Mitel Managed Partner Model Puts Partners In Charge Of Cloud UC Sales: Exclusive

‘We don’t want to make the sale and hand it over. Mitel has really embraced that philosophy and let us flourish by doing just that,’ one Mitel partner tells CRN.

Unified communications provider Mitel is introducing a new sales motion for partners who want to create personalized offerings and have more control over the sale and management of their customers’ cloud services.

The MiCloud Connect Partner Managed Program is a brand-new model that puts Mitel partners in the driver seat for marketing, sales, onboarding, and administration of their customers, while earning predictable recurring revenue, Lana King, vice president, partner programs, training and enablement at Mitel, told CRN exclusively.

Via the new model, partners will have another option for interacting with Mitel, rather than selling strictly through an agent model, King said.

“We don’t want to make the sale and hand it over. Mitel has really embraced that philosophy and let us flourish by doing just that,” said Scott Marks, president of telecom solution provider and Mitel partner Connecticut Communications.

Durham, Conn.-based Connecticut Communications always operated under the mentality that the customer belongs to them, not the UCaaS company, Marks said. Connecticut Communications services its own customers and keeps personal relationships with its customers, he said.

“We’re the local people. If there’s a problem, or needs change, we work with Mitel on the [customer’s] behalf.”

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The MiCloud Connect Partner Managed Program is specific to MiCloud Connect, a cloud communications, collaboration and contact center platform. Partners like Connecticut Communications for years have told Mitel they’d like more engagement with their customers, King said.

“They have been trusted advisors for their customers [and] they’ve developed resources and support systems for their customers. They own the relationship and they want more,” she said.

The Partner Managed motion, which was developed with the help of Mitel’s own partners, gives partners the option of doing their own activations, onboarding, and post-sales support, rather than offloading the work to Mitel and earning a commission.

Connecticut Communications, a partner that has been managing its own Mitel customers for years, was one solution provider that helped Mitel create the new selling motion and commission structure for the rest of the channel community, Marks said.

“Partners have been involved every step of the way in designing the program and ensuring that we are building the right solution,” King added.

Partners will also be able to wrap their own value-added services around the MiCloud Connect offering and collect incremental commissions, King said.

Mitel is also investing in the partner platform for onboarding and management, she added.

“Enabling our partners to deliver our solution in a way that fits their business model and supports them in the marketplace; the time is now to help partners shift their business into the cloud,” King said.

Mitel partners interested in the new selling motion will go through sales and technical training to ensure they have the resources they need to support their customers, according to the Ottawa, Canada-based provider.

Mitel plans to continue to work with its partner base to introduce several more “evolutions” to its partner program in April, King said.

The company does more than 90 percent of its business today through the channel.