PlanetOne, SHI, CDW Among Winners of Inaugural 8×8 Channel Partner Awards

The first 8×8 Channel Partner Awards honored several North American partners, including PlanetOne, SHI International, Vertical Communications and more.

8×8’s John DeLozier

The 8×8 awards were announced virtually by John DeLozier, 8×8‘s senior vice president and global channel chief, Kathy Mazza, regional vice president of strategic channels, and Bobby Hall, vice president of North America channels.

“What an amazing year it’s been here in North America,” DeLozier said. “We’re very grateful for you. We’re grateful for the trust that you’ve put into 8×8 as a supplier. And we’ll continue to up our game and work as hard as we can as you continue to up yours and work with all those amazing customers throughout the United States.”

Master Agent, Subagent, VAR

PlanetOne was named North American Master Agent of the Year. It was based on year-over-year growth.

North American Subagent of the Year is SHI International.

8×8’s Bobby Hall

“Obviously our message is resonating with their sales group and they’re attacking the market with us,” Hall said.

Vertical Communications was named North American VAR of the Year.

“I’m so excited to give this award out because they’ve been with us from the very beginning,” DeLozier said. “Here at 8×8, we meet you where you are in the market, whether you’re a master or a subagent, a wholesale partner, a VAR, an MSP, a carrier, an alliances partner, we don’t care. We want to meet you where you are in the partner channel as our partners.”

Evangelist, Deal of the Year, Channel Manager

8×8 North American Evangelist of the Year is Rob DeVita, founder and CEO of Mejeticks.

8×8’s Kathy Mazza

“I met this gentleman I think on my first week here at 8×8 and that’s been about three years, and he has continued to be an evangelist and has brought some of the most record-breaking deals,” Mazza said.

The North American Deal of the Year award went to CDW.

“This was a huge win with our friends at CDW, a major, major retail with hundreds of locations and thousands of seats,” Mazza said. “We are super thrilled with the partnership with CDW. This was a hard-fought win together in the trenches, and we’re really looking forward to the continued expanded partnership with our friends at CDW. So more to come.”

Stephanie Bouras, Intelisys‘ director of sales for the Southeast region, was named 8×8 North American Channel Manager of the Year.

“You’ve been such an advocate and a true partner of 8×8, not only in your territory, but ever extending throughout that overall partnership,” Mazza said.

Rising Star, XCaaS Partner of the Year

Corporate Data & Voice Solutions (CDVS) was named North American Rising Star of the Year.

“The amount of creative work that they have done during the pandemic, they’ve had some very significant deals, but also the way they attack the market with webinars both for UC and for contact center, and then the ability to leverage all of our tools [and] our programs,” Hall said.

Wrapping up the 8×8 awards, Comstar Technologies was named North America Experience Communications as a Service (XCaaS) Partner of the Year.

“This one wasn’t even close because they had attacked the market following our messaging, and being specialists both from the UC as well as the contact center,” Hall said. “This is a very unique group meeting the customers where they wanted to work with us.”

On Tuesday, 8×8 announced XCaaS enhancements. It now includes support for video meetings with up to 500 active participants. It also includes advanced mobility to drive organization-wide collaboration for a hybrid workforce.

Moreover, it offers deeper integration with 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams.