Colt Expands in North America, Appoints Level 3/Global Crossing Alum as SVP

**Editor’s Note: Click here for a list of recent important channel-program changes you should know or here to see which channel people were on the move in October.**

Colt Technology Services, a multinational network, voice and data center provider, is expanding its sales and support teams into North America.

Headquartered in London amd with offices in 20 countries across Europe and Asia, Colt now has two U.S. regional offices — one in Chicago and one in Jersey City, New Jersey. Colt also has established a new leadership team in the region, including company veteran Mike Buchner – who spent 10 years at Level 3/Global Crossing – as the new senior vice president of North America and global carriers.

Mike Kopp, Colt’s vice president of indirect sales, tells Channel Partners that partners and the channel play a critical role in the expansion.

“Colt’s strategy for penetrating the enterprise and large enterprise space is through the channel,” he said. “Colt understands that a healthy percentage of enterprise customers work through a trusted adviser. The channel in the United States is truly an extension of the European sales force.”

Colt has partner agreements with a number of master agents in the United States and has access to their subagents.{ad}

“Our partner program focuses on supporting the agents in the United States,” Kopp said. “We understand that partners can get a little nervous when selling internationally. Our strength is in our local understanding of culture and customs in the markets we sell within. We have assembled a team of experts in the United States that understand the international market. These folks are the agent advocates internally, and it’s earning Colt very high marks in the partner community.”

Buchner will work with Elgin Lemmon, Colt’s new vice president of direct sales, and Kopp to develop existing customer relationships, expand channel partnerships and add new clients. Patrick Ferretti will serve as Colt’s head of marketing, working closely with Buchner, Lemmon and Kopp to spearhead Colt’s marketing strategy. Beyond the leadership team, Colt plans to increase its North American staff by 30 percent within the next 12 months in order to meet growing demand and “deliver the highest levels of service and support for its customers,” the company said.

“Colt’s North American expansion does provide new opportunities for partners,” Kopp said. “Colt is the No. 2 provider behind the incumbent in all 13 countries that we operate in, and that is a really great place to be if you want to work with the U.S. partners, and we do. Colt has some really great solutions for the capital markets segment as well; the financial vertical is one of our strongest segments.”

Colt provides high bandwidth services for enterprise, cloud and wholesale customers in North America, Europe and Asia’s largest business hubs. Customers include 18 of the top 25 bank and diversified financial groups, and 19 out of the top 25 companies in both global media and telecoms industries (Forbes 2000 list, 2014). In addition, Colt works with more than 50 exchange venues and 13 European central banks.

“With our expansion into North America, Colt continues to execute on its strategy of providing world-class network and communications services, coupled with premier customer support,” Buchner said. “The localized expertise of our team in the region, strengthened by our strong assets and deep experience in Europe and Asia, will allow us to meet organizations’ bandwidth and connectivity needs across the globe.”