Channel Partners’ Top 12 Stories in March

Leading up to next week’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo, March was a busy month in the telecom and IT channels.

Our top 12 for the month that comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb features the looming shutdown of Toshiba Telecom, a new channel chief for a newly combined Windstream-EarthLink, and highlights from CenturyLink and PlanetOne partner events.

How do we determine our top 12 stories? We don’t; you do! They are an aggregate of online page views and our weekly newsletter results.

So what was No. 1? Click through our gallery to find out!

Looking for more top stories? Click here to see our most-read posts in February.

Follow executive editor @Craig_Galbraith on Twitter.

Distributors and master agents pave the way for partners to bring the newest, most innovative technologies to bear on the customer’s transformation journey.

To get more thoughts on what distis and masters are up to in 2017, we caught up with several speakers from the keynote, “Distis & Masters Look Ahead,” at the upcoming Channel Partners Conference & Expo.

Want a preview of the session? Click here.

Extreme Networks told us its planned $100 million purchase of Avaya’s networking business fits into its growth strategy and will benefit partners of both companies.

Approval of a final sale to either Extreme or a competing bidder is expected to take place once an auction is complete. The transaction is expected to close by June 30, the end of Avaya’s fiscal third quarter 2017, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

“Avaya Networking expects to continue to conduct business as usual until the auction process and subsequent transaction process are complete,” said Christina Rohall Knittel, Avaya’s corporate communications lead. “We will continue to sell the entire Avaya Networking portfolio of products and solutions, and all existing customer bids, quotes and support agreements should not be materially impacted.”

Learn more about the proposed transaction here.

Halloween came early when we broke down 12 scary cybersecurity scenarios from the Verizon Data Breach Digest, a companion to the carrier’s Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR),

Looking for ways to fight them? They are here.

Supply-chain experts enter the field knowing the importance of managing products. That expertise is also important to channel companies that provide hardware to customers.

In a guest column for Channel Partners, Lane Burkitt of the Institute for Supply Management offered a few recommendations for how to manage your inventory rather than letting your inventory manage you.

This is where to find them.

Lenovo’s Sammy Kinlaw

Ahead of Lenovo‘s Accelerate Partner Conference in Orlando later this month, channel chief Sammy Kinlaw sat down with us to discuss the retooling of the Lenovo Partner Program. It highlights the vendor’s ongoing shift to the data center.

Kinlaw outlined what partners can expect at Accelerate and for their businesses in the coming months.

Channel Partners recently talked to Sammy Kinlaw, North American Channel Chief at Lenovo, about what partners can expect at next month’s conference and for their businesses in the upcoming months.

“We’re announcing a tiering structure for our partners,” he said. “The tiering structure is based off of revenue and technical/sales certifications. The levels are Silver, Gold, Platinum — from lower to higher with increased revenue thresholds and required certifications.”

Read what else he had to say here.

Software-defined networking (SDN) was all the rage at the PlanetOne Tech Tour stop in Newport Beach.

The master agent put together a panel of experts – top execs from Verizon, Aryaka, Masergy and Nitel – and welcomed more than 100 of its Southern California-based partners not only to hear some important sales tips, but to do so in a spectacular location.

Click here to see what you missed, and to see people you know.

Published in late February, our story on Olen Scott’s appointment as the new channel chief at Windstream really caught fire in March.

Scott came to Windstream from its EarthLink acquisition. Jason Dishon, former Windstream channel chief, left the company to pursue other opportunities. Scott will be responsible for designing, operating and supporting Windstream’s channel sales organization.

Get the full scoop on what’s happening at Windstream here.

CallTower announced the death of Darren Suders, 36, the company’s Southeast channel manager. He had been with CallTower since January 2016.

Suders died suddenly after a heart attack. He is survived by his parents, wife Sonia, and their three young children.

Click here to see how Suders’ colleagues will remember him.

CenturyLink‘s Ascend had it all: 1,000 partners, a great location (San Diego), new announcements surrounding the company’s numerous channel programs, and a rock ‘n’ roll theme punctuated by a concert featuring the one and only Sammy Hagar.

If you skipped it, you missed out on education, networking, keynotes from channel leaders and rockin’ good time.

You can relive it here.

Any regular reader of our top 12 stories list knows they will see Channel People on the Move among the 12, most often in the top three or four.

No exception this month, as you swooped in to check out our most popular recurring gallery, featuring new hires and promotions in the channel. This edition featured moves at Intelisys, Avaya, RapidScale and more.

Friends of MPLS, you might want to turn away from this slide.

Matthew Toth, founder and lead consultant at Collaborative Communications Consulting (C3), took us through the “non-technical case” for SD-WAN that you can take with you when calling on business leaders.

“Stop buy MPLS,” he wrote. “Right now.”

Click here for his 12 ways that all-internet SD-WAN thumps MPLS.

Toshiba said it plans to shut down its business phone division as part of its continuing global restructuring.

In a letter, Brian Metherell, vice president and general manager of Toshiba America Information Systems’ (TAIS) Telecommunication Systems Division (TSD), notified dealers of the pending closure. 

Toshiba has “deemed it necessary to wind down our Telecommunication Systems Division (TSD) business starting immediately,” he said. Toshiba Canada also will be announcing the wind-down of its telecommunications business, and TSD will no longer be selling in Mexico, he said.

Dealers we talked to were “blindsided” by the decision.

“Toshiba was one of the last manufacturers standing which built both digital and IP phone systems,” said Ben Stiegler, Snaptech IT’s VP of business development for Northern California. “Although VoIP is the wave of the future, there are many campuses and environments where digital is still the best solution.”