Week in Review Features Avaya Engage, Janet Schijns' New Job

How will the channel remember the week of January 20, 2019?

On this day in history, a court convicted Charles Manson and his lackeys on seven counts of murder, Israel held its first elections, a sick Al Capone died more peacefully than his career would indicate, and the Mars Opportunity rover landed at its destination.

We’re a bit more down to earth in the channel. The latest work week did not offer as many fireworks, but it remains an exciting time to be doing indirect IT/telecom sales.

We followed up on a major personnel story concerning Office Depot and covered a series of personnel appointments. Meantime, Edward Gately kicked off our conference season at Avaya Engage in Austin, Texas. Gately tore it up as usual, and you can check out his gallery of the event to live vicariously through him.

So we have gathered together our seven most popular articles of the previous week. Take look at them below if you like, dear readers.

7. RapidScale Hires Level 3 Veteran as Director of Client Experience

The managed cloud services provider hired John Rinehart for the job.

The former celito.net president oversees the entire customer life cycle in his new position. He’ll work out of Raleigh, North Carolina, where he worked in his previous job.

RapidScale joined the Cox New Business Venture unit last year but appears to have kept its structure.

Read about Rinehart’s skill set.

6. Twilio Promotes Cisco, Oracle Alum to Channel Chief

Twilio is looking to the future after going through its share of sad news.

The cloud communications company hired a channel chief to replace the one who died last fall. The new appointee had already been working with the company but now takes on responsibility for the Twilio Build partner program.

For Twilio’s chief operating officer, it was an “unexpected search” to replace Ron Huddleston.

Lynn Haber covered the story.

5. Telesystem Adds Windstream, Broadview Alum as Southeast Channel Manager

Angela Clodfelter will manage the company’s southeastern agents.

The new regional channel manager will work out of Atlanta and support partners in some of the South’s largest cities, including Charlotte, Birmingham and Nashville. The provider of voice, data and security solutions has been focusing on national expansion and emphasizing the Southeast.

Check out Buffy Naylor’s writing on the topic.

4. FireEye Gives Carahsoft, Dimension Data Top Honors

Every company will tell you that it is doing well, but it means more to hear that from one of its peers.

Take for instance FireEye, which honored six partners earlier this week. The security vendor recognized Dimension Data Australia as its top Asia-Pacific top partner, giving Dimension Data its second award in two years.

FireEye also named its top distributor partner, which has competed with Westcon-Comstor over the years for the honor.

Learn more in my article about the recent awards.

3. Calabrio Hires ConvergeOne Alum as First-Ever CRO

The customer-engagement and analytics software provider hired a 30-year technology veteran as its first chief revenue officer.

John Norton will support “continued hypergrowth” and oversee global sales. That includes Calabrio’s global channel partner network. Calabrio’s CEO said in an announcement that Norton has worked in Calabrio’s ecosystem for a number of years.

Buffy Naylor, who is all over this week’s top seven scoops, compiled the story.

2. Janet Schijns Brings Office Depot, Verizon Experiences to Consultancy

A couple of important figures in the IT/telecom channel sung the praises of a recently departed Office Depot executive.

Telarus co-founder Patrick Oborn told us that Janet Schijns played a pivotal …… role getting his master agent to align with the retailer-turned-IT-services-provider.

Schijns left Office Depot this month to rejoin the channel consultancy she founded in 1997.

Read about what the future holds for Schijns and Office Depot.

1. Avaya Doubles Down on Cloud, Advancing Technologies

The UCaaS provider announced a host of changes and goals at its annual conference.

Avaya told its Engage 2019 conference attendees that it’s doubling down on cloud research and development. That’s all part of an 18-month turnaround that includes serious changes to Avaya’s partner program.

Read Edward Gately’s article for all the juicy deets.