VSA Award Winners 2019

2019 Visionary spotlight awards | Channel Vision The company also offers the Agent Academy, a unique training program hosted by the company’s regional channel managers and sales/ support teams. Telesystem and the members of its partner program have spent more than 20 years designing unique solutions to empower businesses and deliver confidence to their customers. Most recently, the company announced major enhancements for its UCaaS offering. RingCentral saw a 71 percent YoY increase in channel revenue in 2018, while channel partners closed 61 of 78 deals worth over $1 million, total customer value. RingCentral’s partner program now features more than 20 master agents and more than 9,000 partners spread across the U.S., U.K., Canada, EMEA and APAC regions. Partner sales are supported by channel managers, sub- ject-matter experts, a dedicated partner support line, partner portal and operations support. The company’s no-cost, on- demand certifications, in-person trainings, events, concierge marketing support and a host of additional enablement tools help set partners up for long-term success. RingCentral also offers the Channel Harmony program, designed to eliminate channel conflict between its direct sales and partners. The Channel Harmony Program offers 100 percent compensation to both the partner and RingCen- tral’s sales team for every deal that closes, no matter the size, throughout the lifetime of the customer. Plus, RingCentral provides segment and vertical special- ized subject-matter experts, sales engineers and executive sponsorship to help close deals. The partner is responsible for bringing in qualified leads. This, the company says, cre- ates a win-win situation for everyone involved and effec- tively eliminates channel conflict. AireSpring is another company that’s actively working to minimize conflict for partners. “From the perspective of the average sales agent or master, as carriers grow, the value of the indirect channel tends to be perceived as diminished in the eyes of mega- suppliers. More channel conflict ensues,” the company explained. “That will not happen at AireSpring which is a 100 percent channel-focused organization. AireSpring has no developed direct sales channel, meaning the channel doesn’t take a back seat to retail opportunities.” The privately owned, family operated company positions itself as the Amazon of the telco industry, for one-stop shop- ping and real-time quotes. AireSpring offers NNIs to more than 20 carriers in the U.S., in addition to white glove cus- tomer service for agents and their clients. Partners can log into an ecosystem of connectivity op- tions and instantly see what’s available in hundreds of thou- sands of addresses and buildings across the nation. Vonage , meanwhile, offers a partner network with Plati- num, Gold, Silver and Emerging tiers – each with a unique set of benefits, rewards and tools to augment partners’ sales efforts. Performance-based incentives and revenue growth recognition thresholds provide flexibility to quickly advance across the tiers, earn more and expand revenue potential and market reach with agility. Designed to meet the evolving needs of both channel partners and the enterprises they serve, Vonage’s partner network allows the company to introduce new resources and incentives that enable sales opportunities for partners at scale. Resources include a leading-edge partner portal and ac- cess to Vonage’s entire product portfolio, including services offered through Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform, and new business leads, along with industry-leading rewards and recognition, and a customized, residual-selling model. Fuze was recognized for its growing channel partner network, which now runs across North America, EMEA, Aus- tralia and New Zealand. The program has more than 400 partners engaged directly or through master agents. “The overall number of deal registrations has doubled year-over-year, resulting in a significant increase to chan- nel contributions, as compared to the overall booking num- bers,” the company explained. “This increase is particularly true in the UCaaS market of more than 1,000 employees, where Fuze is an industry leader. Fuze partners also have played a critical role in introducing new opportunities for more than 20,000 seats.” To reflect the needs of its growing list of partners, Fuze introduced the ability for partners to resell Fuze solutions in addition to the referral model, giving partners the flex- ibility to choose their own levels of involvement across the Fuze sales process, whether it’s collaborating on customer acquisitions from start to finish, or simply offering an initial recommendation. nexVortex took home this year’s “Channel Deployment of the Year” award. nexVortex was recognized for its new Managed Hosted Voice with LTE (mHV with LTE) offering, an enhancement to its mHV solution. mHV utilizes a small edge device that gets deployed on the customer premises and paired with the nexVortex network to compensate for packet loss. It does this by intel- ligently duplicating, transmitting and recombining voice data Channel Deployment of the Year Overall Excellence Awards: