Nextiva Partners Get New Channel Program, Leaders from Microsoft, Google

Nextiva partners now have a new partner program, NeXus, along with new channel leaders from Microsoft, Dropbox and Google.

NeXus includes access to gamified training and certifications, demand generation tools, enhanced marketing capabilities and MDF. It also offers reviews of upcoming product enhancements, promotions and SPIFFs, and more to help partners across distinct business tiers.

In addition, Nextiva’s newest channel leaders include:

• Eric Roach, former Microsoft sales leader and channel executive at Accordo Group and Intermedia, as vice president of channel development.
• Hank Humphreys, former global channel chief at Dropbox and channel leader at Google, as vice president of revenue strategy and operations.

They report to Eric Martorano, Nextiva’s new chief revenue officer. Before joining Nextiva, he oversaw Microsoft’s U.S. channel sales business.

Nextiva also has created a new enterprise architect team. It will work with partners on gaining enterprise customers and closing those opportunities.

Nextiva’s Eric Martorano

In a Q&A with Channel Partners, Martorano provides more details about the strategy behind the new partner program and channel leadership.

Channel Partners: What prompted the need for the new channel program? How is it different from what’s been in place?

Eric Martorano: Nextiva has been very successful in working with the channel over the last 12 years. Fifty percent of our company’s revenue today comes from the channel. But we also recognize that we’ve got to continue to innovate and invest, and support our channels in new ways to drive growth for them and our partnership. So as I came on board over a month ago, we assessed some of the opportunities that we could invest in.

We’re launching this brand new partner program, NeXus, which I think will arm our partners with a really robust set of pre- and post-sales tools in the industry, where we’re including new and additional training and certifications. We’re putting in place some comprehensive demand-generation tools and additional marketing capabilities. Additional resources that we’re going to be placing into the program are partner account managers, enterprise solution architects, additional sales engineering capabilities and additional channel sales managers in the field.

We know that the channel is one of our most strategic assets. And we have to place significant bets and investments in our channel and our partners. And that’s why we have announced this new channel partner program.

CP: Did input from Nextiva partners come into play when building the new program and these other new channel investments?

EM: Absolutely. So even prior to me getting here, we’ve been highly engaged with the channel. We have a partner advisory board as well. They provided us feedback along the way on areas that we can improve our partnership or engage even deeper. So we haven’t just relied on the experience of many of us who have been here for over 20 years working with the channel. We’ve also incorporated …