Unified Communications Featured Article

CarrierSales Joins 8x8's Channel 2.0 Effort

By Paula Bernier
Executive Editor, TMC

8x8 (News - Alert) Inc. has added CarrierSales to its collection of channel partners. As a result, the master agent will be selling 8x8’s Virtual Contact Center and Virtual Office solutions.

“Partnering with a renowned master agent like CarrierSales will enable us to increase adoption of 8x8’s cloud communications technology overall and specifically our contact center solution, as CarrierSales has a depth of experience in this arena,” said Puneet Arora, senior vice president of global sales at 8x8. “We look forward to working with CarrierSales to help companies modernize their communications infrastructure with the move to cloud and improve overall customer engagement.”

This new relationship is part of a larger 8x8 effort called Channel 2.0. This expanded channel program is aimed at helping 8x8 partners transition from selling on-premises based solutions to cloud-based communications.

8x8 recently announced additional new partners as part of the Channel 2.0 news. That includes new relationships with Great Outcomes in New Zealand (which provides contact center solutions), and LANtelligence (which traditionally sold premises-based solutions but is now expanding to deliver cloud solutions), PERRY proTECH (a managed services provider), and Telarus (News - Alert) (a large master agent) in North America. 8x8 is also expanding its partnerships with Avant and Intelisys into the U.K., and Exsel Group into Scotland. 

These Channel 2.0 partners get access to the 8x8 PartnerConnect Portal, sales and technical training and certification, marketing and demand generation support, and sales enablement tools.

At the new portal, partners can register deals, share pipeline, access sales and marketing collateral, and get support. Channel 2.0 also features curriculum from which partners can select the courses and specializations they want to pursue online.

For post-sales, 8x8 is offering certification so partners can do their own deployments and day two support to increase their margins and build loyalty with their customers. And the integrated marketing and demand generation involves 8x8 helping partners with account planning, creating telemarketing initiatives, and – once the lead is qualified – 8x8 passes the ball back to the partner.

8x8 has been a long-standing leader in the Gartner (News - Alert) Magic Quadrant for the Unified Communications as a Service, Worldwide report. And Matt McGinnis, 8x8’s vice president of product marketing, was among the speakers at a general session at ITEXPO last week. During the event he noted that the market is at an inflection point that entails moving from boxes to driving the user experience through software.