CV_Directory_2021_2

A leading communications pro- vider serving as a one-stop shop for voice, data, internet, wireless, video and secure network options, Granite Telecommunications is based out of Boston, Mass., and serves companies of all sizes and industries throughout the United States and Canada. We recently caught up with Granite vice president of channels Charlie Pa- gliazzo to learn more about its offerings and how the organization is changing. ChannelVision: How has Granite evolved in the digital transformation space? Charlie Pagliazzo: “Evolved” is the key word. There’s a reality in the indus- try that the name Granite was, and still is, associated with POTS consolidation. We’re clearly known for that expertise, being a POTS line aggregator that was fortunate enough to become the larg- est aggregator of TDM services in the country. This was largely due to the efforts of our agent partners. It has been Granite’s strategy for quite some time to be prepared for the transformation that digital technology is allowing, and to be able to deliver those services to end users through our agent partners — and this is where evolution comes into play. By building a proprietary private IP network and creating digital technologies on cloud platforms with connected infrastructure and products such as IP voice capa- bilities through our own switches and SD-WAN integration, Granite is now in a position to be a leader in multi-loca- tion solutions for the digital age. CV: What do you tell companies that may be less aggressive about digital transformation? CP: Granite is not forcing a digital “revolution” but instead is allowing customers to evolve at their own pace. This is a significant part of our value proposition regarding digital transformation. We will continue to support legacy services for as long as our clients wish to use them, while advising them on a path forward. Our services allow for the continued cost savings that our clients seek, while also preparing them for the efficiency that the digital platform represents. That Granite received the VSA spotlight award for digital transforma- tion, which was certainly appreciated, ties into the challenges many end users have had over the past year related to the pandemic. Granite was prepared to utilize digital solutions for remote workers, and this was received extremely well by our end users and our partners alike. Deploy- ment was rapid and continues today. CV: What’s ahead for Granite Chan- nels in 2021? CP: We hope that it’s a safer and healthier new year. That said, Granite Channels has never been more bull- ish on what the future holds for our partners and our clients. As Granite enthusiastically main- tains its commitment to growing the business based on client needs, Granite Channels is committed to the continuing double-digit growth of revenues with and commissions to our partners. We are continuing to add impact- ful assets within Granite Channels to meet the needs of our partners, and we have a long list of action items to tackle. We’re adding additional chan- nel managers and client development managers to drive client solutions, aligning project managers at the part- ner level, and adding in more dedi- cated client services managers that our partners will be able to interact with and know that their clients are being well taken care of both during and after a sale. Also, the commitment Granite Channels is making to mobility and network infrastructure solutions as a significant part of our offering provides our partners with more Granite solutions than ever before. The impact that mobility and network integration — Granite’s infrastructure solutions offering — are having on our partners’ close ratios and ensu- ing commissionable revenue has been significant, and we see much more to come. CV: How are partners and prospects leveraging Granite’s government capabilities? CP: To me there are two sig- nificant opportunities to be gained from Granite’s government solutions practice. The first and most obvious one is having access to government agencies at the local, state and fed- eral levels. Our partners who have relationships and who have been engaged with those agencies have significant solution offerings to deliver through Granite. The second is that the capabilities required when being selected as a provider on the Federal EIS contract have been built and implemented by Granite. This includes security, delivery capabilities, diversity and redundancy. Those can be utilized by enterprise clients as well. Through Granite’s government solutions we’ve significantly upped the ante when it comes to the return that partners receive when work- ing with Granite. o Granite Telecom Evolving for the Digital Era 63 PROFILE Granite’s Charlie Pagliazzo 2021 Directory | CHANNEL VISION

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