Gradwell Communications’ new partner programme rectifies the “neglect” its channel has seen in recent years, according to incoming CEO Jamie Ward.
The Alliance programme is the company’s brand new channel programme which was formulated by Ward and Justin Powell, Head of Channel Development, to give structure, understanding and commitment to partners. It will be launched from 1 October.
“I think it's fair to say that Gradwell had neglected its channel for the past five years,” Ward (pictured above) told UC Today.
“It had some good growth back in 2012 through 2016 and then after that, it was pretty much neglected and there was no structure around it. Partners could join as a wholesale partner or they could effectively join as a dealer, but that was about it –there was no ecosystem.
“We had nothing stating their responsibilities to us as a partner, what our expectations are, what we're going to deliver to them, what our service wrap looks like, clear definitions around what they're going to get, what the SLAs are, or how we're going to help them support their customers. None of that really existed; there were bits and bobs all over the place, but we've spent the last few months putting it together into this programme”
Highlights of the new Alliance programme include a new partner portal which allows partners to configure prices and quotes directly from the portal to their customers, as well as giving them real-time updates on issues such as faults and tickets. Larger partners will also get access to network management tools to support their customers.
Ward also pointed out Gradwell’s hosted telephony platform as a major ingredient in the Alliance programme.
“We’ve spent the last two and a half years really building it out. It’s really built to serve that sub-30 extension market which I don't think, many others do very well,” he said.
We've really simplified it: we've made the self-serve on it really easy and we’ve dramatically reduced the provisioning burden on the partner.”
His colleague Powell (pictured right) added that the programme has been designed not just for partners that specialise in comms but for managed service providers who want to move into the voice space.
“The Alliance programme is exciting for our existing comms partners, but it will also attract IT partners and print partners – companies that are looking to get into voice. [With Alliance] they see a partner in Gradwell that is big, but not too big that they can’t get that day-to-day, friendly, professional service that can help them grow.”
For those MSPs and resellers that do not include voice as part of their service offerings, they are missing out on a big market opportunity that their rivals are likely picking up on, Ward added.
“Service providers that don't currently offer a voice service need to recognise that if they're not offering that then they can be certain that the voice providers are adding IT services to their portfolio, and they are going to be in and around their customers,” he warned.
