Ooma, the UC and VoIP provider, has hired David Beagle, previously Office Depot’s senior director of channel services, as head of channels for Ooma Business.

In his new role, Beagle will execute strategies to work with various partner types, including creating go-to-market models that fit partners’ businesses.

Prior to Office Depot, Beagle was Mitel’s East regional director of master agents, and before that was vice president of channel development at Fonality, which NetFortris acquired.

“I have known Dave for many years beginning with our time together at M5 (bought by ShoreTel),” said Robert Ferrer, vice president of Ooma Business. “VPM5 was one of the original UCaaS providers. Dave helped build that channel program whose model is consistently repeated in many of the current providers. Dave has continued to build programs inside of the UCaaS space as well in other technology services companies. His experiences in working with multiple channel models is very valuable. Dave’s creative and strategic thinking is what we are looking for as we build the Ooma channel program with a new approach and model.”

Beagle said Ooma is in a “unique position to be able to deliver programs that allow partners to do a full resell model like our current VAR program, act in an agent community with full-on sell with support or even via our recently launched white-label program.”

Ooma’s David Beagle

“Ooma has done an excellent job to date in building the base foundation with multiple partner models,” he said. “We have hundreds of transacting partners today and this is an area that just needs further cultivation to see grow. This includes program enhancements like additional tools, resources, both marketing and personnel. The growth segment for us will be seen in our ability to leverage the capabilities born out of the acquisitions made by us. My priorities will be ensuring our white-label program goes from walking to running and driving additional VAR engagement via different forms of distribution.”

Another key focus will be developing a program that allows all of Ooma’s partners, regardless of go-to-market strategy, to have access to the company’s services, Beagle said.

Users of Ooma‘s core subscription services now total more than 1 million.

“It’s a crowded marketplace, and from a channel perspective, staying at the forefront or top of mind will always be challenge,” Beagle said. “No doubt there is a lot of noise out there. By ensuring we have the multitude of ways any partner from any channel can engage will be a key differentiator. I have little doubt in my mind a big challenge will be to avoid falling victim to playing the same game as some of the other providers. We will not flood the market with high-cap spiffs or residuals that cannot be sustained by our business. Those are real dollars that take away from what I feel is core to what every company and every partner really wants: real focus on the customer experience. We all know customer acquisition costs can be very high and that maintaining the satisfaction levels is key to avoiding churn. And this is an area that we have [been] excellent.”