Bandwidth.com Taps Channel for Nationwide IP Voice Network

Uphues, who is based in Houston, joined the company in February and relocated to Bandwidth.com’s Cary, N.C., headquarters this summer. Uphues started his career in telecom in 1989 at WilTel Communications Inc., but said most industry sales types know him from Voila, the VoIP upstart that was moth-balled after investors pulled support last year, or his years directing the local services sales teams for then startup MCImetro in the late ’90s. Uphues is responsible for several channels – strategic partners, agents/VARs and wholesale. The wholesale program will be rolled out later in the year. For now, Uphues is focused on furthering strategic partnerships and revamping the agent program.

He isn’t starting completely from scratch; Bandwidth.com claims 500-plus agents, five partner managers, two sales engineers and three channel managers who interface with large OEMs and distributors. However, Uphues said there was little structure, such as dedicated support and marketing resources.

Bandwidth.com Adds Channel Staff

As part of the retooling, Uphues has added a partner support manager, Mary Kate Fish, who worked for the company for four years as its primary customer support person. Fish will be charged with hiring support personnel for the partner managers. Uphues also added two new directors. Stacey McCormick, formerly director of sales and WTG, has become director of partner accounts West. She will be responsible for in charge of all partner accounts west of the Mississippi (excluding Texas) and will drive the formation and management of the partner advisory council. Uphues said he is grooming McCormick to run the partner channel. Darren Chamberlain, the former general manager of alternate channels at Global Crossing, has become the director of channel accounts West. He will drive large account opportunities (e.g., OEMs, SaaS providers, distributors) and is being groomed to run the program on a national basis.

Uphues also has defined a three-pronged program to allocate resources according to the requirements and commitments of the partners. Affiliate Partners will include agents bringing in occasional business; they will not have dedicated support or quotas. Sales Partner will be producing agents with dedicated support. Premier Partners will be master agents.

Uphues is evaluating the existing base of agents and recommending different roles for each. However, he is pushing a two-tier plan, incenting agents to align with one of a half dozen master agents Bandwidth.com hopes to secure. Those who remain direct agents will earn less – 10 percent on the BoxSet, for example – than they would by working with a master agent. Very large Sales Partners may be exceptions to this rule, he said.

In addition, agents also are required to become certified IP communications sales consultants via a two-day training course.

“Bandwidth.com is one of the few resellers that is totally focused on data,” said Vince Bradley, CEO of WTG, a Bandwidth.com master agent since 2005. “We are excited about Bandwidth.com’s new program. With WTG getting good traction in our new agent partner recruiting efforts in the VAR community, this program is a great fit for those WTG agent partners.”

TBI is a recent convert, but its CEO, Geoffrey Shepstone, said Bandwidth.com is doing well for the Chicago-based master agency so far. “They are hitting most of our requests for quotes in this footprint. Their commissions are very aggressive, and the support is really good,” he said.

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