CV_MayJune_2018

59 2018 Visionary spotlight awards | Channel Vision mentioned services for total AT&T Business Solutions, which was an impressive feat. And this year, AT&T is celebrating the five year anniversary of AT&T Partner Exchange. The company has grown from just five initial partners to more than 600, and it has become a robust growth area for both AT&T and its solution providers. Since launching AT&T Partner Exchange in 2013, the leadership team has made a continuous series of bold moves to help enable and accelerate solution pro- viders’ success in the marketplace, and the past year was no exception. For instance, there were several milestone launches in 2017 including AT&T FlexWare, several IoT resources and new open APIs to help solu- tion providers enhance their automation capabilities. As for Broadvoice , the company made significant investments in its Partner Program in 2017. This includ- ed a national expansion with the addition of regional channel managers to help partners identify opportuni- ties, the addition of solutions architects to host demos and engineer solutions for its partners and the creation of a partner sales management team to outsource the quote-to-order process. In addition to evergreen re- siduals and lucrative SPIFFs, these investments have helped Broadvoice triple the number of partners in its network and double the number of master agency rela- tionships. They have also increased Broadvoice’s en- gagement with partners in number and depth as many partners are strategically integrating its services into their portfolios. Overall, Broadvoice’s channel commit- ment drove 50 percent growth in revenue and ten-fold growth in order size from indirect channel sales in 2017. Telesystem ’s Partner Program was recognized for its customer-centric mission and commitment to em- powering and rewarding agents. The program has three different levels of membership and offers SPIFFs for the company’s unique product set on both the master and subagent levels, including In-Line DDoS Mitigation and Secure SD-WAN. Members of Telesystem’s Partner Program are also supported by the company’s account management, sales engineering, and sales support staff. Plus, its Elite Agents receive additional support from regionalized Channel Managers across the nation as well as a dedicated Elite Agent Coordinator. The Elite classification is designed for both national master agents as well as partners that commit to a high volume of revenue annually. Master agent Telegration is our final honoree in this category. Since 1990, it has grown to offer local or long distance, data networks, VoIP, mobility, cloud and managed internet services via its network of inde- pendent telecommunications agents. It offers its sales partners flexibility in customer pricing across regional and national providers, and they can work closely with experienced Telegration sales engineers, its alliance support teams and provider channel managers to de- sign tailored customer solutions, determine pricing, procure agreements and close business opportunities. It all comes with outstanding customer service support teams to track orders, provide order fulfillment, resolve billing or service issues while communicating status to agents to ensure customer satisfaction. “Our great relationship with our providers allows us to develop a team-fostered support confidence level sec- ond to none with our agents and is evident in our day-to- day interactions with our agents,” the company said. The 2018 laurels for the “Channel Deployment of the Year” goes to BullsEye Telecom , CNSG and OneStream . In 2017, BullsEye showcased its ability to deliver uniformity and central management of VoIP, POTS and broadband elements across 100+ diverse environments for a multi-unit property management company. Bulls- Eye deployed a dedicated project management team and implemented an end-to-end process for each site. That started with an invoice analysis and POTS con- solidation/migration; after that, a BullsEye field techni- cian would survey the site, tag and inventory every line and perform a comprehensive network analysis for VoIP, consult with the property on call flow and phone count, and work directly with the broadband provider to remedi- ate any circuit issues and roadblocks to VoIP migration. A second BullsEye field technician would then visit the site to stage and test the VoIP hardware and then re-test the network for VoIP readiness post-circuit-remediation. A porting appointment was then scheduled, where a BullsEye field technician is deployed onsite to ensure smooth deliv- ery and site completion. And finally, once VoIP was in place for phone and fax, a BullsEye account manager would update BullsEye’s database to label each remaining POTS line with its specific function (alarm/gate/pool/elevator/etc.) and disconnect any additional lines from the invoice. We also recognize CNSG for this category. Its Con- verged Effect Initiative offers enablement, resources Channel Deployment of the Year Ov e ra l l E xc e l l e nc e Award s :