DAY 2 DAY 2 at PART OF # TECHSUPERSHOW C&C Takes Center Stage During Thursday Morning Keynotes TEXPO kicked off Thursday with two addressed,” explained Verma during his chat keynote presentations from RingCentral with TMC CEO Rich Tehrani. Isenior vice president of cloud operations Peterson spoke about the changing role of the Curtis Peterson and 8x8 CEO Vik Verma. CIO. According to Peterson, 49 percent of CIOs The message throughout both presentations are now on the hook for bottom line revenue. was clear: seamless communication and Fifty-five percent are on the hook for the customer collaboration (C&C) across all touchpoints is experience (CX). And 58 percent are responsible now a basic expectation for customers and for ensuring a positive employee experience (EX), employees alike. Executives and resellers which is the latest trending positivity buzzword. that choose to ignore this trend will miss out According to Peterson, the proliferation of on critical opportunities for not only driving technology has made CIOs equally responsible revenue but for attracting and retaining for HR as they are for information management. employees and customers. He pointed to a study by Gartner which shows “We all have a responsibility and opportu- how by 2021 CIOs will be as responsibleWave, for RCN, and Grande now provide Wholesale nity to make technology ubiquitous and make culture as HR. access under one umbrella—Wave Wholesale. sure [product] weaknesses get looked at and RingCentral’s Curtis Peterson (Continued on page 4) Take a different route. 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Console Connect is the world’s first Software-Defined Interconnection®(SDI®) platform that makes connecting to cloud-based, business-critical applications, partners and offices simple, predictable and secure. • Built on top of our tier 1 IP/MPLS network • Network spans 3,000 cities, 160 countries • Cloud data centers in 38+ countries • One port, multiple connections • Clients can connect easily and affordably • Throttle bandwidth as needed, on-demand Try it for FREE! Contact us at [email protected] or visit us at www.consoleconnect.com to learn more. DAY 2 (Continued from page 1) you have groups of employees that rotate “Technology drove this,” Peterson said. their ‘always on’ time? Do you give people “The device. The application. The absolute digital breaks? Do you have a way to manage permissiveness of having a computer in your a digital break? Can you have someone liter- pocket that surpasses anything we thought of ally stop calls, texts and messages for three or C3 is THE Master Service just 30 years ago in terms of compute storage, four days to take a digital break?” memory, edge AI and all the other functions As Peterson said, how we leverage these including cameras, digital space on the screen, technologies can make a huge difference in and network capabilities almost anywhere on the overall culture of a company. So, as you Provider you have been the globe – even flying at 38,000 feet.” walk the show floor at ITEXPO this week, Peterson challenged attendees to ask the spend some time thinking about how your following types of questions. company is communicating and collaborating. searching for! “What is the culture in your company?” said Identify where your weak points are and Peterson. “What is it supposed to be? Do you look for ways to bring teams closer together. have a culture of ‘always on?’ Your employees Investing in the right communications tech- should be accessible anytime, anywhere. Do nologies will pay dividends. p 8x8’s Vik Verma chats with TMC’s Rich Tehrani Star2Star Adds Firepower to A Single Source Channel Strategy Provider for Your tar2Star recently added two high profile “Most of the UC partners that I’m familiar merged with StarStar in 2018 – was recently Virtual Desktops Disaster channel veterans to its leadership team. with don’t need evangelizing on what UC is, or acquired by Comcast, which will ultimately Clients’ IT, Telecom, & Servers Recovery S In January, Star2Star named Rich why it’s important,” Long said. “They know that benefit Star2Star in the long run. Long senior vice president of channel develop- in and out. They live it every day. But what they “I think we have a big opportunity ahead of ment. Long comes to Star2Star from Alert Logic, want are flexible models where they can partici- us,” Miralis said. “The enterprise space has Cloud, Security and where he served as vice president of channels. pate in the service and support of their clients in about a 2 percent penetration. Mid-market is “I’ve always admired Star2Star and the basic the way that they choose.” about 12 percent. The SMB space is in the low Management Needs. tenants of what they stand for,” Long said. Star2Star will handle as much or as little as thirties. But when you look at our differentiation, “They offer a reliable and extensive product the partner wants them to. how we take that complexity out of the channel portfolio, along with amazing customer service. “Some partners prefer to take on a deeper ecosystem and how we’re growing in the new So, when the right opportunity opened at the role in terms of implementation and support, markets that we’re developing, I think it’s going Managed Security right time, I jumped without hesitation.” and that’s a model that we embrace and to be a fantastic year.” Services & Compliance Star2Star also hired Mick Miralis, formerly of celebrate and reward our partners for doing,” Long mentioned how the company plans to Citrix, to serve as its new executive vice presi- Long said. “Different partners have different capitalize on the continued shift to hosted and C3’s Award Winning Partner Program dent of channel sales. Miralis has a demon- ways of conducting their business and skill deployed models. will expand your service portfolio, strated history of success working with enter- sets for supporting their clients, and that value “We have an advantage with partner prise cloud companies and a wealth of experi- is important to them. We respect what makes communities that are already deploying prem- increase your revenue, and decrease ence bringing new products to market, said the partner ‘sticky’ to their clients. We let them ises-based solutions, but also want to accel- Star2Star. After researching the market, Miralis participate in a modular way and then reward erate the adoption of their clients and prospects your churn. There are no minimums, no found that Star2Star checked all of his boxes, them accordingly.” to hosted models,” Long said. “We provide as a highly flexible and unified option. For Miralis, Star2Star’s willingness to provide them an opportunity to do that and participate commitments, and we offer training, sales Hosted PBX Complex “Star2Star offers a fully integrated commu- a high level of engagement is one factor that led in those service models and get those service & SIP Network nications platform that’s SaaS-based and can him to the company. streams. We think that’s unique, and because engineering and marketing support. be leveraged in a virtual desktop world,” Miralis “We engage heavily with our partners,” of our experience doing that over many years, Engineering said. “Plus, when you peel back the layers, it’s Miralis said. “We don’t just transfer knowledge there’s a trust level and there’s an operational clear that the company has a very strong finan- and leave the partner to start selling if they’re efficiency that’s already in place.” cial record and an absolutely stellar customer not in a position to do so. We’re fully embedding Star2Star also will be looking to tap into For more information retention rate. So it’s a great fit.” our sales team and our channel managers in the demand for digital transformation and Star2Star’s retention rate, it should be noted, is the field within the business so they can collab- cloud migration. call us at 888 .571 .8190 or email us at [email protected] now hovering around 99.4 percent. The company orate at a practical level, day in and day out.” “We are a cloud-based solution,” Miralis or visit us online at www.c3cloud.com is also entirely channel based. “Not a bit of our Looking ahead to the rest of 2020, Star2Star concluded. “Our goal is to further tap into the revenue flows outside of our partners,” Long added. is expecting to accelerate its growth further ‘SaaSification’ trend. We’re all about innovation What’s more, Star2Star is now offering one into the mid-market and enterprise space as it and staying ahead of the curve. We know where /C3OFFICE /C3OFFICE “CLOUD COMPUTING CONCEPTS of the most flexible and unique partner models expands its strategic partnerships such as the the trends are. It’s all about SaaS, and the cloud in the industry. one with Citrix. In addition, Blueface – which is core to how we’re going to market.” p 4 CVx at ITEXPO I FEBRUARY 12 - 14, 2020 www.bekabusinessmedia.com C3 is THE Master Service ProviderC3 is THE you Master have Service been C3searching is THE Master for! Service ProviderProvider youyou havehave been been searchingsearching for!for! A Single Source Provider for Your A Single Source Virtual Desktops Disaster Clients’ IT, Telecom, & Servers Recovery AProvider Single Source for Your Cloud, Security and Virtual Desktops Disaster ProviderClients’ IT, for Telecom, Your & Servers Recovery ManagementCloud, Security Needs.