Zoomtopia: Zoom Formally Introduces New Channel Leader, Lots of AI

ZOOMTOPIA — Zoom's crown jewel event, Zoomtopia, kicks off Wednesday, with no shortage of news as the unified-communications-as-a-service (UCaaS)/contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) provider formally introduces a fresh executive to its partners.

Zoom hired Nick Tidd in August as its new head of channels and go-to-market strategy.

"I'm looking forward to meeting Zoom partners at this year's Zoomtopia event, many of which I know from previous roles," Tidd told Channel Futures.

Tidd said that he was familiar with Zoom before joining the team, as, in his prior role, HP/Poly was a Zoom alliance partner.

Tidd also shared his laundry list of goals during his tenure with Zoom. One is to "shorten the path to the pipeline. What that means is the ability for partners to have a better and more seamless quoting experience.," he said.

The other variable is time to revenue.

"So as we onboard partners, they can transact more smoothly as we continue to build out our revenue transactions with the channel," Tidd added.

Tidd says Zoom also wants to simplify Zoom's channel partner program.

"I have always been a proponent of, when you architect a program, you build from the outside in, meaning how end-customers want to consume a product, that then informs different reseller types, underpinned by various characteristics of a product portfolio," Tidd said.

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Already on the job since August, Tidd's introduction to Zoom partners comes as the company's annual event is in full swing.

As the former head of global partner organization, hybrid work solutions and peripherals at HP, VP of global channel sales at Poly and former VP of global partner organization, Tidd boasts some 16 years in the unified communications/contact center space.  

Zoom Explores New Routes to Market

Zoom wants to dip its toes into the pool where other routes to market exist, we learned from Tidd.

"When I look at our phone business, for example, we have a referral business, a reseller business, and then we are looking at other emerging routes to market, Tidd said.

With other routes to market that Zoom is exploring, customers can embed its application, Tidd said, for the phone itself or a mass licensing, sharing that you can think of that as a buy-in license-type activity where customers can do resell, referral or do both.

He insists that building the program with these nuances in mind can lead to one that is more well-rounded, noting that no one-size-fits-all model will work.

"It's not scalable," the Zoom channel exec said.

Not merely wanting to make its channel partner program simpler to navigate, Tidd said Zoom will also cur many of its manual processes for quoting.

Related:Sangoma Launches Pinnacle Partner Program Following Hire of Veteran Channel Exec

Zoom All-In On AI at Zoomtopia 2024

Also at Zoomtopia, Zoom unleashed a redesign of its AI Companion, now aptly named version 2.0.

On Wednesday, Zoom released a slew of updates, including a calendar meeting preview feature, a way to get answers to post-meeting questions, a way to jump-start projects and content, and the ability to summarize Zoom Team Chat messages.

Zoom also released more AI features that assist agents and others that aid with things like revenue acceleration, a tool that might help the channel. Zoom even launched various vertical versions of its software from Zoom Workplace for Frontline workers, for education, and a vertical solution targeting clinicians.