Windstream, Verizon Alum Brings CCaaS Chops to Intelisys

Intelisys hired an expert in contact center, UCaaS and other hot technologies to help support channel partners.

Andrew Rustad will serve as as solutions engineer for the Southeast. He’ll work out of Florida, educating and supporting partners as they lead customers into next-generation technologies. The company said in an announcement that companies are rapidly migrating from legacy to cloud-based systems.

Intelisys’ Andy Rustad

“Companies are at the point where customer experience is the differentiator between them and their competition, and it opens up a lot of opportunities for our sales partners to talk to organizations on how they can improve that,” Rustad said. “Being sales-centric, as well as technically-centric, I am able to better assist our sales partners in creating and maintaining productive dialogue with their customers. I want sales partners to know that I am here for them; I’m ready to jump in on opportunities, strategize, establish goals, and help their businesses really grow.”

Rustad has worked in variety of sales and technical positions in the telecommunications industry. He most recently worked at Verizon Enterprise as a senior client executive, focusing on AI, contact center, voice security and UCaaS. He did a one-year stint with NICE inContact, but his longest tenures were with Windstream (10 years) and Area Communications (13 years). His positions included sales engineer and network sales administrator.

Raymond Nelson, Intelisys’ senior director of solutions engineering, called Rustad a “highly qualified” resource to engage partners on “complex cloud opportunities.”

“We feel Andrew is a great fit because of his deep background in the channel, and his proven talent at building and developing strong partner relationships,” Nelson said  “Andrew’s greatest strength is his ability to adapt, grow and change as technology evolves. He will be instrumental to our sales partners’ success as he helps to educate them on the latest technologies available through the Intelisys portfolio, as well as guides them to the best overall solutions for their customers.”

Intelisys hired a national contact center specialist earlier this week. Michael Del Signore brings experience from his time as a telephony and contact center consultant.

The company exactly one month ago announced a new SD-WAN supplier. Andrew Pryfogle, its outspoken senior vice president of cloud transformation,recently departed the company to join Pax8.