The August 22nd Telarus Tuesday call brought XO/Verizon Managing Partner Channel Sales JJ Harrison and Partner Sales Manager Heather Whittemore to discuss their products and offerings. The entire recording can be found here.
One Program Summary
Many people are asking what’s going to happen to the XO program now that Verizon has purchased it and how it is being integrated. We want to make sure that you understand that nothing’s changing at all, Verizon is integrating the two programs together at the beginning of next year. They are bringing the program together by utilizing best practices from both of the programs. One thing that brought this together is that launch of a new business unit, which is the first one Verizon has launched since Verizon Wireless. The new business unit is called Verizon Business Markets and it is 70% run by the Channel.
XO Channel Marketing & Sales Enablement
XO currently has a SPIFF which has been in place since July 1st and will run through September 30th. They are offering 100% upfront on orders over $1,500. It is a great SPIFF to drive the XO internet, IP VPN, MPLS. A great thing about the combination of XO and Verizon is that it has made it possible for XO to add 15,000 existing On-Net building with new pricing on access up to 1G. The 15,000 incorporates not only the Verizon telecom or the Verizon territory out there but it also incorporates the Verizon MCI purchases and the CLEC purchases. As you are quoting, you will notice that there’s more on-net buildings and more access to better pricing. XO also has battlecard available and updated On-Net collateral for you to use with your customers. You can view the XO SPIFF at promos.telarus.com.
Q&A
Q: Heather and JJ can you tell us a little bit about both of your backgrounds in the industry? How can partners best rely on the two of you?
JJ: I’ve been in the business for quite a while, my area of expertise is in the channel management as well as direct enterprise management. I was part of the Qwest business partner program back in the day and helped build that. Here at Verizon I’m running some enterprise sales teams from a direct side of the business and then back into the channels here at Verizon.
Heather: I started selling PBXs and from there I realized that networking was the way to go so I spent quite a bit of time at CenturyLink and then I ended up at Windstream. The expertise I have is certainly on hosted PBX and in network but you can definitely reach out to me if you have any questions even if it’s not something related to XO.
Q: Can you talk to us about the network itself and why that means as much as it does to our partners?
JJ: It’s really about combining the XO fiber that we’ve got, the CLEC fiber that Verizon has as well as well as all the ILEC back east from Verizon and bringing all of those together to create to create a one fiber program. We recently bought two billion dollars worth of corning fiber, if you combine that with the wireless and our 5g it is going to make a big difference from our ubiquity and ability to really deliver to customers. Overall it’s going to create a great way to access the XO backbone.
Heather: When we do the quote, we look at both networks. We can look at what’s best on both Verizon or XO, who’s close, what’s going to be a faster time frame from your customer and who’s going to be the most cost effective.
Q: Who would be our main XO contact to work these leads as they come about? Heather, is that going to be primarily you as a partner support manager?
Heather: Yes, that will be me so you can contact me. As I mentioned we try to be really speedy on getting information to you whether it’s about quoting or if it’s about including a marketing person to customize something for you.
To learn more about XO visit www.xo.com.
