AT&T Channel Chief Exclusive: ACC Business Channel Team Expanding

ACC Business is increasing is channel sales force by 50 percent, according to the AT&T’s channel chief.

Zee Hussain, who took the helm of AT&T Partner Solutions two months ago, spoke to Channel Partners about the year in review and the year ahead. Hussain began with the title of division president of AT&T Partner Solutions and has overseen a major realignment of AT&T’s three indirect programs. His official title now is channel chief of AT&T Partner Solutions.

Hussain shared details about the three programs connected to Partner Solutions. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Channel Partners: First off, could you talk about your change in title to channel chief?

AT&T’s Zee Hussain

Zee Hussain: You know this really well — that the external title for the person leading the channel in the industry is channel chief. When I first took the position, we were kind of more focused on what makes sense in terms of what would resonate and translate from an internal title standpoint. So that’s why we started out with “division president.” As I went out and talked to different [solution providers] and we talked about our reorganization and what the channel looks like, the external market started referring to me as “channel chief.” The internal folks in the channel basically said, “Yeah, your title is really channel chief.” So we went and made the modification to make sure that the rules and responsibilities and how the external market views my role are consistent. Nothing changed in terms of responsibilities. It was just a recognition of the fact that we need have the appropriate title that’s recognized by the industry.

CP: What were the highlights of AT&T’s channel in 2017?

ZH: You and I spoke, actually, very, very early, probably even before I was officially channel chief. It’s been a little over 60 days in the job.

With regard to my first 60 days, the two things I wanted to accomplish were: spend a good amount of time with our employees, and I wanted to spend a good amount of time with our solution providers (SPs). With regard to employees, I did a lot of one-on-ones with field folks. I did several town halls. I did meetings in smaller settings. I also had a goal of meeting with every single one of our general managers and spending an hour with every single one of them, understanding the business and getting their perspective of the business. The sense of mission that our organization here has is like very few organizations that I’ve seen. That mission is all about putting the solution provider at the heart, at the center, of everything we do. It was really refreshing. It was really energizing to see that everyone understands that our solution-provider success is …