2B marketplace bought Converged Network Services Group (CNSG).

The move provides a few key advantages for AppSmart, such as bringing on unique supplier partnerships and expanding its regional footprint. AppSmart was already composed of California-based WTG and Michigan-based Telegration. CNSG is based in North Carolina. The acquisition propels CNSG’s ambitions for national expansion.

“AppSmart significantly enhances our ability to design the most complete technology solutions, while protecting our partners’ commissions and future revenue streams,” said CNSG’s executive vice president of sales and marketing

Learn more about the acquisition.

2. SD-WAN Roundup: VMware, Silver Peak Lead Latest Gartner Rankings as CloudGenix, Fortinet Rise

Gartner’s second annual WAN Edge Infrastructure report has the industry talking.

The research firm’s latest Magic Quadrant shows…… VMware leading the pack, with Silver Peak as the only other company in the “Leaders” category. Fortinet and Versa are both looking to break out of the respective “Challengers” and “Visionaries” quadrants.

Gartner revealed interesting insights about SD-WAN adoption and managed service preferences in its 40-page report. We covered the study in our SD-WAN Roundup column, in which we also interviewed CloudGenix CEO Kumar Ramachandran.

Check out the column.

1. Windstream Wants More Time to Prepare for Chapter 11 Exit

Windstream is asking to delay its return from bankruptcy until summer.

The company requested that a federal bankruptcy court allow it until Aug. 25, 2020 to complete its restructuring plan. Windstream stated in a filing that it must first take care of questions about its use of Uniti’s network. Windstream and Uniti will go to court in March.

“The outcome of that litigation will lead to a determination of the true nature of the Uniti arrangement, which is critical to the formulation of a chapter 11 plan,” Windstream said in a court filing.

Get details on Windstream’s latest move.