BEAVERTON, Ore., Sept. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- VTech Communications, Inc., which manufactures AT&T-branded home and office telephones under a license agreement with AT&T Intellectual Property, today announced the appointment of Graham Williams to lead the newly enhanced SMB Partner Program. Williams, who has spent the last seven years at Avaya, will lead the charge to build the SMB channel business for VTech, helping Partners sell and position its advanced AT&T-branded Synapse® product lineup to small and medium-sized businesses (SMB).
Williams is a 17-year veteran of the telecommunications and technology industries. Most recently at Avaya, Williams has served in a variety of roles over the years, such as sales, business development, channel marketing, product marketing, services, strategy and product management. As vice president and head of VTech's SMB program, he is focused on growing the company's Synapse product sales and strengthening its Partner relationships. Under his leadership, VTech has redesigned its SMB Partner Program, which launched on September 1.
"Our priority is to listen to our SMB Partners and build an SMB Partner Program that meets their needs for sales, marketing and technical support to ultimately drive their success in the market," Williams said. "We are making sure we do everything we can to make the jobs of our Partners easier through industry-leading customer service, no hidden costs, financial incentives and a strong, attractive SMB Partner Program."
The newly enhanced SMB Partner program provides channel Partners with the tools, resources and incentives to build a strong business around the AT&T Synapse product line, which is designed for up to 100-person offices. It offers an easily scalable architecture to protect technology infrastructure investments and delivers a significantly lower total cost of ownership compared to competing platforms. The Synapse line enables Partners to maximize their professional services offerings by reducing installation times and lowering maintenance/support requirements.
In the new program, Partners can accrue marketing development incentives under a new, aggressive Joint Marketing Funds (JMF) program that provides financial resources for local marketing activities. Partners will also earn more savings and financial incentives based on Synapse product sales. Gold and Platinum Partners can take advantage of additional product discounts, greater percentage of JMF resources and participation on the SMB Partner Council, which works closely with VTech to address the market needs of its Partners.
The enhanced SMB Partner Program provides new certification requirements and new tools to enhance sales. Key components of the program include:
A new two-year warranty for all Synapse products
Free web-based training and Partner certification
World-class technical support from VTech's Partner Support Desk
A product roadmap for Synapse showing future features and benefits along with free software upgrades throughout the year, ensuring Partners are able to reap the benefits of the latest technology
Significant potential margin enhancements to help increase revenues
Sales-based incentives, such as the JMF and product discounts
Synapse Product Lineup
With its rich feature set, scalability and easy maintenance, the Synapse system is designed to optimize telecommunications investments, delivering adaptability for future communications needs at a lower total cost of ownership compared to competing systems. The Synapse platform supports up to 100 extensions with an intuitive, easy-to-understand management interface. Synapse also provides the flexibility to expand from one to 39 lines with the use of analog lines and/or T1/PRI, enabling scale as the business grows without unnecessary expenses up front. In addition, Synapse offers the capability to add Synapse accessory cordless handsets and cordless headsets for greater mobility in larger work environments. These cordless devices allow employees to multitask and provide farther range than most cordless handsets and headsets.
Source:marketwatch