Level 3 Rolls Out Enterprise Voice to Channel
Big bandwidth has been the primary push for the Level 3 Communications Inc. Business Partner Program, but earlier this month it rolled out enterprise voice products to the channel, one of several recent initiatives cited as evidence of the carrier’s commitment to its sales partners amid rumors of cutbacks in the program.
A Level 3 spokesperson said the company does not comment on rumors, but Level 3’s channel chief said the carrier remains committed to its indirect sales strategy. He said there have been no headcount reductions in the channel support area, and the carrier is counting on more revenue from indirect sales, not less. “While we would like to see it doing better, we are definitely seeing a good contribution from the partner community,” said Craig Schlagbaum, vice president for indirect channels for Level 3. “We are going to look for it to do more as time goes on.”
He added, “We are driving a lot of sales of voice right now as we go into 2009.”
Schlagbaum said the carrier is capitalizing on the voice assets it gained with the acquisitions of Broadwing, ICG, TelCove and others, by enabling its direct and indirect sales teams to sell TDM-based voice services to enterprise accounts billing $1,000 per month or more.
“While we are still focused on selling up-market services, we know that voice is still an important service enterprises need,” he said. The rollout includes new pricing as well as spiffs and incentives on switched and dedicated long-distance, toll-free and PRIs. The new voice services and pricing also are integrated into Level 3’s MasterStream quoting tool. The company presently is training its direct sales and partner sales managers. Partner sales managers will extend the training to the agents in their territories.
Schlagbaum said Level 3 also is continuing to invest in support tools, such as quoting via MasterStream. He anticipates automated quoting for MPLS and Ethernet services to be integrated into the tool by third quarter 2009.
Level 3 also has been working to recruit agents certified under the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development program to compete in the federal procurement market to help the carrier sell to the federal government. That invite-only program has been in soft-launch since the end of August. It will be opened up to a broader group in 2009.
Earlier this year, Level 3 announced its channel integration policy has been extended to Wholesale Markets and Content Markets (ISPs and Web 2.0 companies), which previously were only accessible to agents on a permission basis. The Wholesale Markets group, which includes federal government, systems integrators and service providers (telcos and cablecos), also was opened to partners on a teaming basis with the direct sales force.
Schlagbaum said Level 3 is focused more on partner productivity than recruitment. “We still add partners on a regular basis, but our continuing focus is to get traction with agents that are focused on us,” he said.
He declined to say how many direct agents sell for Level 3, but said with its six master agents, their subagents and the direct agents, there are “hundreds” of agents “actually selling” Level 3’s services.
