2016 Master Agent Directory
www.channelvisionmagazine.comMasters of
Many Pieces
2016 Master Agent State of the
Market and Services Directory
By
Martin
Vilaboy
Channel
Vision
|
May - June 2016
S
imilar to just about every
business model within tele-
com alternate channels,
master agents have been
heavily impacted as the market shifts
toward IP services, cloud and mobile.
Indeed, master agents have felt the SMAC
and rolled with the SoLoMo.
“The role of the master agent has be-
come much more complex as we transition
to an IP-based world,” said Denis Raue, presi-
dent of Telegration, responding to our informal
survey of master agencies.
“The entire business is radically different
than what transpired in the channel in the
past,” agreed Greg Praske, CEO of ARG. “It’s
far less likely that you’ll be responding to a
request for a PRI, an Internet circuit or
a WAN – where you simply survey the
market and present the most compel-
ling options.”
Rather, in today’s environment, said Praske,
masters and their sub-agents need to be pre-
pared to discuss and advise on matters ranging
from whether a company would be better off re-
imbursing their employees for their wireless de-
vices or purchase them through a corporate plan,
or which hosted providers integrate best with
Microsoft, Cisco or Salesforce, and which have
specific functionality. They may need to know
which data centers meet which compliance, and
where the best fits are in terms of power draw or
most-efficient cross connects. They’ll likely need
to pull up fiber maps to show on-net and near-
net and be aware of who is willing to do a build
for free and for how many feet from the splice
point. “And, on and on,” said Praske.
In short, businesses increasingly are look-
ing for more than just access and feature sets.
They seek communications technologies and
providers that will help them find ways to use
IT to move their businesses forward. For master
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