Two master agent partners have earned top honors with 8×8 in the last two weeks.

The UCaaS provider Thursday recognized TBI as a platinum partner in its Open Channel Program. The recognition rewards the master agent for selling the Open Communications Platform — a portfolio that 8×8 released in the summer.

Corey Cohen, TBI vice president of marketing, praised 8×8 for helping agents grow their business.

TBI’s Corey Cohen

“By supporting go-to-market and sales enablement efforts to drive new business, upsell and customer retention programs, 8×8 is truly differentiated in the marketplace,” Cohen said. “This allows our partners to help businesses and organizations as they accelerate digital transformation initiatives to ensure business responsiveness and resilience.”

Avant’s Drew Lydecker

8×8 announced platinum honors for Avant Communications earlier this month. Avant President Drew Lydecker thanked agents for making the recognition possible. He also thanked 8×8 for helping Avant meet demand for enterprise cloud communications.

“… 8×8’s proven track record providing a reliable global infrastructure, top-of-the-line functionality and business integration capabilities is a key differentiator. Together we are empowering the growth and success of our trusted advisors as they help organizations ensure business resilience while enabling employees to work from anywhere,” Lydecker said.

8×8 lists both TBI and Avant as part of the 8×8 Open Channel Program’s top three master agent partners. Also, Intelisys noted in July that it had earned platinum status in 8×8’s program.

8×8’s Program

The vendor first launched the Open Channel Program in July, promising more tools and marketing resources. The program caters to approximately 1,000 active partners across the globe. Master agents, subagents and VARs comprise the members.

8×8’s John DeLozier

“The shift to operate-from-anywhere enterprise communications has been elevated to a board-level and c-suite imperative, and is a major opportunity globally for the channel,” said John DeLozier, 8×8’s senior vice president and global channel chief. “We are investing in the 8×8 Open Channel Program to provide all of the benefits, tools, resources and support required so both our partners and their customers can succeed.”

DeLozier recently spoke at the Channel Partners Virtual conference.

Avant and TBI earned recognition in Masergy‘s latest partner awards, but it was a different master agent that took top honors.