Fully indicative of a broad and thriving tech landscape, our editors faced record-high nominations for the 2024 edition of ChannelVision Magazine’s Visionary Spotlight Awards (VSAs). Nominees included several major players that advanced their channel and technological investment for the long haul. While at the same time, new contenders definitively emerged to try to close the gap. The decisions were tough, and the honorees deserving. “This is our largest Visionary Spotlight Awards to date,” said Berge Kaprelian, founder of Beka Business Media and publisher of ChannelVision. “We were thoroughly impressed with the candidates’ worthiness, commitment to innovation and strides throughout the channel.” Their contributions – spanning Overall Excellence, Business Technology and Service Provider Technology – all warranted recognition. This year’s winners include: 2024 Visionary Spotlight Awards
2 2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION OVERALL EXCELLENCE AWARDS Best Customer Service 2024 AireSpring In 2023, AireSpring expanded its customer service team and introduced solutions for its ticketing and monitoring systems, including APIs to add customer-tracking systems to the AIreCONTROL AI-powered, cloud-based ITSM platform. All told, more than 92 percent of support issues are proactively opened, with cases automatically created via the AIreALERT automated NOC. Offering one-on-one support throughout the customer lifecycle and extending escalation even to the CEO level, AireSpring’s recent investments in automated wireless and customer-provided circuits-monitoring, as well as its overhauled AireCare customer portal, have improved usability and reporting. At the same time, AireSpring’s repair center customer satisfaction has remained steady (98 percent average). BCN Rejecting the AI-driven chatbot trend, BCN relies on real people to ensure that customer interactions have a personal touch. One differentiator is BCN’s dedication to serving clients of all sizes with equal diligence. Through its Major Account dedicated service approach, BCN aligns advocates with their biggest accounts for personalized, proactive, concierge-level support. This tailored service strategy demonstrates BCN's understanding of diverse client need and commitment to delivering excellence. One testament to BCN's superior customer service is it net promoter score (65), ranking above the industry average. Bluebird Network Rated in the top 1 percent of worldwide internet networks by CAIDA, Bluebird’s knowledgeable, responsive staff focuses on delivering top-notch service, even in unprecedented circumstances. This includes, among other areas, network setup, technical troubleshooting and connectivity guidance. Bluebird’s infrastructure includes over 11,000 miles of fiber and two data centers, each equipped with a “Smart Hands” premium feature to enhance colocation within the ecosystem. Smart Hands extends an effective solution for deployment services, supporting real-time equipment troubleshooting without displacing customer resources. Console Connect Console Connect’s platform is self-provisioning, but the customer and partner are never abandoned. It lends agile network services, applications and sales/marketing tools to partners, whereas customers benefit from dedicated resources to troubleshoot, drive revenue growth and promote success. Its private, high-performance connections mean that global networks, clouds, SaaS providers, IoT providers and application providers are clicks away. With an underpinning private network and tier 1 global network, accessibility from 1,000+ data centers in 50 countries and integration with major hyperscale cloud providers, Console Connect has everyone covered for network performance, speed and security. New Horizon Communications (NHC) The NHC customer service team research services, pulls CSR answers, verifies and updates information and customizes invoices according to AP department specifications. This includes adding cost center codes and splitting up accounts by region. NHC also creates tickets for MAC activity, reviewing and applying credit requests and functions as a general “hotline” for resolving customer issues. NHC’s customer service also assists with training for its MAP online billing portal, which aids customers in downloading invoices, checking usage, opening and tracking tickets and reviewing and downloading inventory from a single pane of glass. A recent example is a re-contract request from a nationwide hosted newVoice customer in which NHC pulled inventory for 39 locations, updated 481 user seat packages, worked on a CPE buyout of 422 devices and signed, updated and sent re-contract paperwork in less than seven days. QuestBlue Systems QuestBlue’s customer service team works hard, making use of its deep client relationships to fix issues that arise. Customers will never have to speak to a robot; it has dedicated personnel for resolving issues, even after close of business, and following up with a pleasant demeanor. In line with its commitment to excellence and improvement, QuestBlue’s team offers training and resources to handle complex technical issues. With its knowledge of telecom, respectful attitude and compassionate approach, it promotes smooth transitions, minimized disruption and confidence that everything is in good hands. This sets QuestBlue apart in much of the industry. THE Communications STACK Provider™
2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION 3 RingLogix RingLogix offers a comprehensive onboarding process through which partners can access instructor-led training, the always-available RingLogix University learning management system and other tools and resources. The company also extends resources across several functional areas, assisting with technical, business and operational issues, as they arise, via chat, phone call, email and the RingLogix ticketing system. Teams are managed to stringent SLAs with each ticket surveyed across all support areas. Lastly, 2023 surveys demonstrated that partners are largely satisfied with RingLogix’s service; the average survey rating was 4.54 out of five stars. Snom Americas Snom offers a three-year replacement warranty on desk phones, DECT mobility and conference phones, guaranteeing that a communications infrastructure is protected for years to come. Snom also extends localized support infrastructure for better understanding the unique challenges faced by its North American clients. It strategically positions technical support, engineering and R&D teams within the region to offer localization that empowers swift, tailored assistance that eliminates language barriers and time zone discrepancies. Snom’s partner portal helpdesk, meanwhile, supports seamless ticket creation and online assistance, while multi-tier technical support delivers customers the appropriate level of assistance they need, when it is needed. Voxology “CX is our Product” is a guiding principle at Voxology that influences every aspect of its business. A harmony between Voxology’s people, technology and customers begins with the initial call, when Voxology builds a “customer profile” to detail business needs and specific use cases. This equips the Voxology team with context to address questions or concerns without having to get up-to-speed with each interaction. A CX mentality is applied to product design, shifting the inherent complexity to its platform to allow the companies to focus on their differentiators. Best Emerging Technology Breakthroughs 2024 Aryaka In March 2024, Aryaka transformed global secure networking with the launch of its Unified SASE as a Service. It converges the OnePass architecture, for distributed policy enforcement through distributed data, unified control and single management panes; Zero Trust WAN, which spans Aryaka’s global private network backbone in more than 100 countries; comprehensive options for networking, security and observability; and flexible delivery for choosing preferred delivery (Aryaka or third-party) and implementation (managed, co-managed or self-managed) approach. In fact, Aryaka is the first SASE company to combine a unified, single-pass architecture, global private network backbone and security, observability and application performance capabilities into a single platform, delivered as a service. CallTower CallTower's cutting-edge Operator Connect UCaaS solution is designed to enhance Microsoft Teams with robust telephony capabilities, an integration that is pivotal for businesses aiming to centralize communications platforms. This makes Teams not just a tool for collaboration, but a comprehensive system for external communication. Operator Connect streamlines the integration of advanced telephony services within Teams, allowing users to make and receive calls directly through Teams on any device. This managed service circumvents the complexities typically associated with direct-routing solutions, offering a streamlined approach that integrates seamlessly with the Teams admin center. CELLocity CELLocity’s Private Wireless solution is based on open architectures and flexible platform choices, extending the flexibility and control for enterprise network owners and their integration partners. It promotes interoperation between best-of-breed and right-sized equipment and overcomes the dilemma of being locked-in to proprietary hardware and software. The solution also inherently scales for additional bandwidth, users or devices. Most importantly, CELLocity evolves to facilitate ownership and operation models without requiring changes to infrastructure. This empowers support for virtually any business model or deployment strategy. Clarus Communications “Charlie,” an innovative AI application launched in late 2023, extends a pioneering tool for enhancing agent efficiency, offering the ability to deliver rapid and accurate supplier information, commission rates, channel managers and other critical details. Charlie is built on a closed AI model that utilizes natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to allow it to interpret complex human language queries, enabling a natural, conversational interaction style that makes information retrieval more intuitive and user-friendly. The service also supports real-time data processing to ensure agents have access to the most current data and boasts the ability to customize and learn with time, adapting to user interactions to personalize responses. It also offers integration with multiple data sources.
4 2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION Entro Security The expansion of cloud-native infrastructure presents a challenge known as "secret sprawl," which occurs as an organization's cloud-native stack grows, leading to difficulties in managing and securing sensitive data, passwords and keys. In response, Entro offers a groundbreaking solution that diligently tracks, classifies and safeguards non-human identities. Through meticulous inventorying, organizations gain a clear understanding of the quantity and location of their “secrets,” shedding light on a previously opaque aspect of their infrastructure. Continuous monitoring of these identities for any abnormal activities becomes possible, allowing for swift action against potential threats and the prevention of information leaks. Granite Telecommunications Granite’s Greenix offers an AI-driven, low-code orchestration platform that allows solutions engineers and project managers to build business process workflows without coding. In the field, technicians can access Greenix workflows from a mobile device or computer, walking through the steps live, on-site. Greenix is being used by Granite’s deployment teams to streamline and accelerate installations. The company also uses Greenix to build processes for deploying and using its new edgeboot managed power distribution unit (PDU). While it’s historically common for up to 50 percent of installations to fail on the first try, Granite pushed the initial success rate to 93 percent while also cutting nearly 90 minutes off of each install. QuestBlue Systems In February, QuestBlue deployed its free softphone application for mobile devices, through the Apple and Google Play stores. This release represented a milestone in QuestBlue’s commitment to cutting-edge communications for businesses. The application – called SIPBlue 2.0 – factored in customer feedback to include a sleek design with customizable and scalable features. SIPBlue provides a full-scale phone system, with features for calling, texting and video chatting, from the palm of one’s hand. It also supports additional lines on existing phones without new hardware. The best part? SIPBlue 2.0 is freely available. Telarus Telarus’ SolutionVue AI QSA (quick solution assessment) extends self-guided sales evaluation technology that can intelligently match customer short- and long-term priorities. It makes use of a proprietary knowledge base of certified suppliers in Telarus core markets, recommending AI supplier alternatives, resources and process best practices. SolutionVue AI QSA lends AI-enhanced technology across two domains: CX technology (enhancing customer interactions by layering AI) and GenAI / cloud (exploring build-your-own LLM options, considering GPT engines). With Telarus, you gain expertise in AI self-service recommendations, survey intelligence that guides questions based on responses and immediate AI QSA survey results. Transaction Network Services To help channel partners address the persistent threat of spoofed calls, TNS launched its breakthrough enterprise product suite. This suite includes enterprise authentication, spoof protection and enterprise branded calling. TNS Enterprise Authentication and Spoof Protection improves the customer experience by allowing only authenticated calls to reach the end user, while Enterprise Branded Calling displays rich caller information such as brand logo and name on incoming call screens. In December 2023, TNS delivered more than 70 million branded calls for enterprise customers, marking a nearly six-fold increase, year-over-year. Unified Office Unified Office recently expanded its TCNIQ sentiment analysis offering. This AI-based offering analyzes phone conversations to advise managers in real time, helping them to intervene to rectify a situation before the call is completed. It extends AI-based, virtual whisper coaching to employees on how to provide improved customer service, reward loyalty or cross- or up-sell products and services. TCNIQ also scores phone calls for employee performance and customer sentiment. Unlike other large AI language models, Unified Office develops vertically focused small language models relevant to customers’ business, helping ensure accuracy and actionable output that is relevant to specific needs. Versa Networks Many of today’s enterprise LAN switching solutions that do not possess software-defined characteristics. Versa Networks’ secure SD-LAN introduces a solution that is built on true SDN technology. It’s based on intelligent network edges, while each edge node optimally connects with overlays to each other, forming a software-defined fabric on the LAN. Use of layer-3 transport-based overlays streamlines LAN network design, deployment and operations tasks while keeping the middle of LAN simplified, with edges running the intelligence. This gives the operator complete topological freedom, plus opportunity to use multiple active forwarding paths without using or relying on xSTP and fast convergence options. With this approach, enterprises can fully leverage their investment across LAN switches and interfaces.
2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION 5 ZeroOutages ZeroOutages is a leader in low earth orbit (LEO), satellite business-class internet solutions, with more STARLINK deployments than any other vendor in the channel. The company’s business services are unique in that they include 24x7 phone support, service-level agreements, static IP addressing, subnets and a dedicated L3 network overlay for business-critical applications. Basically, customers can access up to 2Gbps of fast, low latency under 50ms connectivity anywhere in North America. Best Service Delivery Teams 2024 AireSpring Since first beginning tracking in 2023, AireSpring has reduced overall escalations. In fact, less than half of a percent of customer tickets were escalated, with over 92 percent of support issues proactively opened and support cases automatically generated through the AIreALERT 24x7 automated NOC. The company made significant investments in tools including its AIreCONTROL (AI-powered, cloud-based ITSM), an overhauled AireCare customer portal and improvements to its ticketing/monitoring systems. In 2023, AireSpring service delivery exceeded expectations with a 98 percent satisfaction rate for its repair center, surpassing the current 68 percent rate for ISPs (per ACSI). Betatel LTD. Betatel's Sinapsio anti-fraud detection system with AI-based shielding stands out due to its real-time fraud detection and decisionmaking, autonomous vigilance, unlimited scalability, rapid deployment and its fully managed capabilities. Sinapsio's rapid deployment and instant adaptability to new fraud patterns underscore its technological edge and commitment to advancing telecommunications security, while a dedication to R&D – especially in the fields of AI and data-analytics – ensures Sinapsio will continue to advance the anti-fraud movement. First Comm Known as “a company that cares,” First Comm extends virtually unmatched cloud communications, data, voice, security and managed services to more than 35,000 businesses across the U.S. Whether it’s high-end cloud communications, SD-WAN or security, customers know to expect an exemplary service delivery team paired with robust managed solutions and top-notch customer support. In particular, First Comm sets goals for its service delivery team and continues to deliver on them. With turn-up metrics met, its customer surveys indicated over 98 percent satisfaction for post turn-up scenarios. New Horizon Communications Corp (NHC) In early 2023, NHC received word that a customer experienced a catastrophic fire that destroyed its business. Although its primary structure had burned to the ground, NHC was able to provide hosted PBX and network services to a nearby, undamaged building in under 48 hours. Its channel team executed contracts and processed a new customer order. Its operations team facilitated newVoice hosted PBX call flow, PBX provisioning and new telephone number routing. Its LNP team ordered and assigned new phone numbers for remote call forwarding. Its translations engineering team built a PBX, assigned users and completed full end to end calling capabilities. Its logistics team inventoried hardware, registered and bench-tested phones, delivering overnight a fully provisioned solution to a customer dealing with a cold Vermont January winter. Its VoIP engineering team quarterbacked the installation and turn-up on the fly. In the end, NHC had the customer online and available. Channel Deployment of the Year 2024 Versa Networks A showcase of Versa Networks’ channel deployment success involved a major water supply system in Ontario, Canada that successfully secured its remote and headquarter offices, migrating sensitive data to cloud-based environments. This was done by deploying SASE technology from Versa. After reviewing Versa’s security features and capabilities, LAWSS approved a POC network and ran lengthy testing procedures. LAWSS then proceeded with full deployment, implementing Versa’s SASE to connect all of the branches, including those situated in rural locations. The goal was to operate on a secure network seamlessly while migrating control systems to the cloud with minimal disruption. In the end, LAWSS had a secure, reliable, resilient IT network to continue 24x7 operations well into the future. THE Communications STACK Provider™
6 2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION Channel Programs of the Year 2024 8x8 The 8x8 Elevate partner program is designed to accelerate partner growth, enable partner success and foster partner and customer trust. In particular, 8x8 actively listens to partners, having built a program that helps a variety of partner types to grow revenue, maintain profitability, build strong customer trust, establish strong customer experiences, secure highest-possible margins, lend personal responses and deliver hands-on support that is aligned with the company’s go to market plan. ACS Cloud Partners ACS Cloud Partners’ recently overhauled partner portal offers trusted advisors advanced capabilities to grow their businesses. This includes GenAI-powered searches, support for finding the latest provider products and feature information, enhanced commissions views and reporting and, soon, an ACS-powered CRM and marketing platform. Regarding technology, ACS’ proprietary partner center includes FiberLookup and PricingPro, which deliver real-time product availability and pricing. FiberLookup now has more providers, approaching 200, while PricingPro has over 50 providers offering real-time pricing and even more products. Partners also can filter and view data center providers, displaying information for major vendors throughout the U.S. and Canada. AireSpring AireSpring’s ensures partners have access to the resources, tools and support needed to provide an overall outstanding customer experience. As a part of its commitment to ensuring partner/customer success, AireSpring maintains channel managers (CMs) across the nation, and this year again expanded its roster of veteran CMs. AireSpring also offers comprehensive training tools to ensure partners stay on top of the rapidly changing technological landscape. And AireSpring’s 100 percent channel business model means that there is no channel conflict, while a solutions engineering team provides direct support to partners and their customers. Aryaka The Aryaka Accelerate global partner program was launched in January 2022 to strengthens its channel-first commitment to partners of all types. Then, there’s Aryaka DRIVE, an exclusive program within Aryaka Accelerate that includes the company's strategic channel partnerships, including TSDs AVANT Communications, Telarus, Intelisys and Bridgepointe in the U.S. The DRIVE program has directly resulted in record growth in partner-led sales of Aryaka’s managed SD-WAN and SASE solutions, most notably with AVANT and Telarus. AVANT increased sales of Aryaka solutions by 43 percent, year over year; Telarus increased its pipeline more than 1,000 percent, YOY, to more than $3.6 million Console Connect The Console Connect PartnerConnect program works tirelessly to provide its partners with unfettered access to more agile network services, applications and sales and marketing tools. With the Console Connect platform at its true core, PartnerConnect provides an indispensable set of resources to drive revenue growth and customer success. Console Connect allows users to self-provision private, high-performance connections among a global ecosystem of enterprises, networks, clouds and SaaS, IoT and application providers. Cox Business On January 1, 2024, the Cox Business channel program launched a residual commission option in addition to the upfront option for partners. While providing highly scalable, customized solutions to clients, including Internet, phone and cable services, networking and managed multi-cloud services, Cox Business also provides industry-leading installation success rates, 99 percent network reliability and a partner experience that includes more personable, attentive responses that put customers first. FluentStream FluentStream has shown an ongoing commitment to empowering partners with resources to ensure success. It launched a new partner portal that gives partners self-sufficiency at each step of the customer journey by registering leads, creating quotes and gaining access to account details. When registering portal leads, partners can create and edit quotes, sending them for electronic signature. Partners also gain visibility into the customer’s onboarding journey via direct access to their implementation project manager. FluentStream also made its services more accessible by launching FluentStream Admin and FluentStream Mobile. Channel Program CLOUD PARTNERS A TSD WITH OVER 20 YEARS OF SERVICE, SOLUTIONS, & SIMPLICITY
2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION 7 GoTo Technologies GoTo launched a revamped Partner Perks program, elevating partners with more exclusive perks at the Select, Advantage and Premium tier. A new “perks for all” category equips GoTo partners with the necessary tools to succeed, all without sales quotas. Partners will receive training, support and enablement resources to immediately and successfully begin selling GoTo solutions. Tiered partners can enjoy better aligned sales, enablement, training, marketing strategies and support to take their business to the next level. This includes dedicated marketing development funds, eligibility for partner advisory boards, custom incentives and custom lead-generation programs. Granite Telecommunications To help sales partners more quickly get up to speed on Granite’s expanding capabilities, Granite Channels instituted the Accelerated Sales program. The program brings partners to Granite’s headquarters campus in Quincy, Mass, twice a month to learn more about the company’s range of services, capabilities, support systems and processes. It includes training seminars; meetings with channel sales and operations teams; briefings with department heads in customer support, client development managers, engineers, project managers and other personnel that touch channel support; Granite campus tours, including its NOC; and a face-to-face meeting with CEO Rob Hale. To date, the program has generated more than $50 million in business from those who have participated. New Horizon Communications Corp (NHC) Since 2002, NHC has provided communications solutions, working exclusively through partners. Its support for partners is comprehensive, featuring a nationwide channel sales team, superior customer and partner tools, quick response times from a dedicated quote desk, highly competitive compensation and flexible contract terms. NHC is obsessed with the customer and partner experience, from design and quoting to managing implementations, billing accurately and expertly maintaining the services. Its reputation enables partners to get that “yes” from their customers. Panasonic Connect North America Panasonic Connect of North America offers the TOUGHBOOK Prime partner program to help resellers deliver top-tier hardware, software and service solutions to workers in mission-critical industries. Prime partners receive exclusive benefits including 24x7 access to product and sales information through Panasonic’s partner portal and account management tools. Custom resources for demand-generating marketing activities are also available. Partners receive a dedicated inside partner support team, sales mapping opportunities to increase market presence and sales and technical training. RapidScale RapidScale is a managed cloud partner with a comprehensive portfolio of private and public cloud solutions. Following its rebrand, RapidScale offers more engaging and compelling content for partners to use in their lead-gen efforts. Its new messaging and marketing collateral are designed to drive opportunities, especially around public cloud and modernization services. RingLogix RingLogix offers a multi-touchpoint onboarding process that empowers partners to start selling in days, as opposed to weeks. Partners receive a customizable go-to-market resource kit, continuous support from the RingLogix Partner Success department, and dedicated support from account managers and domain experts across quoting, billing and end-customer onboarding. The RingOS platform lowers time-to-market and eliminates the headaches of managing subscriptions, invoices and collections. Schneider Electric Schneider Electric’s Edge Software & Digital Services partner program empowers MSPs to remotely monitor and manage critical infrastructure across customer networks. MSPs receive training, support, incentives and marketing opportunities to drive recurring revenue. The program, which offers three tiers of certification, integrates seamlessly with existing platforms. Partners receive backend support for generating process documents, creating offers, developing marketing material, crafting strategies, training sales teams and overall execution. Partners are also guided through business development and investment with the capability to offset the expenses needed to advance their practice using customer lifecycle rebates. THE Communications STACK Provider™
8 2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION Snom Americas Snom Americas revamped its channel program in 2024. Central to its evolution is a revolutionary deal registration program that improves transparency and recognition for partners. Snom also offers a robust sales enablement strategy for MSPs and resellers, providing tools and knowledge to communicate the company’s value proposition. Through targeted initiatives, Snom empowers partners to navigate complexities with confidence. The company offers innovative Try and Buy programs, along with enhanced learning ecosystems such as a bespoke partner portal containing resources and training modules. Through innovation, strategic alliances and unwavering commitment to success, Snom is redefining excellence in the channel. Solutions Express (SolEx) SolEx offers a partner program with custom pricing plans, aggressive commission models and strong evergreen payment structures. The company is known for putting agents first and enabling their success. SolEx also embraces a five-pillar partner enablement model, which, coupled with its own ability to craft deals to the specific need of both the customers and agents, serves to rapidly build trust throughout the supply chain. Telesystem The Telesystem Partner Program provides brokers and distributors with maximum flexibility, leveraging the company’s comprehensive portfolio of products and dedicated 24x7 U.S.-based customer support team. Telesystem works alongside trusted partners to design customized cybersecurity, networking and communications solutions that address the business-specific needs of SME customers. Telesystem helps businesses overcome complex IT challenges, like connecting hybrid workforces, securing business assets and improving network dependability with SD-WAN. The partner program is built around a select group of elite brokers, and fueled by thousands of nationwide distributors that receive competitive SPIFFs, timely payments, premium pre-sale support from regional and national channel managers and ongoing best-in-class service, all from a Telesystem team that boasts a customer NPS score of +62. vcita vcita offers inTandem, a platform for building custom SMB SaaS solutions. Partners include banks, telecom companies, marketing agencies, MSPs and FinTech agencies that offer services to SMBs but are not SaaS providers by trade.In November vcita launched inTandem Complete, a suite of services designed to empower organizations to bring their own SMB SaaS solutions to market. inTandem Complete offers professional services for building a go-to-market strategy, selling the solution to SMB clients, providing customer support, and delivering reports to monitor KPIs. Versa Networks Versa’s ACE partner program offers SASE certification and access to leading technology that is secure, reliable and scalable. Versa Titan is delivered as a cloud-managed secure branch and WAN solution for the mid-market enterprise, through MSPs, SIs, and VARs. Versa Titan simplifies the ability to introduce and accelerate business growth with SASE and provides access to a rapidly growing market opportunity, with a wide range of networking and security services. Windstream Enterprise Windstream Enterprise recently reimagined its channel program with the launch of its ONE Partner Program. As part of ONE, partners have access to the WE Connect Partner Portal for real-time access to account management functions, visibility and control of all solutions. Including hands-on professional support throughout every stage of the buyer journey, ONE offers tailored compensation via best-in-class incentives that are aligned with strategic opportunities where Windstream Enterprise is likely to win the business. CSP Network Infrastructure Innovations of the Year 2024 Console Connect Digital transformation and cloud migration have changed business connectivity. Console Connect’s mission is to make it easier to link up with a digital ecosystem. The company’s network-as-a-service (NaaS) extends scalable, secure and flexible networking – plus complementary applications – to reduce complexity in interconnecting with applications, devices and the cloud. One doesn’t need to be a professional to use Console Connect. Its platform places the customer and partner just clicks away from needed platforms.
2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION 9 Granite Telecommunications Granite launched TechExpress, which simplifies the process of requesting and managing field tech services. TechExpress is the first component of the Granite360 all-in-one service portal, a carrier-neutral platform that streamlines quoting, order processing, service delivery and performance management across more than 140 carriers in North America. TechExpress includes an advanced ticketing system and dashboard that provides an overview of ticketing history, active ticket metrics by status and type and recently completed dispatches. Users can navigate through requests, drill down to specific tickets and communicate directly with technicians. Digital Transformation Award 2024 Datadobi StorageMAP helps businesses analyze, organize and act on their data in hybrid vendor and cloud environments. It is built upon Datadobi's best-in-class, multi-vendor, multi-cloud unstructured data mobility engine. StorageMAP maximizes data value while allowing businesses to reduce the cost, risk and carbon footprint of their data. Kore AI The Kore AI no-code platform delivers simplicity, flexibility and control for companies looking to safely leverage conversational and generative AI and LLMs. Deploying the Kore.ai open platform cuts the time and effort to deploy effective AI solutions as it builds upon the user’s existing architecture and integrates with any LLM and technology infrastructure already in use. Recently named a leader in the 2Q24 “Forrester Wave Conversational AI for Customer Service” report, Kore AI serves more than 400 companies that interact with 200 million consumers and 2 million employees with up to 450 million interactions per day. RedIron RedIron offers connected store systems for modern brick and mortar retailers that allow them to add functionality as they grow. Partnering with RedIron means gaining access to a suite of services that are designed to help partners streamline retail operations and deliver improved customer experience. Spectrotel As a next generation aggregator, Spectrotel simplifies voice modernization with multiple phase solutions for transition and optimization. The company offers an extensive portfolio of POTS alternative solutions, with cost-effective and resilient options for transforming copper networks and future proofing business-critical lines. XaaS1 XaaS1 offers a marketplace transaction platform for performing configure/price/quote (CPQ), as well as full purchasing and provisioning of subscription-based tech solutions. This marketplace, along with the existing multi-tenant partner relationship management (PRM) and through channel marketing automation (TCMA) platforms that XaaS1 has, provide an end-to-end, digitally transformed supply chain for the indirect technology sales and distribution industry. Top Innovation Awards 2024 ACS Cloud Partners ACS Cloud Partners provides an innovative portal for tracking commissions, viewing SPIFFS, searching products and more. In the last year, the TSD beefed up its partner portal with a new SPIFF finder that allows partners to pinpoint the latest incentives for any provider or service. The portal offers an enhanced commissions view with full month-over-month detail reporting and an upgraded AI search component for locating vendors. ACS Cloud Partners also added new providers, products and features to its FiberLookup and PricingPRO tools. CELLocity CELLocity’s multi-operator core network (MOCN) neutral host network solution empowers building owners and tenants to provide cellular coverage within buildings, where carriers are unwilling to provide a DAS. The solution, funded by the building owner or tenant and typically operated by a third-party technology provider, serves as a “neutral host” to facilitate subscribers for each of the carriers to roam onto the network from the outdoor cellular macro network (and vice versa), enjoying consistent quality of service. CLOUD PARTNERS A TSD WITH OVER 20 YEARS OF SERVICE, SOLUTIONS, & SIMPLICITY
10 2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION ConectUS Wireless ConectUS Wireless is a Platinum Principal Agent within Verizon’s partner network. The company’s relationship with Verizon enables agents to sell Verizon products and services nationwide, backed by ConectUS “Customer Service as-a-Service” (CSaaS) featuring live, end-to-end guidance and support. Contrivian Contrivian’s North Star platform transforms how companies procure, install, manage and support connectivity services, reducing the process to just minutes. North Star provides instant quotes and orders, complete transparency and performance monitoring, from a modern customer experience application Entro Security Entro tracks, classifies and safeguards non-human identities, providing comprehensive insight and tools crucial for robust security measures. Through meticulous inventorying, organizations gain a clear understanding of the quantity and location of their identities, shedding light on a previously opaque aspect of their infrastructure. Entro ensures security and compliance through a unified interface eSentire Launched in October 2023, eSentire’s MDR Agent is a cost-effective, all-in-one security solution that harnesses innovative technologies and human expertise to revolutionize security, giving SMBs access to 24/7 threat prevention and detection, plus service value of investigation and response, delivered by top security experts, and at a price that is up to 75% less per endpoint compared to other providers. eSentire’s prevention-first, multi-signal MDR approach ingests high-fidelity data from across a customer’s network, endpoints, log, cloud and identity sources, in addition to vulnerability data, for complete visibility. Granite Telecommunications Granite Labs released edgeboot, a managed power distribution unit that leverages AI and dual ethernet/LTE connectivity to monitor network device connectivity, detect issues and perform automatic reboots without human intervention. Edgeboot helps businesses reduce downtime, streamline troubleshooting and minimize dispatch costs. The solution includes a base unit with a single power outlet. Hot-swappable expansion modules control up to nine devices from a single edgeboot. Devices can be easily managed through the edgeboot.io portal. Horizon3.ai Horizon3.ai offers NodeZeo, an autonomous penetration testing solution that conducts unlimited tests around the clock, with fast delivery, broad coverage and high accuracy. The solution locates exploitable vulnerabilities and misconfigurations and stores the information in a Cyber Terrain Map. Horizon3.ai provides on-demand training programs, numerous opportunities for revenue growth and co-marketing initiatives. HYAS Infosec The HYAS ONPOINT program equips partners to sell HYAS Protect, a leading protective DNS solution. Partners gain access to a complimentary 12-month minimum subscription to the HYAS Insight threat intelligence and investigation platform, providing tools for fortifying internal security operations, accelerating incident response and providing clients with differentiated cybersecurity solutions. The program allows partners to deliver exceptional proactive threat intelligence, elevating service offerings and driving client retention. Imparter Impartner launched Impartner Analytics Studio, a self-service analytics platform that enables partners to harness data to drive revenue and elevate engagement. With Analytics Studio, partners can make data-driven decisions through in-depth, personalized reports that explain which actions drive revenue, and what makes a partner profitable. Impartner’s Analytics Studio equips teams with a suite of functions to track partner engagement growth and craft statistical and predictive algorithms.
2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION 11 Kore AI Kore AI’s Generative AI Framework enables users to infuse empathy and relevance into conversations and provides real-time guidance when building conversation flows. The XO GPT provides fine-tuned models customized for customer experience conversational use cases. This enables more human-like conversations through paraphrasing, summarization and understanding true user intents. XO GPT is faster, more accurate and less costly than generic LLMs. Conversation Design Studio, meanwhile, allows business users to visually map out conversation flows with a drag-and-drop interface. More than 400 pre-built templates and reusable components help users build IVAs without writing any code. Conversation Intelligence unlocks actionable insights from customer conversations using multimodel orchestration. SmartCIC SmartCIC Global Services has delivered innovation with its “Through the Line” connectivity model, an all-in-one solution that encompasses international wholesale services, local networking, access technologies, shipping, logistics and onsite field services. SmartCIC’s disruptive approach to connectivity reduces costs and increases capabilities while accelerating service delivery. Tarana Wireless Tarana’s G1 in 6 GHz ngFWA broadband platform delivers game-changing advances in performance and network economics, in both mainstream and underserved markets, using licensed or unlicensed spectrum. G1 overcomes the limitations of prior FWA solutions with three technological advances – offering unprecedented interference cancellation from external sources, adding NLOS capabilities, and extending precise management of self-interference throughout the network to maintain high capacity as subscriber counts grow. Tarana’s new G1 6 GHz base nodes and remote nodes comprise the only durable fixed wireless solution that can help ISPs secure and grow their customer bases with fiber-class speeds. BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY AI Implementations AgileBlue AgileBlue launched Sapphire GenAI assistant to augment the role of SOC analysts in its Cerulean platform. Sapphire allows organizations – and the channel partners and MSPs that support them – to automate and streamline tasks such as installations and threat intelligence. This frees SOC analysts to focus on escalated investigations that could be more detrimental to the business and require more human-led attention. AgileBlue’s Sapphire AI assistant is currently available to all customers. Granite Telecommunications Granite’s client needed to activate 6,000 devices in just three months. In response, Granite created Greenix – an AI-driven, low-code orchestration platform, which enabled the client to activate more than 125 devices per day and meet its goal. Greenix is a low-code platform that enables Granite solutions engineers or project managers to build their own business process workflows without coding. These workflows include all steps in a process, such as an install, as well as contingencies for things that might go wrong and how to test/ fix them. Field technicians can access Greenix workflows from their phones or computers to walk through the steps live on-site, including viewing photos of the gear and the correct connection ports. It also runs tests to ensure the configuration is working and, if not, suggests remediation steps. Minerva Networks Minerva's AI Companion gives users an engaging and informative experience while watching their favorite movies and shows. For operators and advertisers, it offers more valuable ad opportunities as people will be watching with intent. The Minerva AI Companion works with all types of content, including FAST channels that might have limited metadata. By using the knowledge base of LLMs, relevant information is instantly available on any topic of interest of the user, without having to leave the full screen viewing experience. AI generated prompts create unique user journeys that keep them engaged and returning to the app in the future.
12 2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION Best International Internet Solutions Contrivian Contrivian provides enhanced internet connectivity in more than 160 countries. Its proprietary Lighthouse technology optimizes performance using multiple forms of access. This in turn helps make the internet perform better than it otherwise would, particularly in less-connected regions of the world. Momentum Momentum delivers quality, high-speed global internet connectivity to support the cloud applications that enterprises demand. It has more than 750 different carriers and providers, such as AT&T, Verizon, Lumen, Google and AWS. Momentum offers multiple options when it comes to DIA, internet, broadband and more, from 1Mb to 100GB. Data center and colocation services are also available to ensure seamless connections with built-in redundancy and resiliency. Contact Center/CCaaS 8x8 8x8’s contact center offers a complete, extensible cloud solution to help organizations facilitate CX success and operational excellence. It is built on an available, reliable, flexible and integrated cloud contact center and UC platform, allowing businesses to maximize growth by encouraging mobility, agility and productivity. The 8x8 offering includes omnichannel routing for faster cross-channel customer connections, contact center analytics with customized performance metrics and workforce engagement management to promote team CX across channels. Plus, there’s the Microsoft-certified 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams. Broadvoice Broadvoice’s GoContact cloud-native contact center platform is designed for users – NOT IT. Its streamlined management interface is built to meet BPO feature and flexibility demand while being ideal for small and midmarket customers. An omnichannel platform, It leverages the cloud, containers and microservices to offer personalized, deployable options in a browser. There are no additional hardware or software requirements. GoContact has a single queue for calls, chat, email and social media, with no coding, scripting, training or certifications necessary. And, because the proprietary platform is owned and operated by Broadvoice, there are no licensing requirements. Plus, “surge licensing” lets customers temporarily scale to meet peak or seasonal demand and add bundled capabilities. Ooma 2600Hz, an Ooma company, expanded the functionality and flexibility of its Call Center offering, adding a callback option in queue creation, a default agent workspace experience for agents and a configurable call disposition field for annotations within Agent Workspace. There is also support for inbound CRM queries for Salesforce and HubSpot, an option for outbound dialing campaigns and features supporting call routing, caller intelligence, performance reports, queue creation and hold treatment creation. The 2600Hz Call Center is natively built on the Kazoo UC platform, and is backed by Kazoo’s multi-tenant architecture, with geo-redundancy and horizontal scalability. Plus, the service extends white-label options to level the playing field for service providers and resellers. Cloud Computing C3 Complete Recently, C3 Complete was introduced to a multi-location automotive company by one of its partners. There were challenges in migrating this infrastructure, as they relied on an outdated client/server design with personal computers, local file servers, domain controllers, and file replication, compounded by a series of acquisitions. In short, C3 analyzed these issues before designed a cloud-based solution to improve its networking (redundant VeloCloud SD-WAN devices, Fortinet Firewalls and dual carrier-diverse connectivity) and migrate its file and application services (C3 cloud services). This rendered network outages virtually nil, added remote desktop support, cut costs and improved security and compliance posture. iuvo iuvo’s Guardian infrastructure-as-code configuration management tool optimizes and secures Microsoft 365 environments. It leverages deep expertise in Microsoft technologies to reduce the manual overhead from maintaining secure, efficient Microsoft 365 operations. As a GitOps product operating within Azure DevOps, Guardian can manage customer-specific configurations and tools, providing detailed tracking and versioning of all changes from the base deployment. Plus, its proactive monitoring automatically aligns 365 settings with security and compliance needs.
2024 VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT AWARDS | CHANNELVISION 13 Cybersecurity Blackpoint Cyber Blackpoint Cyber takes a proactive approach to counter identity-based attacks, phishing campaigns and other cybercrime. Its Identity Response for Azure AD offers a cloud MDR for SSO that extends Blackpoint’s technology to the cloud, amplifying security within Microsoft environments by extending protection to third-party applications that are interconnected via Azure SSO. Generally speaking, Identity Response provides partners with improved visibility into vulnerabilities, increased knowledge of potential data exposure and context for audit procedures and damage assessment. Corero Network Security Corero Network Security’s always-on anti-DDoS solution, SmartWall ONE, automatically mitigates attacks in real time. It offers a modular security platform for on-premise and hybrid cloud DDoS defense that is designed for flexible deployment, adaptable to customer need and provides automatic intelligence response by integrating with existing infrastructure. Plus, forensic-level analysis and reporting permits organizations to automatically fend off attacks with minimal downtime, disruption and manual intervention. Corero also extended its capabilities to include support for 400G-connected, DDoS detection, mitigation and protection, from edge to network core, allowing it to quadruple performance density while slashing power budgets. Grip Security Just as single sign-on (SSO) provides centralized control and monitoring for application access, shadow SaaS demands similar oversight to mitigate risks and prevent breaches. Grip Security turned heads last year with the release of SaaS Security Control Plane (SSCP). This cybersecurity platform delivers SaaS identity risk management (SIRM) by strengthening enterprise identity security posture in the fast-paced SaaS landscape. Grip SSCP offers features and capabilities that leverage identity as the control point for user access to SaaS and cloud services. The platform covers both federated and unfederated SaaS apps and streamlines security operations, reducing manual effort and improving response times to SaaS identity security risks. Horizon3.ai Horizon3.ai autonomous penetration testing with NodeZero enables organizations to see themselves through the eyes of an attacker. This allows organizations to continuously assess their IT infrastructure, identifying exploitable weaknesses, and verifying effective remediations. Horizon3.ai leverages its expertise, data and insight to deliver the NodeZero platform. This advanced penetration testing solution, in particular, helps channel partners to preemptively discover infrastructure weakness before attackers do. Channel partners can not only use NodeZero to assess their own environments, but to deliver a new set of services for customers. HYAS Infosec HYAS Infosec empowers MSPs, MSSPs and other channel partners with cutting-edge cybersecurity while eliminating the barriers and financial risks imposed on them by other cybersecurity vendors. The HYAS ONPOINT partner program includes a complimentary, 12-month minimum subscription to the HYAS Insight threat intelligence and investigation platform. This provides partners the tools needed to fortify internal security, accelerate incident response and provide clients with differentiated cybersecurity options. Partners can deliver proactive threat intelligence that elevates service offerings and drives client retention. Plus, there’s HYAS Protect, a service to help partners integrate protective DNS solutions into a managed services portfolio. OPSWAT OPSWAT extends critical infrastructure protection through its IT/OT platform, which brings technology to existing partner security portfolios. Its solutions portfolio that includes removable media security, cross-domain solutions, secure access, file upload security, malware analysis, secure email, network access control, storage security and developer solutions, in addition to solutions to address specific deployments and use cases within critical infrastructure. For example, MyOPSWAT offers a console for tracking and managing multiple MetaDefender products, extending a centralized approach that empowers users to manage anti-malware engines, update virus definitions/engines and monitor licensing status. Telesystem IT’s About Trust for Telesystem, which offers cybersecurity solutions and consulting services to protect valuable assets. Telesystem prioritizes a collaborative approach to serving partners and customers, conducting discovery conversations to gain better understanding before developing tailored solutions to help move forward. Its growing portfolio includes security awareness training, endpoint protection, email security, managed SIEM/SOC and cybersecurity consulting. To simplify buying/selling, Telesystem also developed comprehensive “Trust Bundles” that combine solutions at competitive pricing. These, along with standard preventative security, one hour of cybersecurity training and other options keep Telesystem ahead of the curve.
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