Star2Star Snags ScanSource Channel Vet, Accelerates Partner Strategy

Star2Star is kicking its channel strategy into high gear by pursuing new channels and creating new opportunities for sales growth.

Star2Star’s Rich Long

Rich Long, previously Alert Logic’s vice president of channels, this week started his new role as Star2Star’s senior vice president of channel development, working through alliances/distributors and larger partnerships. Before Alert Logic, he was ScanSource’s North America president.

In addition, Star2Star hired Mick Miralis, previously with Citrix, as executive vice president of channel sales. He is working with larger MSPs and Citrix service providers who traditionally have never sold a communications/collaboration product. At Citrix, he was director of Citrix service provider sales for the Americas.

Last year, Star2Star initiated a new professional relationship with Citrix as the only Citrix Ready UCaaS partner. This opened up a new channel for partners of both companies to sell Star2Star’s enhanced virtual desktop solution.

Star2Star’s Mick Miralis

Star2Star also announced that its Application Framework and StarPhone for Desktop products are Citrix Ready after passing a series of performance tests.

In a Q&A with Channel Partners, Long and Miralis talk about their work with Star2Star and their goals for the year ahead. 

Channel Partners: Why did you want to join Star2Star?

Rich Long: I was looking to return to the communication space and started some dialogue with the leadership team, and really it unfolded pretty fast. I already trusted the product; it’s always had a great reputation for being reliable, and a full and complete portfolio, and the thing that really interested me is Star2Star is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this evolution of communication partnering, this convergence of different partnering models. Star2Star was built from the beginning to cater to multiple different types of models and in particular the models where the partners can play a role in the implementation, the support, the pre- and post-sales delivery — and so it’s kind of the best of both worlds. The partners can participate if they want a resale or wholesale model and still keep the same lines of service business that they had, and the same supporting model to their clients that they are used to, including participating on the billing side, which is really critical. That opportunity for me was really key and the timing was another thing, because there are a couple of different partnering models and communities, and they’re all very strong and powerful, and have their own values. The master agent-agent model is a very powerful engine and we use that partnering model very efficiently, too. We have a lot of agents and we use a couple of master agents to deliver our solution and find new opportunities for us, but we are probably built more, from the beginning, to cater to those resell models where the delivery of the product is still a hosted cloud solution. But the partners can play a role in delivering and implementing the hardware, as well as the service and installation on the back side, and take part in the topline revenue, too, on a resell model.

CP: What’s your role in Star2Star’s channel?

RL: I’m on a mission with some colleagues to …