Five9 Channel Partner Head Seeks Balanced Approach to Leadership

Approaching five years as the Five9 channel partner boss, Jake Butterbaugh tells Channel Futures he's eyeing longevity and channel partner maturation.

Butterbaugh, commenting on the movement of channel executives from company to company, noted that his time spent with Five9 speaks for itself.

"You see certain companies where channel leaders bounce around, but that's not how we do things at Five9, not that we don't see value in bringing in new talent," the Five9 channel leader told Channel Futures.

Five9's Jake Butterbaugh

When first hired, Butterbaugh said he was tasked with running Five9's channel partner program and the cloud contact center provider's go-to-market (GTM) strategy. The company, he noted, has since experienced tremendous growth.

"We started with a handful of employees, but now we have 10 times more," Butterbaugh shared, underscoring the growth Five9's witnessed during his term.

Butterbaugh said he fits into that growth equation as he seeks to build what he calls a "balanced route to market approach" via the various channel partner types it targets with its efforts, which includes the likes of Telus.

On that front, Butterbaugh recently took on full responsibility for Five9's technology alliance partners and now owns the relationship with ISVs (independent software vendors).

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Previously separate positions, Butterbaugh said Five9 combined those teams and positions "for more power," tackling tech alliance partnerships it has with Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Verint and ServiceNow.

Five9 Deepens Ties with Salesforce, ServiceNow, Google

As for its relationship with ISVs, Five9 said it's the only contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) provider to reach what Salesforce calls "summit status."

"That means we have hundreds of customers together and lean into the next wave that Salesforce is looking for, in terms of full integration with its Service Cloud Voice offer and various other solutions," Butterbaugh said.

The same can be said regarding ServiceNow, as the duo share an out-of-the-box integration experience.

"For that, you see some rather large deployments where customers want a fully integrated experience," the Five9 channel partner leader told us.

Google is another instance where the CCaaS company recognizes that its customers leverage other technologies, and they have to play well with others to keep customers happy.

As such, Butterbaugh said Five9 has updated its alliance with Google.

"Our solutions are built closely with Google, recognizing they are leaders with contact center AI and DialogFlow, so we have chosen to leverage them in myriad smart places," Butterbaugh added.

Related:What the Five9-TELUS Partnership Means for the Channel

Marketing, Recurring Revenue, Etc.

As for the potential for recurring revenue, Butterbaugh said there is plenty. And there are other resources in place, such as marketing materials Five9 produces and lends to partners to leverage.

With a professional services team and a dedicated sales force, Butterbaugh said Five9 channel partners have the resources they need to succeed. The CCaaS company also recently added a team dedicated to aiding the channel in every aspect required.

Five9 Channel Partner Ecosystem Is 'Quite Mature'

Having freshly come off an analyst summit in Mexico, Butterbaugh tells us that analysts gave their two cents about the status of the Five9 channel partner program, which they said was "quite mature."

"We have grown into our position and are confident with where our channel stands," Butterbaugh told Channel Futures, adding that there is a certain level of commitment partners are looking for, further remarking that Five9 channel partners are questioning, "Is this cloud provider fully committed to long-term partnerships and relationships?"

Butterbaugh said that Five9 can unequivocally say, yes, it is.