Verizon Communications Inc. has recombined its partner programs into one for 2010, a move that has cut the carrier's agent base in half, but has streamlined processes for the remaining partners.
The new Verizon Indirect Sales Program combines the former Verizon Solutions Partner Program, which targeted small and medium businesses, and the Verizon Business Indirect Channel Alliance, which targeted enterprise.
In 2007, the ILEC created VSPP to consolidate the former MCI and legacy Verizon channels. The following year, Verizon split the channel program apart once again based on target size, forcing many of the partners to belong to both programs, which each had separate contracts, compensation schedules, channel support personnel, tools and processes.
"We have taken the guessing out of the game," said Sue Molnar, who is formerly with VSPP, but now heads the new program as its director. "We have one contract, one compensation plan, one channel manager support structure and one set of systems, tools and training."
Molnar reports to Verizon Vice President of Sales Jim Geary, who oversees both direct and indirect sales for midtier businesses (20-1,000 employees) and above. Under Molnar, there are four regional channel sales managers, including Chris Dekowski, Mid-Atlantic; Dave Longo, New York and New England; Becky McDill, Texas and California; and Dean Condotti, Southeast and "everything in the middle." A sales operations manager and a recruitment manager also are part of the channel team. There also is a sales engineering team dedicated to the indirect channel, but it reports to a nonchannel organization. Customer service support is shared with direct sales.
Molnar said the combination did result in some layoffs, but she did not disclose the number of people impacted.
The consolidation also has trimmed the number of partners considerably. Molnar declined to divulge the numbers, but agents, speaking on background, estimated the new program has between 60-70 members while the previous programs each had 80-90, or more than 160 combined, in 2008. The partners that were invited into the program are those with an IT solutions background that can drive strategic sales.
"We selected some critical indirect channel partners from the former MCI and the former Verizon programs to have a skill set to take us where we need to go," Molnar said.
Verizon's channel needs to go after the 20-1,000 employee space or what the ILEC calls the midtier. Previously VSPP targeted 20-500 while the Business Indirect Channel targeted 500-1,000. Molnar said one of the drivers for consolidating the programs was to be able to go after this midtier sweet spot.
