ChannelVision 2018 Partner Directory

45 2018 Directory | Channel Vision Easton Celebrates 25 Years of Growth By Tara Seals PROFILE Easton Telecom Services is celebrating a quarter-century in business, during which it has grown from an aggregator of long-distance services to a nationwide reseller/ service provider with a varied port- folio and a keen focus on supporting its channel partners. “I am very proud Easton has reached this milestone,” said Rob Mocas, president and founder. “It is quite an accomplishment in such a dynamic industry.” According to Mocas, a major factor to Easton’s success is its dedicated team of telecom profes- sionals. “Over 50 percent of the employees at Easton have been here for more than 10 years. Their hard work and dedication is a true testament to Easton’s success.” Easton is also still celebrat- ing success with its original sales model: Easton’s services have been marketed using a nationwide, inde- pendent distributor channel since its inception. Service and support is provided by Easton, from its Rich- field, Ohio headquarters. “The commission structure Easton has always maintained is very attractive,” explained Jim Butler, Easton’s director of sales and marketing. “The majority of Easton’s services are commis- sioned using a buy rate/retail rate scenario. This pricing arrangement allows our distributors to offer at- tractive pricing options to the end users while ensuring a residual income for themselves.” Based in the Cleveland area, Easton offers voice, data and wireless solutions to businesses nationwide. All of Easton’s products and services are carried over the networks of top providers for reliability, and multiple underlying networks are utilized so Easton is able to provide custom- ers with multiple product choices at competitive prices, all billed on one invoice. That, in turn, makes it a great fit for multi-location accounts. When it comes to Easton’s latest portfolio initiatives and their impact to the channel community, the com- pany has added several next-gen components to its stable. For one, it has embraced the migration of TDM to IP by offering its Easton Digital Voice service. SD-WAN is gaining momentum in the market as well, and Easton is working with several partners to offer the service. It also recently added new national mobility providers to its service slate. These represent the greatest market opportunities for channel partners going into 2018, according to the company. “With Easton’s portfolio of SD- WAN and 27 underlying voice/data carriers, we are positioned to offer multiple circuits into the customer’s premises,” said Mocas. “We also feel that LTE back-up is now more important than ever.” While challenges lie ahead in the market for all communications companies – including supplier mergers and acquisitions, how quickly the marketplace is evolving for both new products and pricing and regulatory uncertainty – Easton sees positive changes in its partner ecosystem. “Our partners are making a tre- mendous effort to remain up-to-date on the changing technology,” Mocas said. “In the future, we see the trend continuing of partners embracing the evergreen residual commission plans, which is something Easton has always offered. Also, the need for increased bandwidth is a key driver of sales growth. This need is driving a change in the sales process where Easton and its channel partners are taking an extremely proactive, consultative approach to every sale.” To help its partners stay on top of the changes in the market, this past year, Easton hired a dedicated national partner manager Scott Kamper. It also has developed new promotion and compensation plans to improve sales, such as offering flexibility to manage retail rates on multi-product and multi-location ac- counts, to manage competitiveness. Mocas attributes Easton’s 25-years-and-counting success to the strong, service-oriented values the company was founded on and the fact that this strong culture still exists today. And for the coming year, the company plans to stay focused on those values. “Easton’s mission has always remained the same; to provide the highest quality services at highly competitive prices and exemplary customer service,” Mocas said. “Easton’s exemplary customer service has always been a major differentiator. Every call placed to Easton is answered by a live receptionist and immediately transferred to a customer service rep; customers are transferred to the correct party immediately when calling. In fact, all Easton employ- ees are trained to take customer service calls – including me.” He added, “I have always main- tained that the personal service touch is such a vital part of what sets Easton apart.”