Ex-Vonage, Telarus Exec Promoted to Lead Nextiva Channel Partners

Scott Forbush, boasting more than 27 years of unified communications, sales and channel experience at some of the industry's top companies, is the new head of Nextiva channel partners.

The promotion to channel leader comes a little more than a year into Forbush's tenure at Nextiva. Most recently he was VP of channel for the company's TSD and BPO divisions, a role in which he spent just a few months. Before that, he was VP of channels for Nextiva in the West.

Nextiva's Scott Forbush

Formerly chief revenue officer at Upstack, Forbush likewise served as senior vice president of global sales at Telarus and had a yearlong stint at Vonage among his varied ventures in the unified communication space, all of which he told Channel Futures, helped land his new role.

Forbush replaces Olen Scott, who was Nextiva's channel leader for only a year. The news of Forbush's appointment comes two months after Nextiva designated former Dialpad and Five9 executive Jim Nystrom as its CRO.

New Leader of Nextiva Channel Partners Stresses Longevity

Forbush first and foremost stressed that this undertaking is one he is committed to for the long haul, adding that a conversation with the company's co-founder, Tracy Conrad, made him realize "this is a company that is hyper-aware of the channel."

Related:Former Dialpad CRO Will Head Nextiva Revenue Efforts with Channel Focus

Nextiva is rebranding itself in line with customer trends. It's a shift happening over time to the unified experience customer management (UXCM) platform it aspires to become.

This is an area where we can expect Nextiva to focus its efforts, as it rebrands itself from a traditional unified-communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) provider.

Working with Nextiva Partners

Forbush said everything the team does at Nextiva is in sync. He also shared that he plans to work closely with Nystrom to boost partner prospects, not only revenue, as "everything we do is in consort," Forbush explained.

That includes investments in partner training and finances.

Regarding the merger among user experience (UX), customer experience (CX) and UC, Forbush stressed "building around CX practices and trying to grow in that space." He said that comes with the responsibility of educating channel professionals.

"We have to educate channel salespeople and our direct sellers who work with partners, customer service teams and implementation teams as well," he said.

Forbush said it's a challenge he's ready to take on at scale with the team that continues to assemble at Nextiva.

Messaging, Forbush says, remains pivotal moving forward, especially as the company looks to train channel partners on where Nextiva fits in the grander scheme of the overall CX market and the opportunity it presents.

That opportunity, according to Forrester's Planning Guide for 2024 for CX Recommendations, found that 64% of CX leaders expect to have larger allocations for 2024.

"We want the partner community to participate in that, and naturally we want to be the answer for where it fits best for their customers," Forbush added.

For partners on the fence about the direction the UC industry is taking, Forbush tells us they should "embrace the change."