The new channel and program are focused on taking Zoom’s video-first UC platform to market, which they believe will fit partner business models better through a referral system rather than doing deals on the partner’s paper.
Synacor has a large channel, for whom the addition of Qumu’s enterprise-grade video will significantly deepen their collaboration offerings.
Poly Lens will eventually unify all the endpoint management solutions from both the Plantronics and Polycom sides of the house.
Avaya is introducing new cloud services through their RingCentral partnership, and is aggressively expanding into the Master Agent channel, but even as a Canadian channel exec moves on, the company still sees its stability in Canada as a major asset.
New Avaya channel chief Jon Brinton lays out Avaya’s channel strategy for the year ahead, which unsurprisingly emphasizes the new Avaya Cloud Office but also focuses on developing new channels.
While Avaya is putting more emphasis on the cloud, Network Telecom, whose customers are mainly in small town southwestern Ontario, won a Midmarket Partner of the Year award by leveraging a very traditional business model.
Avaya kicked off the first day of their big customer event by focusing on their partnership with RingCentral and how it fits into their overall vision. They also announced the Avaya Cloud Office UCaaS solution with RingCentral, which will be available later this quarter.
LumApps, which is aggressively expanding in North America and now sells more here than in Europe, has joined the Microsoft Partner eXperience program and plans to build out a strong Microsoft channel, as they have already done with Google.
These new devices, which support Zoom natively and will support more third-party apps in the future, offer users greater simplicity, and offer channel partners 3x the margins compared to selling a solution around a PC.
The revamped collaboration platform is a key part of LogMeIn’s strategy of unifying and harmonizing its UCC offerings.
Avaya sees the synergy between the two companies and IBM’s consultancy capabilities as important assets in meeting the unexpectedly high demand for ReadyNow as-a-service from larger customers.
Teamline is focused on the Microsoft platform, and MultiJoin won’t change that, but it does give users added flexibility with calls involving different platforms.
The offer to new customers for both Microsoft Teams and Surface Hub 2 is also intended to get some Pexip channel partners from the AV side of the house to work more closely with Microsoft.
Calabrio’s CEO talks with ChannelBuzz about what partners can expect to see from the newly enlarged company, which he says now has the largest channel business in the space.
Steelcase makes Steelcase Roam, a mobile cart and wall mounting system designed specifically for the Microsoft Surface Hub 2, and has launched a new program and new IT distribution relationships to help Microsoft partners sell it.
With the restructuring of Sennheiser into two separate business for the start of 2020 on schedule, the part of the company focused on unified communications has already implemented internal and channel sales changes.
The follow-up to last year’s original ThinkSmart Hub 500, which was for Skype for Business, continues Lenovo’s strategy of building out their Smart Office portfolio, and in the teams space in particular.
The SMB space was a hard sell for partners with virtualized Powered by IP Office, but the company thinks this next-gen rebranded play that runs on the Google cloud will be a popular partner offering.
netTALK, which has been in the consumer phone market for years, enters the commercial market, and is looking for both Master Agents and VARs to sell it.
The new Evolve 65e adds features like a Hear-Through feature and a Jabra Sound+ management capability.
