RingCentral Hires Former Vonage VP as New Chief

**Editor’s Note: Click here to see which channel people were on the move in January.**

RingCentral, a provider of cloud-based business communication and collaboration tools, has appointed Zane Long as its new vice president of global channel sales.

Long previously served as vice president of Vonage’s Global Strategic Partner Group, from September 2014 until December 2015. Before that, he was national vice president of channel sales at Cbeyond, which was acquired by Birch in July 2014.

“A veteran in the industry, Zane brings significant expertise to our channel program and we are looking forward to the innovative ideas he’ll champion at RingCentral,” said Ryan Azus, RingCentral’s senior vice president of worldwide sales. “Our reseller program is a key component of our business, and as we look to empower partners in their cloud communications sales efforts, Zane’s legacy experience in achieving success will ultimately help both resellers and businesses flourish worldwide.”

This month, RingCentral announced its new Global Office UCaaS offering, aimed at multinational enterprises that want to connect with workers, customers and partners in multiple countries.{ad}

In a Q&A with Channel Partners, Long discussed joining RingCentral and his plans in his new position.

Channel Partners: Why did you want to join RingCentral as its new vice president of global channel sales?

Long: One of the most important reasons is the 100 percent commitment from the RingCentral executive leadership team in growing the Channel Sales Program. In addition, with the market potential of UCaaS in the multi-billions, I knew that I wanted and needed to be working with the market leader in UCaaS. With 300,000-plus customer accounts and growing, as well as an expansion upmarket and partnerships with leading carriers and distributors, RingCentral is leading the way.

CP: RingCentral is in the middle of a global services expansion. What will be your role in ensuring its success?

Long: With the launch of our Global Office product, my focus will include international expansion in our Channel Sales Program. Currently, we have partner presence in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom (we have a channel manager team in London). Our current global distribution partners and newly acquired distribution partners will allow us to rapidly expand into future global markets. In addition, I intend to use some of my international partner relationships and programs to help the company with …

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… our international expansion goals.

CP: Are there things that you want to change about RingCentral’s partner program and how it deals with partners?

Long: RingCentral’s Channel Sales Program had a terrific year and outperformed in 2015. In addition to providing continued personalized support to our current distribution partners, we will be looking to partner with additional strategic distribution partners and add an exclusive group of master agents in the year ahead. This will help us fulfill our ultimate goal of building out a world-class partner program, recognized by our peers and partners alike.  

To better serve our existing and soon-to-be new partners, we will be adding and redesigning existing channel manager roles to match the current and future demands of our strategic partners.

CP: What do you want partners to know about you and your past experience working with partners?

Long: For the past several years, I have been successfully building and leading national and global channel partner programs (Broadwing/Genband/Level 3/Cbeyond) that have provided an opportunity for partners to have long-lasting relationships with the carrier and generate tremendous commission earnings. I am most proud about the personal and professional relationships I have developed with many of the leaders of distributors and master agents, many of which are among the best of my friends.

CP: What do you want to have accomplished a year from now in your new position?

Long: One year from now, I’d like to have RingCentral products, services and Channel Program be the first choice partners look to for all of their customers’ UCaaS products and service needs.