Thanks to Zane Long, VP of Channel Sales at RingCentral for contributing to AVANT Insights.

In today’s fast-paced business world, the notion of “working together” to accomplish things is more important than ever. We’re all familiar with this somewhat Silicon Valley-fied notion of collaborative working, and despite my company bias towards such a phenomenon, one cannot argue that it isn’t applicable to enterprise workforces today.

The speed at which business is conducted and the rapidity with which messages and emails can reach international territories has brought an efficient, yet chaotic, dimension to the workplace. That’s why businesses need scalable, flexible technology solutions that advance business operations. While most hardware-centric systems of the past impede progress with esoteric infrastructure and inordinate costs, cloud technologies are the 21st century antidote.

According to Transparency Market Research, by 2018 VoIP and unified communications will be a $69.1B market. That represents a huge opportunity for growth, and we continue to hear our partners say they are experiencing a spike in demand for cloud technologies, particularly among enterprises. Businesses are savvier today than in previous years, and there’s much to be said for getting bang for your buck while also mobilizing and conducting business more efficiently.

Because enterprises have a myriad of options when it comes to evaluating the technology landscape, the channel provides the voice of reason they often need to pull the trigger on big deployments — like migrating to the cloud, for instance. As enterprises continue to shift from a hardware-first model to a cloud-first model, it’s important that channel partners have the latest, best-in-class technologies to bring customers. If partners are armed correctly, they sell better and help enterprises thrive more.

That’s why at RingCentral, I’m focused on building the right relationships for our Partner Program with leading master agents, like AVANT. AVANT has an incredible reputation in the channel as a leading provider of unified communications technologies for mid and large-sized businesses, and now with RingCentral, AVANT partners will have a powerful solution in their arsenal to help enterprises migrate away from the clunky legacy systems of the past.

At RingCentral, we know that a world-class partner program must focus on the financial rewards participating partners can realize. So in addition to assuring potential partners that RingCentral will continue to enable them to put the very best cloud-based communications solutions in the hands of their clients, we are retooling our partner contracts and commission structures to make them attractive enough that potential partners “Think RingCentral First”. RingCentral partners benefit from top-notch sales support that we provide to help them enhance their close ratios. We offer “subject matter experts” available to partners, at no cost, to assist them in the sales process to close deals. This is part of our end-to-end partner support that encompasses sales, implementation and the provisioning and ongoing support of our partners’ clients.

I’m thrilled to be working with AVANT and all the partners coming on board. As the adage “Rome wasn’t built in a day” reminds us, it takes time and the right partnerships to build a high-achieving business. Our Partner Program is designed to make our channel partners successful, and in turn, help empower enterprises to be the best they can be.