Sept/Oct 19 - ChannelVision Magazine

Along the way, nexVortex took home not one, but five, Visionary Spotlight Awards and was named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing, privately held U.S. companies for the ninth consecutive year – an honor that only 0.5 per- cent of all companies hold. The company isn’t slowing down. In August, nexVortex un- veiled a new brand identity, with a redesigned logo, website, color scheme and font. According to the company, the website was rede- signed with the visitor in mind, and offers easier navigation as well as an abundance of videos, case stud- ies, and supplementary materials for channel partners and customers. Then on Sept. 9, nexVortex launched Managed Connect, which essentially transforms its edge de- vice into a WAN side solution. “We’re really excited about the launch because at the end of this process, nexVortex moves from being a two-product company to a three-product company,” said founder and chief operating officer Wes Rog- ers. “We’ll be able to offer SIP trunking, hosted voice and SD-WAN products.” Rogers was quick to point out, though, that while nexVortex is growing, the company is still laser-focused on small to medium-sized businesses. “There is a huge hole in the mar- ket for SD-WAN,” Rogers said. “We feel that the offerings out there are too complicated and too expensive. We are trying to fix that with Man- aged Connect which offers quality and availability, as well as afford- ability – a core need for customers in the SMB space.” According to Rogers, that’s where Managed Connect really stands apart. “It’s zeroed in on that SMB cus- tomer with 25 phones or less, which is typically a single site operation,” he explained. “This type of customer usu- ally doesn’t have an IT department. So the solution really has to offer plug and play simplicity. It must get up and running quickly and demonstrate value. Man- aged Connect offers value through availability and quality. It’s also priced very aggressively.” Managed Connect also integrates seam- lessly with nexVortex’s other services and products, providing a boost in value to the overall portfolio, while also giving partners new ways to earn commissions. “Everything is integrated,” added Rogers. “That includes the management capability of the box itself, but also quality and per- formance metrics as well. We use a cloud- based portal for management and perfor- mance. So it all ties very nicely together.” At the same time, Managed Connect of- fers full SD-WAN functionality, providing ac- cess to more than just nexVortex services. “Listen, I’d love for you to be my hosting partner or customer,” said Rogers. “I’d love for you to use my SIP trunking, too, but you don’t necessarily have to. Ultimately, we’re looking to enhance our existing products, but also open it up to third-party cloud solutions.” Another thing that’s unique about nex- Vortex’s Managed Connect offering is that it provides greater control for customers. Instead of pulling all of a site’s data into the cloud, for instance, a business can instead choose exactly what they want to protect. “We only pull back what you want us to,” explained Rogers. “So if you’re doing a Google search or looking at YouTube video, that’s something you probably don’t want to protect. You could, but most people probably aren’t going to want to do that. Your Office 365, how- ever, better work because if it doesn’t, you’re offline and out of business.” o nexVortex Rolls Out Managed Connect T hings have been moving quickly at nexVortex. So far this year, the company has already added PoPs in multiple data centers across the United States, announced a partnership with Bigleaf Networks for improved SD-WAN interoperability, and added both a firewall and LTE component to its Managed Hosted Voice (mHV) solution. By Gerald Baldino Core Communications nexVortex’s Wes Rogers 42 Channel Vision | September - October, 2019