Broadvoice is expanding its reach and growth opportunities through a new strategic distribution agreement with MicroCorp.

The deal give MicroCorp’s national network of sales agents access to Broadvoice’s suite of communications solutions. That includes cloud PBX, UC, collaboration, virtual call center, SIP trunking and business texting.

Broadvoice’s Kim McLachlan

“MicroCorp is a leading master agency, and we’re thrilled to offer our suite of communications solutions through its sales agent partners,” said Kim McLachlan, Broadvoice‘s senior vice president of sales and marketing. “We look forward to growing our businesses together.”

With more than 30 years of experience, MicroCorp represents a large national partner network.

Broadvoice Go-to-Market Strategy

Broadvoice has built a go-to-market strategy with partners. It includes solutions, sales and support teams, and training and marketing assistance.

MicroCorp’s Christopher Shubert

“MicroCorp is all about delivering the ultimate partner experience,” said Christopher Shubert, MicroCorp’s senior vice president of sales. “And that takes quality providers with great partner-focused teams. Broadvoice checks those boxes 100%, and we look forward to bringing their UC portfolio to the MicroCorp masses.”

“Broadvoice’s exclusive focus on helping partners serve their customers aligns perfectly with MicroCorp’s ultimate partner experience,” said Michael Gottwalt, Broadvoice’s vice president of strategic relationships. “We have invested heavily in our platform and our customer experience, boosting our CSAT scores to industry-leading levels and improving revenue retention for our partners.”

Last month, MicroCorp and Lingo Communications formed a partnership. Lingo, the IP-based voice and data provider, now distributes its products and services through MicroCorp, in addition to several other master agents. MicroCorp’s agents can sell Lingo’s portfolio, which includes SD-WAN and wireless managed services, and leverage the vendor’s back-office team.

In December, B2B marketplace provider AppSmart acquired MicroCorp, adding it to a group of acquired master agents.

American Tower has unveiled its first data center channel program for master agents and agents to support its edge data center solution.

American Tower developed the program as demand for infrastructure at the edge is rapidly increasing due mostly to the pandemic. The data center channel program allows designated agents to play a key role in helping customers collocate in the company’s six edge data centers. They’re in Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boulder and Denver, Colorado; Jacksonville, Florida; and Pittsburgh.

David Fox is American Tower’s director of business development.

American Tower’s David Fox

“Our new data center business targets enterprises, which is a new audience for American Tower,” he said. “The enterprise market has a strong need for edge data centers. And to be able to reach the large amount of enterprises customers, we must take on a channel strategy.”

The company had relationships with agents to help build its program, Fox said. They also helped ensure it would be competitive and advantageous for agents.

First Master Agent Agreement

American Tower has signed its first master agent agreement with XaaS1. The two will work together to bring data center collocation at the edge for improved enterprise network elasticity and optimized low-latency 5G applications.

“We are looking to work with a full spectrum of master agents, from large, midsize, to small and individual agents who can help us provide exceptional customer service in the enterprise space,” Fox said.

American Tower also launched its new partner relationship management (PRM) tool. Agents can access technical training and marketing resources. They can also register and track prospective customers, and streamline payment and workflow, all in a single online platform.

Designated agents can reach out to customers on behalf of American Tower to provide site information. That includes cabinet space, cross-connects, connectivity options and IT support, including remote hands offerings.

“Our selling strategy for data centers is a pure channel approach,” Fox said. “There will be no inside sales competition from American Tower. We are fully committed to supporting our agents with what they need to be successful.”

TBI announced several new employees and vendors.

The master agent on Thursday announced three new channel managers. The hires will help support the company’s growing agent network.

TBI’s Aram Kelekian

First, Aram Kelekian has joined as a mobility-focused channel manager. He boasts a deep resume of experience in wireless, having worked with Verizon sales agents like Brightstar and Superior Communications. He’ll tap into his mobility distribution and fleet management expertise to help partners adapt to a “5G future.”

“Aram brings a wealth of knowledge from the mobility distribution and fleet management space to help us continue to grow TBI’s sales expertise in these areas,” said Bill Vander Vennet, TBI’s strategic partner programs sales director.

TBI’s Amy Gordon

Second, Amy Gordon joined the company as inside channel manager for the East. She most recently worked for Ronco Communications as a cloud sales and carrier services specialist.

TBI’s Nicholas Amelang

Third, Nicholas Amelang will serve partners in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas. This new channel manager has worked at numerous high-profile vendors, including Nitel and CallTower.

Moving Up

In addition, TBI announced a promotion.

TBI’s Matt Turczyniak

The Chicago-based firm promoted Matt Turczyniak to regional vice president of sales for OmniCenter and channel sales enablement. He had previously worked as senior director of inside sales. He won TBI’s Manager of the Year award in 2016.

Mike Onystok, TBI’s senior vice president of operations, praised Turczyniak’s talents.

“Now with 12 years together at the organization, he is still one of the best salespeople I have ever met, a great father, and a tremendous leader,” Onystok said. “He conquers everything thrown at him, and quickly too.”

New Vendors

TBI also publicized three vendors that recently joined its portfolio. The technology brokerage company teamed up with CloudSaver, an AWS consulting partner. Agents reportedly can deliver up to 50% reduction of customers’ overall AWS cloud spend.

TBI bulked up on its security offerings by signing Privafy. Privafy gives SMB customers a cloud-based platform that makes deployment, management and cost more palatable.

Lastly, TBI signed an agreement with Infobip, which provides an omnichannel CPaaS platform.

The 2021 Channel Partners Virtual conference drew vendors, agents, MSPs and other partners from across the industry.

In a perfect world, the Channel Partners Conference would have occurred in Las Vegas, and that goes for both 2020 and 2021. However, in the interest of safety, we took to a virtual format and embraced the new way of event hosting. But don’t fear — we are working hard to bring you an in-person gathering this fall.

In the meantime, we’ve assembled to you a recap of the five most popular stories on our site this week. Happy reading!

5. American Tower Launches First Data Center Channel Program with ‘Pure Channel’ Approach

The real estate investment trust is targeting the agent channel with its new program.

XaaS1 has joined the data center program as the first partner. American Tower is targeting all sizes of master agents, who will assist in collocation at the company’s six edge data centers. The company also released a partner relationship management (PRM) tool.

Edward Gately has the scoop.

4. Channel Partners Virtual Recaps

The Channel Partners Virtual conference went off without a hitch in 2021.

Our editors covered the show, which contained a long list of profound and influential speakers. That includes a roundtable of mobility experts who dished on the viability of the 5G market. The event also featured some cool entertainment, like the famous Chicago improv troupe The Second City.

Check out the Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 recaps that we posted on the event website.

3. For Zoom, ‘All Good Things Must Come to an End’

An analyst predicted Zoom to lose market share to SMB-focused solutions.

Don’t let that prediction overshadow the staggering numbers that Zoom revealed in its fourth quarter earnings report. For example, the video conferencing giant works with more than 467,000 customers of 10 or more employees. However, a Nucleus Research analyst said that free and freemium platforms could upend Zoom in the realm of smaller customers.

Read about why the landscape is changing.

2.Cisco, VMware, Fortinet, Versa, HPE Top Latest SD-WAN Market Share Report

A new leader emerged in Dell’Oro Group‘s leaderboard.

Cisco leapfrogged VMware in Dell’Oro’s quarterly report on the SD-WAN market. In addition, the research firm noted that market growth sped up in the fourth quarter of 2020 after COVID-19 significantly hampered deployments throughout the year.

Read Dell’Oro Group’s comments on the market.

1. Channel People on the Move: TPx, TBI, Avant, T-Mobile

The consultancy JS Group announced yet another big-name hire.

Meredith Caram joined an impressive list of influential women who moved to new roles recently. Another such person is Pat Watkins, who assumed leadership of the T-Mobile channel partner program.

Craig Galbraith recapped a whopping 25 companies that hired, promoted or lost personnel in February.

See the popular “People on the Move” gallery.

Microsoft and SAP are both working to give partner program members new certifications and specializations.

More and more partners are seeing vendors as a resource for growing their expertise. To that end, Microsoft added two new specializations, and SAP endeavored to increase partner certifications.

The IT side of the channel remains busy with news, and our team has been covering the space closely at Channel Futures. A security analytics company launched a partner program for the first time. A backup provider made life easier for its smaller partners and increased financial incentives.

We also covered news from the telco/voice side of the channel. One of the major carriers has been honing its program to reflect a more collaborative approach. In addition, Sangoma and Star2Star are taking a patient approach to consolidating their partner programs.

Scroll through the 12 images below to see the latest channel program changes.

Did you miss the previous gallery? Check out our January edition.

Sangoma

Integration between Sangoma and Star2Star's channels is only beginning.

Sangoma earlier this year announced its intention to buy Star2Star for $437 million in a move that impacts the cloud communications space big-time. David Hardy, Sangoma’s vice president of North American sales, said Sangoma hasn't finalized how it will consolidate the programs. Sangoma possesses a strong distribution network and OEM channel, and Star2Star holds many relationships with MSPs. In addition, both companies work with master agents.

"I think it’s too early to say at this point. And I think that we need to get together and see how we can take these programs and put them together. It is something that we will do over time for sure," Hardy said. 

Edward Gately has the scoop.

T-Mobile

The "un-carrier" increased its solution engineering resources amid its efforts to drive create more collaboration and communication within its partner program.

T-Mobile early last month announced Pat Watkins as the new vice president of channel and IoT sales. She spoke about some of the initiatives she's driving in the partner program. For example, the company established a partner advisory council to generate more partner feedback.

See Watkins' comments and what partners had to say.

AppSmart

AppSmart rolled out a financial investment initiative for channel partners.

The Invest program gives upfront capital and recurring revenue to qualifying members. Technology advisers can obtain funding while maintaining full ownership over their businesses.

Read about what makes AppSmart Invest unique.

AppDirect

Calling all system integrators.

AppDirect, the aforementioned AppSmart's parent company, revealed its SI Partner Program, which gives its members referral fees, training and documentation. AppDirect executives see system integrators as a key avenue to expand into new geographies and verticals.

“With our new partner program, AppDirect provides the connective tissue for SIs to support complex subscription commerce initiatives with an open, agnostic, and extensible platform," co-CEO Daniel Saks said.

Learn more about the initiative.

HP

The PC and printing giant is training its partners to be more sustainable.

HP added a sustainability element to its existing Amplify partner program. Partners in 25 countries can access new resources and training that will help them reduce their carbon footprint and thus attract millennial and Gen Z buyers.

Jeffrey Schwartz wrote about the initiative for Channel Futures.

Microsoft

Microsoft added two advanced specializations to its partner program.

Partners can enhance their credibility in SMB management and low code application development. The specializations let firms showcase their skills and attract customers that need a particular expertise for their needs.

Microsoft also revealed the smashing success of its co-sell program. Partners are earning more than $18.5 billion in annual recurring revenue with the program.

Get details from the ecosystem report  that Microsoft executives revealed to members of their partner program.

Acronis

The backup and disaster recovery provider changed its requirements for gold designation.

The elimination of revenue thresholds gives smaller partners a reason to celebrate. Moreover, Acronis has introduced a new scoring system that it will use to determine partner tiers.

Acronis also added financial incentives.

See why Acronis made the change.

Dell

Dell Technologies is giving channel partners more chances to work with VMware.

Executives said the new VMware opportunities demonstrate Dell's commitment to "collaboration and seamlessness." For example, Dell allowed partners to direct transact VMware licensing through the Dell program. 

Hear from multiple Dell channel executives about the changes.

Devo

The security analytics provider announced its first partner program.

Devo Technology launched Devo Drive for resellers, system integrators and MSSPs. An executive told Channel Futures that the program allows partners to individualize their relationship with the company. Devo teams with a diverse set of partners who approach the market differently from one another.

Read Christine Horton's article on Channel Futures.

AppNeta

Customers and partners helped the network monitoring provider build its Global Alliances program.

AppNeta unveiled the new program, which targets partners that want to incorporate the vendor's performance observability into their digital transformation projects. For example, a partner might use AppNeta's visibility, intelligence and analytics when migrating a customer to a new UCaaS platform.

Read the Channel Futures article.

SAP

SAP UK & Ireland aims to make its midmarket business 100% indirect in three years.

That's according to chief partner officer Laura Atkinson, who recently joined the company. Atkinson said SAP is embracing multiple actions steps to grow its channel. One such step is to increase certifications among its partners.

Read more of Atkinson's comments in Christin Horton's article.

Protegrity

System integrators, VARs and other technology companies can benefit from Protegrity's first channel partner program.

The Protegrity Partner Network includes a new certification program, formed in response to requests from partners for more training. The three tiers give a range of benefits, from sales and technical tools to joint business planning. 

Learn more about Protegrity.

NetSapiens partners now have access to the CPaaS provider’s first formal partner program with cross-promotional marketing.

The Partner Alliance Program offers product, brand and company elevation opportunities. These include sponsoring and speaking at NetSapiens and/or partner events, as well as joint marketing, video, media and other targeted outreach initiatives.

Jason Byrne is NetSapiens‘ senior vice president of solution strategy, business development and marketing.

“We had an informal partner program prior to this, with various levels of success,” he said. “However, NetSapiens’ partner alliance goes way beyond your typical partner program. The alliance is built around people and our relationships first and foremost. It’s built around true partnerships and all guided with mutually agreed upon, clear expectations and performance goals for both parties.”

Rapid Growth

NetSapiens’ Jason Byrne

NetSapiens‘ success is driven by its rapid growth to over 1.7 million users on its platform through its partners, Byrne said. It’s also the recipient of many industry awards over the past year.

“This has brought a lot of partnership opportunities, allowing us to collaborate and deliver significant value to both our partners and service provider community,” he said.

NetSapiens knows which activities deliver the most return for both the company and its partners, Byrne said.

“Coming together is just the beginning, but executing together can accomplish so much,” he said. “Whether service providers are seeking advice from an expert, or looking to expand and wrap more value around their offering with the goal of differentiating themselves, we have the partnership for you.”

Partners benefit from more referrals and opportunities to fill pipeline, and have more access to exclusive resources, Byrne said.

Alan Percy is CMO at TelcoBridges, an alliance program partner.

“NetSapiens and TelcoBridges have a very symbiotic relationship,” he said. “We provide connectivity to the outside world and, together with NetSapiens, are able to deliver meaningful network transformation. We have easily aligned our business models. Moreover, we come to the market with a similar attitude and approach.”

Crexendo Acquisition

This week, Crexendo announced it is acquiring NetSapiens for about $50 million, including $10 million in cash and the remainder in stock. Crexendo provides UCaaS, call center, collaboration services and other cloud business services.

Steven Mihaylo is Tempe, Arizona-based Crexendo‘s CEO.

“This is our first major step in accelerating our growth and expanding our footprint,” he said. “This accretive and synergistic acquisition is a win for both companies. Crexendo will be able to increase its offerings and size using the NetSapiens technology, and will further benefit from a wealth of additional engineering, sales and marketing talent. The NetSapiens team will benefit from the Crexendo resources and public company cache to continue their growth and enhance their offering portfolio.”

Telecom Consulting Group (TCG) developed a new structure for incentivizing and rewarding its partners.

The Florida-based agency unveiled its Circle of Excellence award program. TCG will recognize six levels of partners based on their annual monthly recurring revenue. The rewards kick in at an MRR of $50,000 and reach their highest level at $2.5 million The rewards range from paid travel expenses to TCG’s Channel Source conference to other benefits.

“As a TCG agent, we are proud to have you as a member of the TCG family and that you are in our tight knit circle,” the company said. “We look forward to having you excel in The Circle of Excellence as you grow and prosper as a TCG agent.”

TCG’s Michael Feldman

TCG also announced two hires.

Michael Feldman joined the company as vice president of channel sales for the Northeast. He most recently worked for consultancy Connect Technology. His past employers include Momentum Telecom, where he worked for eight years, and Cbeyond. He works out of Philadelphia.

TCG’s Andrew Csutor

Andrew Csutor now serves as national channel manager for TCG. He most recently worked as a channel manager for New Horizon Communications. He also has worked at Cogent Communications, AT&T and Time Warner Cable.

He’ll operate out of Los Angeles.

Please join us in welcoming Andrew Csutor as our newest National Channel Manager, based out of Los Angeles, CA. Welcome to the TCG Family, Andrew!#TCGMeansFamily pic.twitter.com/qxg8VQAMPQ

— TCG (@TCGPartners) March 2, 2021

New Suppliers

TCG also announced six vendors that have signed agreements with the master agent in the last three months. They include data center and network services provider 123.Net, internet service provider Consolidated Communications and broadband operator China Telecom. TCG also signed fiber providers Lux Speed, Everstream and Intelligent Fiber Networks.

The agency significantly expanded in 2020, signing numerous suppliers and even making an acquisition.

“We want to let the agent community know that we aren’t for sale, and are in major growth mode, and expanding into new markets across the country,” Dan Pirigyi, partner at TCG, said in October.

Aircall partners now have access to the company’s new app partner program to build, launch and grow their apps.

Aircall‘s cloud-based phone system helps companies globally manage millions of customer support and sales calls daily.

The company’s App Marketplace added 45 new partners in 2020 alone. Its new program will extend the company’s developer site – which launched in June 2020 – and app marketplace.

Go-to-Market Strategy

Raphael Assaraf is Aircall’s manager of app ecosystems.

Aircall’s Raphael Assaraf

“This is Aircall’s first formal partner program for technology partners,” he said. “And it will combine the success we’ve seen through our app marketplace and developer website. This is now a full-fledged and dedicated program.”

The partner program and resulting integrations will help to expand voice as a valuable channel for collaboration between team members, Assaraf said.

“We’ve had tremendous growth in apps being built on top of Aircall over the last year,” he said. “And we want to ensure a scalable go-to-market strategy for them, as well as the best outcome for our clients. One thing is clear through the growth we’ve seen in the past year. The power of human connection is so important — in interactions with customers, with co-workers and with brands, especially as many offices have shifted to remote work in the past year. Our voice platform has been invaluable to remote teams. But we also know that people want to use voice for more than just phone calls, but also to give teams the data they need to provide more customer-centric service.”

Driven by Feedback

Every development Aircall makes is driven by partner need and feedback, Assaraf said.

“One example is our work with Klaus,” he said. “They have been an Aircall customer for years. And by joining our partner program, they’ll not only be available to purchase and install via our app marketplace, but we get to really integrate into Klaus’ team, and work and grow alongside them. We have monthly brainstorming calls, partner stories and enablement sessions. And they all help us make a better partner program, and help Klaus deliver a better product to their customers.”

On the business side, Aircall partners have access to dedicated resources and the company’s customers, Assaraf said.

“On the product side, they will access resources to build the best integration possible tailored for their specific needs — all while remaining simplistic for their employees to implement,” he said.

Lílian Ertel is head of partnerships at Klaus.

“We wanted Klaus to be easily available for the new generation of Aircall customers and we’ve felt the impact of our partnership immensely, from being featured in the app marketplace, to having monthly brainstorming calls, partner stories and enablement sessions,” she said. “Aircall always made the process simple and fun.”

Zoom just expanded its Master Agent Referral Partner Program to include new benefits on Zoom Phone and Zoom United deals.

Qualifying deals provide more partner revenue and a simpler commission structure offers more predictability, the company said.

Zoom United is a unified meetings, phone and chat offering.

In addition, Zoom has continued expanding its presence with six new master agents in North America and Europe. Eleven master agents and more than 2,000 subagents now participate in the program.

Moreover, the company introduced new initiatives to gather feedback from partners. Those include a global partner advisory council and partner perspectives survey.

Zoom Master Agent Benefits

Laura Padilla is Zoom‘s head of global business development and channel.

Zoom’s Laura Padilla

“Given our first-year anniversary of the Master Agent Referral Partner Program, we are excited to make new enhancements to the program,” she said. “These updates were prompted by many reasons, one being our commitment to delivering an excellent partner experience — and another being partner feedback.”

With Zoom’s new commission structure, master agents can expand their business with existing Zoom Meetings customers. They can also offer Zoom Phone and Zoom United, and get bigger commissions for new opportunities.

The program enhancements put Zoom in a more competitive position in UCaaS, Padilla said.

“With Zoom’s current brand awareness in the marketplace, this provides a competitive advantage for our partners to come across net-new customers and revenue opportunities,” she said.

Following the program’s inception, the Zoom master agent program expanded into new locations this past fall.

“The partner community played a valuable role in delivering the Zoom platform to our global business customers,” Padilla said. “We saw increased demand for cloud collaboration platforms over the past year. And our partner program saw significant expansion and increased momentum across the globe.”

Two master agents, Avant and Intelisys, have achieved $1 million in monthly recurring revenue (MRR) within one year of participating in this program.

Contact center provider Ujet continues to expand its reach, with another master agent now on board.

The San Francisco-based contact center vendor on Thursday announced a partnership with MicroCorp, which marks its third master agent partner announcement in four months. Earlier this month, Ujet announced a team-up with Intelisys, and also recently partnered with Telarus.

MicroCorp and its agents can now sell Ujet’s contact center platform, which includes in-app support and an AI-powered virtual agent.

Ujet’s Karen Bowman

“MicroCorp represents a large national partner network and is genuinely committed to enabling and empowering the success of its partners,” said Karen Bowman, Ujet’s vice president of global channel.

Ujet dubs itself as a “CCaaS 3.0 provider,” meaning that it tailors the contact experience to smartphones.

MicroCorp’s Phil Keenan

“The combination of Ujet’s unique approach to modern, digital [customer experience] along with MicroCorp’s technology expertise and our decades-long history of strong relationships with world-class service providers will help us deliver critical capabilities to customer service organizations that need to adopt secure, reliable solutions,” MicroCorp president Phil Keenan said. “Ujet will truly allow us to usher into the new smartphone era of modern consumer access.”

Today, @ujetcx, the world’s first and only CCaaS 3.0 cloud contact center provider, announced a strategic partnership with @microcorp, an AppSmart® company, and leading national master agent. Read the full announcement here > https://t.co/H2bxSBt9ul #CX #CCaaS #contactcenter pic.twitter.com/n6ysG5JaAF

— ujet.cx (@ujetcx) March 25, 2021

MicroCorp

MicroCorp last year rebranded around the idea of providing a highly personable experience for the agent.

MicroCorp’s Christopher Shubert

“We’re not a clearing house for their commissions,” senior vice president of sales Christopher Shubert said. “… They can count on [us] to help them get their business closed and get through 2020, and thrive even beyond that.”

Later in the year AppSmart announced its purchase of MicroCorp. As a result, partners can access a deeper technology portfolio.

“It enables [partners] to offer more products and solutions to their existing customers and to attract new customers,” MicroCorp CEO Karin Fields said at the time. “We’ve always been more network-centric and we don’t have a lot of applications that our partners can work with.”