Intelisys Hires First-Ever Cloud Evangelist

Intelisys, the master agent that’s now a ScanSource company, has hired 27-year cloud, telecom and contact-center industry veteran Brandon Knight to fill the newly created position of cloud evangelist.

Knight will have multiple contacts with Intelisys sales partners in this new role, participating heavily in the development and delivery of Cloud Services University (iCSU content); Intelisys live education events such as Mindshares, Super9 and Channel Connect; and direct communication with sales partners as they navigate larger cloud deals. He will report to Andrew Pryfogle, Intelisys’ senior vice president of cloud transformation.

Knight tells Channel Partners there’s been a great demand from sales partners to have a “high-level, agnostic voice.” He previously was founder and president of Exceptional Contact Centers, a consulting company and Intelisys sales partner.

“I think Intelisys is approaching the industry head on and saying, ‘Hey, we have gone out and we’ve acquired this guy with over 25 years of experience in cloud and CCaaS, and UCaaS and cloud computing, and we’re saying this is an additional resource … to answer those questions, to be involved in complex deals and help break things down,'” he said. “So I’m looking forward to the Intelisys sales partners saying, ‘Yes, once again, Intelisys got it right, once again they’re doing the right thing for me, they’re doing right by me and they’re there for me.'”

Knight’s industry reputation has led to him being tapped many times in his career as keynote speaker, panelist, webinar host and trainer in the cloud and telecom industries, Intelisys said. Knight was selected, in part, for his “substantial leadership skills, a deep understanding of operational efficiencies and strategies, and his rare talent for presenting complex technical concepts in practical, actionable ways,” it said.{ad}

“We have a great team of solution engineers (at Intelisys) that assist our sales partners regionally,” he said. “With my experience, we wanted to afford those guys the opportunity to reach out to me when they’re involved with a sales partner with a deal that may be a contact center or a cloud deal that’s international or maybe something with multiple locations, or maybe something where they’re combining multiple suppliers, to get a deal done. That’s kind of an area where I have had some success and have had some fun.”

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Pryfogle said his company’s cloud business continues to “explode on us, and the excitement around and hunger for education from our partner community continues to take off.”

“Brandon adds another voice to the conversation in helping our partners learn how to …

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… have different conversations with their clients around cloud,” he said. “Over 80 percent of our cloud wins are coming from Cloud Services University attendees, so our objective and imperative around the university is to continue to refresh the content, to keep it current and relevant, and delivered in an excellent way for sales professionals who are wanting to go deeper into cloud. Brandon will play a big part in both developing that content and in delivering that content.”

The biggest issue facing sales partners is education, which is what Intelisys “has really hung their hat on,” Knight said.

“I think a lot of the sales partners come from various skills or industries and they tend to start a business in what they know and what they do well,” he said. “I think one of the great things about them joining Intelisys is that we help bridge the gap. So we take them from what they may know about fiber and circuits, and we can teach them more about contact center and UCaaS, and those types of things. That’s what I see us really helping and that’s what I think the challenge is for an Intelisys sales partner that’s trying to grow their business.”