Grivner Shows XO’s Top-Down Commitment to Channel

In the channel world, XO Communications (Booth 1501-1503) is somewhat of a turnaround story. Little more than two years ago, the CLEC was far from the channel-friendly supplier it is today. Today, more than 80 percent of partners grade their relationship with XO as above average, based on the firm’s most recent survey. Credit for that comeback, in large measure, rests at the door of XO’s CEO Carl Grivner.

Today, Grivner will talk about the company’s transformation, its view of the channel and the future of the industry in his Industry Address.

“We listened to our partners,” Grivner told PHONE+. “We learned from our mistakes and we changed.”

Specifically, two years ago, at the 2006 Las Vegas Channel Partners Conference & Expo, XO relaunched its Business Partner Channel with The New Deal, which focused on key business partners, making XO easier to do business with, understanding its partners better and expanding the XO IP services portfolio. It also provided partners with new pay-for-performance compensation plans, more incentive programs, local support, improved communication and sales tools to help them understand and sell XO services better, and created new tools that made it easier to quote and submit orders.

In order to see how the new program was progressing and to get feedback directly from partners, XO formed an Advisory Council that meets regularly to discuss common issues and opportunities to improve the program and responsiveness.

More importantly, however, is a top-down commitment. “The channel is a very important part of XO’s strategy and overall success,” Grivner said. “Therefore, the entire executive team, including myself, is very involved in the execution of our channel strategy.”

Grivner said he wants to increase the role of the channel in XO’s sales efforts. “At the end of last year, we launched a major initiative to increase our presence in the enterprise market,” he said.

“We see opportunities with channel partners in that market, as well as an increased role of channel partners to continue helping XO in the small business and midmarket. I think, over time, we will rely more and more on the channel in the SMB market.”

Grivner said, from a technology standpoint, the future of telecom will be providing access to Information, communications and applications — anytime, anywhere. “And this is and will be enabled by IP,” he asserted. “We’re finally seeing the promises of IP we heard 10 years ago come true today. IP is now the dominant platform for business voice.”

XO is positioning itself and its agents to play in that environment, he said. “Over the past 18 months, XO has made significant investments in our networks and IP services,” he said, noting upgrades to its long-haul and IP networks to meet increased demand for Ethernet, wavelength-based transport and IP transit.