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AT&T Partnerships, Sprint SMB Offering, Collaboration Products Lead New Services Roundup
You can find CenturyLink, Evolve IP and Cisco here too, not to mention some master agents.
AT&T rolled out all kinds of offerings last month.
From 5G phones to UCaaS to edge computing, Ma Bell frequented the news wire in November. Fellow carriers Sprint and CenturyLink also made our list of new products and services.
Collaboration was a hot topic, as Cisco revamped its portfolio and multiple companies announced new integrations with Microsoft Teams. On similar fronts, Avaya enhanced its contact center offering, and Nextiva expanded its UCaaS platform.
Master agents Telarus and CNSG also made the news with supplier agreements.
Scroll through the gallery below to see 12 new offerings that are available for partners to sell.
Missed the previous services roundup? Check out the October recap.
AT&T
It was a big month for AT&T, as it launched a key pillar of its 5G strategy for partners.
The company made the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G smartphone available to the AT&T Partner Exchange and AT&T Alliance Channel indirect programs. The phone works on the AT&T mmWave network, which currently works in 21 cities.
We interviewed Stacey Marx, AT&T Partner Solutions’ senior vice president and channel chief, about the announcement.
It was a big month for AT&T, as it launched a key pillar of its 5G strategy for partners.
The company made the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G smartphone available to the AT&T Partner Exchange and AT&T Alliance Channel indirect programs. The phone works on the AT&T mmWave network, which currently works in 21 cities.
We interviewed Stacey Marx, AT&T Partner Solutions’ senior vice president and channel chief, about the announcement.
Sprint
The carrier introduced a cloud-based commercial phone service geared toward SMBs.
A VoIP provider called Ooma powers the Sprint Omni service, which can be sold as a standalone offering or converged with other Sprint business products. Features include a virtual receptionist and virtual extensions.
Sprint Business’ vice president of product development said the new service gives SMBs “feature-rich, cloud-based phone services which used to only be accessible by big businesses and corporations."
Edward Gately has the scoop.
The carrier introduced a cloud-based commercial phone service geared toward SMBs.
A VoIP provider called Ooma powers the Sprint Omni service, which can be sold as a standalone offering or converged with other Sprint business products. Features include a virtual receptionist and virtual extensions.
Sprint Business’ vice president of product development said the new service gives SMBs “feature-rich, cloud-based phone services which used to only be accessible by big businesses and corporations."
Edward Gately has the scoop.
CenturyLink
CenturyLink has a new content delivery network (CDN) platform.
CenturyLink CDN Edge Compute helps businesses build personalized web application experiences and gives developers open module architecture to build and deploy workloads at the edge. The new offering benefits partners whose customers manage web applications and websites.
“Because CDN Edge Compute is an open module edge platform, businesses can utilize a wide range of industry leading software tools and even incorporate their own proprietary software into the edge-delivery nodes," said CenturyLink’s vice president of global internet and content delivery services.
Read about the platform.
CenturyLink has a new content delivery network (CDN) platform.
CenturyLink CDN Edge Compute helps businesses build personalized web application experiences and gives developers open module architecture to build and deploy workloads at the edge. The new offering benefits partners whose customers manage web applications and websites.
“Because CDN Edge Compute is an open module edge platform, businesses can utilize a wide range of industry leading software tools and even incorporate their own proprietary software into the edge-delivery nodes," said CenturyLink’s vice president of global internet and content delivery services.
Read about the platform.
Microsoft-AT&T
The telecommunications and computing giants jointly unveiled Network Edge Compute (NEC) technology.
Select Dallas customers got to try out the NEC technology at AT&T network edge locations, and a preview of the technology will be available to customers in Los Angeles and Atlanta next year. The announcement builds on a previous agreement to make Microsoft AT&T's non-network application cloud provider. Their collaboration joins AT&T's 5G core with Microsoft Azure services.
Learn about the expanded partnership.
The telecommunications and computing giants jointly unveiled Network Edge Compute (NEC) technology.
Select Dallas customers got to try out the NEC technology at AT&T network edge locations, and a preview of the technology will be available to customers in Los Angeles and Atlanta next year. The announcement builds on a previous agreement to make Microsoft AT&T's non-network application cloud provider. Their collaboration joins AT&T's 5G core with Microsoft Azure services.
Learn about the expanded partnership.
Telarus
Utah-based Telarus signed an agreement to add Open Systems to its portfolio.
The master agent gets access to Open System's SD-WAN and Security Operations Center (SOC) offerings, and the Swiss vendor will utilize Telarus' community of about4,500 subagents. A Telarus executive described the Open Systems' portfolio as a "unique approach to performance, scale and security." Open Systems recently expanded into North America and is looking to garner new customers.
Check out the partnership.
Utah-based Telarus signed an agreement to add Open Systems to its portfolio.
The master agent gets access to Open System's SD-WAN and Security Operations Center (SOC) offerings, and the Swiss vendor will utilize Telarus' community of about4,500 subagents. A Telarus executive described the Open Systems' portfolio as a "unique approach to performance, scale and security." Open Systems recently expanded into North America and is looking to garner new customers.
Check out the partnership.
Avaya-Google
Avaya expanded the availability of its Google Cloud Contact Center AI-powered contact center solution.
The cloud communications provider announced that the solution is available globally. The company is also working with Google to enable more AI features, including a topic-modeling capability that helps the call center agent "leverage real-time visibility of topics with each conversation turn."
Read the story.
Avaya expanded the availability of its Google Cloud Contact Center AI-powered contact center solution.
The cloud communications provider announced that the solution is available globally. The company is also working with Google to enable more AI features, including a topic-modeling capability that helps the call center agent "leverage real-time visibility of topics with each conversation turn."
Read the story.
Cisco
Cisco announced five collaboration portfolio enhancements at its Partner Summit.
Among the changes are a noise-cancelling Bluetooth headset and the ability to buy Cisco's phone, desk and some video systems as-a-service. Cisco also announced a unified modular app that integrates mobile, desktop and meeting room workloads onto a single platform.
Lynn Haber wrote about the Cisco Partner Summit.
Cisco announced five collaboration portfolio enhancements at its Partner Summit.
Among the changes are a noise-cancelling Bluetooth headset and the ability to buy Cisco's phone, desk and some video systems as-a-service. Cisco also announced a unified modular app that integrates mobile, desktop and meeting room workloads onto a single platform.
Lynn Haber wrote about the Cisco Partner Summit.
Nextiva
The UCaaS provider updated its customer management platform.
Nextiva added a feature called InBox, which gathers communication data to provide a "complete picture" of the customer. Executives said they are working to buck the trend of UCaaS vendors competing on price.
“Right now with the UCaaS market, price compression is continuing and pricing per seats is declining, and at the same time demand for solutions are increasing,” said Carl Katz, Nextiva’s vice president of channel sales for North America said.
See more of Katz' comments.
The UCaaS provider updated its customer management platform.
Nextiva added a feature called InBox, which gathers communication data to provide a "complete picture" of the customer. Executives said they are working to buck the trend of UCaaS vendors competing on price.
“Right now with the UCaaS market, price compression is continuing and pricing per seats is declining, and at the same time demand for solutions are increasing,” said Carl Katz, Nextiva’s vice president of channel sales for North America said.
See more of Katz' comments.
AT&T-RingCentral
AT&T's RingCentral-powered [email protected] solution is now its lead UCaaS offering.
The companies had already been partnering together, but RingCentral executives say AT&T is now "focused" on [email protected] [email protected] will integrate with Microsoft Teams to improve its collaboration capabilities, and AT&T will be using [email protected] as a strategic product alongside SD-WAN and other offerings.
Get details on the expanded partnership.
AT&T's RingCentral-powered [email protected] solution is now its lead UCaaS offering.
The companies had already been partnering together, but RingCentral executives say AT&T is now "focused" on [email protected] [email protected] will integrate with Microsoft Teams to improve its collaboration capabilities, and AT&T will be using [email protected] as a strategic product alongside SD-WAN and other offerings.
Get details on the expanded partnership.
Evolve IP
Evolve IP announced a fully native Microsoft Teams voice integration.
The solution offers "full enterprise voice capabilities" while natively using the Microsoft stack. Evolve IP’s CTO said his company's approach differs greatly from offering Teams as a bot, plug-in or third-party app. He said MSPs, many of whom sell Office 365 and Teams, will especially benefit from the announcement, as well as traditional partners.
Edward Gately wrote about Evolve IP in his UC Roundup.
Evolve IP announced a fully native Microsoft Teams voice integration.
The solution offers "full enterprise voice capabilities" while natively using the Microsoft stack. Evolve IP’s CTO said his company's approach differs greatly from offering Teams as a bot, plug-in or third-party app. He said MSPs, many of whom sell Office 365 and Teams, will especially benefit from the announcement, as well as traditional partners.
Edward Gately wrote about Evolve IP in his UC Roundup.
Dell
The vendor launched consumption-based, as-a-service offerings at the annual Dell Technologies Summit.
One such offering is PowerOne autonomous infrastructure, which combines storage, compute, networking and virtualization solutions into a single system and automates "thousands of manual steps over its life cycle." Dell executives said PowerOne will help a broader partner base sell converged infrastructure and sell across lines of business.
Read the Channel Futures story.
The vendor launched consumption-based, as-a-service offerings at the annual Dell Technologies Summit.
One such offering is PowerOne autonomous infrastructure, which combines storage, compute, networking and virtualization solutions into a single system and automates "thousands of manual steps over its life cycle." Dell executives said PowerOne will help a broader partner base sell converged infrastructure and sell across lines of business.
Read the Channel Futures story.
CNSG
North Carolina-based master agent Converged Network Services Group partnered with the UCaaS provider 8x8.
CNSG joined 8x8's partner program to take advantage of the vendor's UCaaS, contact center and video meeting offerings. 8×8 Global Channel Chief John DeLozier described the master agent as one of the fastest growing companies in its industry.
"Our master agents have been busy partnering with us on deals that move communications to the cloud, replacing legacy and single point solution providers to enable people to work smarter and collaborate faster,” DeLozier said.
CNSG announced not long afterward announced that it has been bought by the B2B technology marketplace AppSmart.
View CNSG's announcement.
North Carolina-based master agent Converged Network Services Group partnered with the UCaaS provider 8x8.
CNSG joined 8x8's partner program to take advantage of the vendor's UCaaS, contact center and video meeting offerings. 8×8 Global Channel Chief John DeLozier described the master agent as one of the fastest growing companies in its industry.
"Our master agents have been busy partnering with us on deals that move communications to the cloud, replacing legacy and single point solution providers to enable people to work smarter and collaborate faster,” DeLozier said.
CNSG announced not long afterward announced that it has been bought by the B2B technology marketplace AppSmart.
View CNSG's announcement.
