As a true partner-first company, Intermedia goes to work for its partners with the products and support that helps them maximize their success in the channel with the opportunity to earn up to 5x more revenue. But rather than us telling you about the Intermedia Partner Advantage, hear it from our partners themselves.
With 45 years in business communications and IT support, ATS Communications has earned a reputation as one of the premier tech solution partners in California, with a large base of customers in California and throughout the U.S. Although communications technology may change and advance, ATS has continued to evolve with these trends to ensure their customers have the highest quality and most reliable voice and collaboration platforms available.
Recently, however, ATS experienced a significant change when their former voice services provider exited the market. As a result, they needed a new partner—one that offered a full suite of communication and collaboration solutions that would allow business customers what they needed most – the ability to communicate how they wanted, where they wanted, and when they wanted. This meant finding a UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) provider that not only offered excellent products and support, but partner programs that would allow ATS to flourish in the cloud space.
ATS President Sanford Gladding shared the company’s story, history, challenges, and new cloud successes.
ATS Communications Roots and History
ATS has always prided themselves on being on the leading-edge of the business communications field. In fact, ATS was an early adopter of cloud voice technology when they became a partner provider of Toshiba’s hosted voice product in the late 1990’s.
But in 2017 Toshiba left the market.
Said Mr. Gladding, “We needed to quickly find a platform to replace it, and that’s when another partner introduced me to Intermedia.”
Checking All the Boxes and More
While checking all the technology boxes was important to Mr. Gladding, what he was really looking for was a vendor who knew what it meant to be a true partner and right off the bat he could tell that Intermedia was different. “I appreciate their approach to being a partner. They understand the term and don’t want us to be a sales arm but really want to help our business succeed and grow. They understand relationships.”
What’s more, Intermedia Unite™, the all-in-one communications and collaboration platform that combines a full-feature business phone with integrated video, chat, contact center, file sharing and backup, and more was exactly what Mr. Gladding, and his team were looking for. Based in the cloud, and with desktop and mobile apps that allow for seamless transition between devices – all at a very competitive price – made Intermedia a very attractive option to ATS.
What sealed the deal for Mr. Gladding was Intermedia’s focus on 360 degree support for its partners, as well as the fact that it was the first cloud communications provider to earn J.D. Power certification for excellence in technical support; certification Intermedia has now received for five years running. “Across the board, from sales to engineering to onboarding to provisioning, Intermedia’s support is tremendous.”
At the beginning, it was important to educate current and prospective customers on the benefits of a UCaaS system, so marketing was critical. “We’re a small business, we don’t have our own marketing arm, so to have the marketing materials that Intermedia offers allows us to look like we have a big marketing force behind us,” Said Mr. Gladding. “With the Intermedia marketing tools, they provide us great material that allows us to not only customize assets, but also educate our customers.” Intermedia All Access is the online portal that gives partners one location where they can access the full library of intermedia marketing and sales support tools, as well as information about incentives, rewards, and promotions all geared towards growing their businesses.
The COVID Impact: Acceleration to the Cloud
Mr. Gladding shared that the pandemic, and the need to suddenly be able to work from wherever, created a large shift from on-premises phone systems to the cloud. “3-4 years ago we were seeing 80 percent of customers selecting on-premises solutions and 20 percent in the cloud. In the last year or so that’s flipped.”
He continued, “The timing was fortuitous. Customers were calling saying we had to move to remote work, and they’d heard about Intermedia. They wanted to know how quickly they could make the switch,” Mr. Gladding commented.
Many of those migrations happened within a week, and ATS was able to do this rapidly with Intermedia’s help.
In summarizing the experience with Intermedia, Mr. Gladding went back to the word partnership. “It’s first and foremost. They are investing in us to be successful. This will be a long-term partnership, and we’ll grow because of it.”
Hear more from Mr. Gladding about the Intermedia Partner Advantage in this video.
Scott Anderson
Scott Anderson is Intermedia's Chief Marketing Officer, and is responsible for Intermedia global marketing, including product, brand, direct, channel, demand, and digital marketing, as well as internal/external communications.
June 29, 2021
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