Intelliverse: Job Cuts Part of Sales Reorg, Agent Program Intact

Intelliverse cut one-fourth of its 20-person sales team in early August. The companys vice president of channel sales and four other staff members were let go as part of a reorganization of the sales department, but the reductions including the entire three-person agent sales team do not mean the company is shutting down its agent program.

Frank Paterno, the companys vice president of marketing, said there are no plans to change any of Intelliverses channels, which also include wholesale and direct sales in addition to the partner program. Since its inception in January, Intelliverses agent program has recruited about 50 partners and Paterno said the company is still accepting new partners.

He added the company will change the focus of the partner program and the personnel changes reflect that strategy. Because we were able to get so many good agents and so much activity, we are going to concentrate on the agents that we were able to recruit and start making them drive revenue, Paterno said. That was our plan anyway at this point in the year to switch from partner recruitment to cultivation, if you will.

Stacy Conrad, vice president of agent sales, and two of her reports were let go Aug. 1. Two other people one in wholesale and one in sales support also were laid off. Paterno said the cuts were strictly part of a reorganization plan and not due to performance. Conrad said she is disappointed about putting in the work to get the program off the ground and then not getting a chance to see it through, but understands Intelliverse made a business decision.

Susan Hancock, who was a sales engineer supporting the channel, now will be in charge of the agent program.

Intelliverses channel program originally was designed for agents to sell its callEverywhere turnkey hosted VoIP product. Paterno said the company is shifting the focus from recruiting agents to helping agents sell to end users. The agents know the agent business, said Paterno. What they are looking for from us is some experience and expertise in how an end user is going to look at this product set and how they are going to evaluate it from an ROI and technical standpoint.