Master agent Telarus LLC has hired industry veteran and native of Sydney, Tony Heywood, to help it expand into the Australian/New Zealand (ANZ) marketplace.
In this role, Heywood will be responsible for setting up an Australian version of the company, and pioneering the agency model in which third-party cloud brokers are recruited, trained and supported to advise clients on which cloud communications and/or infrastructure service is right for them.The residual commissions for each account are later paid to Telarus, who will in turn pay the corresponding broker who originated the sale (for the life of the account).
“This is a monumental step for Telarus,” said Adam Edwards, CEO of Telarus. “Although our business inside the United States has continued to grow at a robust 40% in each of the past three years, we feel it’s important to establish a presence in other geographies that hold even greater growth potential. For us, that place is Asia, with Australia and New Zealand as a starting point. We see the broker model there in its infancy, waiting for a market leader to come in and take a leadership role.”
Edwards added, “Our vision is to become just that: the leading master agent in the ANZ market. In order to accomplish that, we’ll need to educate and recruit the first batch of true cloud brokers, help them develop go-to-market strategies that work, refine their marketing, and give them the blueprints to grow their staff. At the same time, we’ll be working closely with our many suppliers – some of them with assets currently deployed in Australia – gain their unfair share of the market. Tony is going to be the best friend cloud brokers and cloud service providers could ever have Down Under.”
In his new role, Heywood will wear many hats. He will be both a partner development manager, supplier manager, commissions analyst, marketing expert and events coordinator. As the company grows, Heywood will establish a permanent office in Sydney, hire staff to take over the support roles, and focus his full-time efforts on growing sales and vendor partnerships.
“I am excited to be part of the Telarus team,” Heywood said. “From my time at Westcon, local ISPs and systems integration partners, I worked alongside channel partners who focused on solving technology solutions using services they built themselves and/or resold under their own brand. While that business model is what’s popular now, I believe, as Telarus does, that the broker model will win out in the coming years. The opportunity will be to help these early adopters jump out to what could be an insurmountable lead. With Telarus’ help, we will create an Australian version of the company using their 16 years of best practice knowledge, proprietary technology, and understanding of the industry spread across 150 U.S.-based employees.”
