Zayo Group is adopting the AboveNet channel program virtually as-is now that its acquisition of the big bandwidth company is complete.
Zayo Group closed its acquisition of AboveNet July 3 for $2.2 billion. The companies' combined network operates in 45 states, seven countries and spans more than 61,000 route miles with 4.6 million miles of fiber. Their services include wavelengths, SONET, Ethernet and colocation. The network interconnection work should be done at the end of third quarter.
"The key message is it's business as usual. There's a new name and a new logo and more geography," said David Howson, president of sales and customer management for Zayo Group.
Howson told Channel Partners that since Zayo's channel effort mainly consisted of one-off deals, it is incorporating the AboveNet program into is sales efforts with minimal changes – the exception being tweaks to the channel leadership and reporting structure.
Angelo Germani, AboveNet's vice president of sales engineering and sales operations, has been named the new channel chief. He is Zayo Group's vice president of indirect channels, reporting to Howson. Brian Sheehan, AboveNet's business development manager, has been named director of indirect sales, reporting to Germani. Previously, Sheehan reported to AboveNet's vice president of sales Michael Brown, but Brown has moved over to the Zayo Group's wholesale business as senior director of carrier sales.
The10-member AboveNet channel support staff, including sales engineers, customer service managers and sales operations support, have been retained and report to Germani.
Howson said Zayo Group is targeting a 25 percent increase in support staff by the end of the year based on expected success of the program.
And Howson does project expansion in second half of 2012 simply by virtue of the added geography and products – namely unrestricted dark fiber and colocation that former AboveNet partners now can sell.
Zayo Group will honor existing AboveNet partner agreements and has no plans to change the terms or compensation, Howson said. New partners will sign Zayo Group contracts, but existing agents – aproximately 20 master agents – can sell under their existing paper, he added. In addition, Zayo Group will maintain AboveNet's policy of having no protected accounts.
