Masergy, CenturyLink, RingCentral Clean Up at Intelisys Awards

Intelisys sales partners chose Masergy Communications as their favorite vendor.

The provider of software-defined networking, UCaaS, managed security and more took home top honors with the Intelisys Partners’ Choice Award. It’s a fitting award, as Intelisys led Masergy partners in overall sales last year.

Intelisys doled out recognition to plenty of suppliers Thursday morning.

CenturyLink, the largest supplier in the Intelisys’ stable, enjoyed the biggest revenue growth in the last year. Meantime, RingCentral earned no shortage of hardware. Partners voted for RingCentral as Intelisys’ top vendor for UCaaS and contact center, and they also voted Michael Zurn as the best channel manager in the Northeast. Their revenue growth was highest in 2018 relative to their size.

Pretty good day for @RingCentral. Michael Zurn voted Northeast Channel Manager of the Year. Then the vendor is voted on top UCaaS supplier and is recognized for top revenue growth rate. #ChannelConnect pic.twitter.com/Mn6mHo5kYN

— James Anderson (@JamesAndersonCP) October 4, 2018

Partners’ Choice Vendors

• UCaaS/CCaaS: RingCentral
• Cloud: Evolve IP
• Cable: Comcast
• Overall: Masergy

Partners’ Choice Channel Managers

• Southeast: Armando Valverde, AT&T
• Northeast: Michael Zurn, RingCentral
• Pacific: Michael Luck, Spectrum Enterprise
• Pacific Northwest/Mountain: Mara Nursement, BCN
• Midwest: Nicole Beckman, CenturyLink
• Southwest: Charles Bates, Nitel
• National Channel Manager of the Year: Cody Calhoun, Comcast

Based on Revenue

• Top New Supplier: Five9
• 2018 Top Percentage Growth: RingCentral
• 2018 Top Revenue Growth: CenturyLink (still largest supplier in portfolio)

Intelisys announced the awards on the second day of Channel Connect, its annual partner conference. Read about the Wednesday keynote, where Andrew Pryfogle predicted a gigantic opportunity for partners in UCaaS.

Morning Keynote

Salesforce’s Tiffani Bova

The conference’s focus on customer experience continued Thursday with Tiffani Bova, Salesforce’s global customer growth and innovation evangelist. Bova laid out numbers that say the technology partners provide is barely half the conversation. According to Bova, 80 percent of customers said the experience a company provides is as important as its products, and 67 percent said they will pay more money “for a great experience.”

“Customers will remember the experience they have with a brand (or person) much longer than the price they paid,” Bova said.

Avaya

The unified communications provider, which is undertaking a major pivot from on-premises to cloud-first, has been making significant changes in its channel this year.

Avaya announced its cloud business unit in January and has since launched a master agent program for the the unit. Intelisys, Jenne and Telarus are members of the program.

Tom Phillips, vice president of cloud channel sales, told Channel Partners that the agent model is “ideal for …