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Managed telecom service provider Nitel has launched its first partner program open to its top-selling master agents and distributors.

Nitel’s Taylor Castranova

The Elite Partner Program delivers dedicated partner support and business development resources, including market development fund accrual and channel-director alignment for agents and channel partners in their local markets. It includes eight master agents and distributors: Avant, Converged Network Services Group, Intelisys, MicroCorp, PlanetOne Communications, Sandler Partners, Telarus and Telecom Consulting Group.

Taylor Castranova, Nitel’s vice president of channel sales and account development, tells Channel Partners the program was formed with six goals in mind: more post-sales support; more accountability and responsiveness; additional training resources; greater regional visibility; increased marketing support; and an improved partner experience driving additional business and revenue growth.

“We conducted a lot of interviews with our partners before launching this and there was definitely a need, an ask and a desire for us to be more visible on a regional basis,” she said. “So we have aligned now all of the subs and masters with associated regional both rep and leadership to hopefully drive more penetration into those markets.”

Nitel is increasing its focus on SD-WAN and security products, “and with that, there’s a need to get that story back out there,” and “to sell solutions,” not products, Castranova said.

“We thought this was a way to really touch on our core partner base, these Nitel Elite partners, and get them a dedicated resource to continue to drive that business, and expand on the growth that we were starting to see with them,” she said. “We want the interaction with Nitel to be easy and this is one step toward that. Bringing on the account management team will be another step and demonstration of that effort, and that will be coming soon.”

For the remainder of this year, the number of partners in the program likely will remain the same, “and going into next year we’re certainly going to be evaluating expanding and adding new partners to the program,” Castranova said.

“Going forward we’re looking to diversity our partner portfolio and who we’re working with to really dive into more of the MSP and VAR space as well,” she said. “So I think you’ll see some additional growth coming from that avenue. Nitel is a channel-only company, so we don’t have a direct sales force out there, so our success really is the success of our partners.”

“Building and nurturing a successful partner ecosystem is foundational to achieving exponential growth,” said Rick Stern, Nitel’s CEO. “Master agents and distribution partners play an increasingly important role in the pre-and post-sales and support efforts of today’s agents and MSPs. Our new Elite Partner Program, combined with the expansion of our channel and business development teams, will make it easier for our master agents and distributors to engage and ultimately enable our channel partners with the technology, insights and resources needed to capitalize on the growing demand for advanced technologies including SD-WAN.”