Understanding the Intermedia Co-Op Partner Model

The Intermedia Co-Op partner model is built for partners who want to stay hands-on with their customers. These are partners who excel at building relationships, driving sales, delivering deployments, and providing ongoing support. They want to remain the trusted advisor throughout the customer journey, but they would rather not spend valuable time managing billing, contracts, and other administrative tasks.

With Co-Op, partners maintain ownership of the customer experience while Intermedia handles customer agreements and billing. This allows partners to focus on what they do best: growing customer relationships, delivering exceptional service, and creating new revenue opportunities. By removing much of the administrative burden, Co-Op offers a simpler way to build recurring revenue while staying closely connected to customers.

Quick Takeaways

• Partners sell under the Intermedia brand.
• Partners have a buy price and set the customer sell price, subject to approved pricing workflows.
• Partners receive the difference between their buy and sell price as well as commissions
• Partners are eligible for many partner promotions and incentives.
• Partners provide deployment services and Tier 1 support.
• Customer contracts are managed and held by Intermedia.
• Intermedia bills the customer. 

What the Co-Op Partner Model Is

Co-Op is designed for partners who want to stay close to the customer relationship through sales, deployment, and support while Intermedia handles the customer contract and billing. The partner leads the customer through the sales process, sets the customer sell price based on the partner buy price, and continues supporting the customer after the sale through deployment and Tier 1 support.

This model is especially useful when partners want a defined role in service delivery but do not want to manage customer invoicing. The customer contract is with Intermedia, not the partner. That means Intermedia bills the customer directly, while the partner continues to earn through the compensation structure tied to the account.

Unlike CORE, which enables partners to fully white-label the experience under their own brand, Co-Op is designed for partners selling under the Intermedia brand while remaining closely involved in deployment, support, and customer growth.

This operational split is important. The partner still brings the local expertise, customer context, and day-to-day support experience that customers value. Intermedia manages the commercial contract, billing workflow, and related customer billing obligations. This gives partner teams room to focus on onboarding quality, customer adoption, and account expansion instead of managing invoices and billing administration.

For partner leaders, the Co-Op model can help address several common business questions:

• How can we sell Intermedia services and retain service influence with the customer?
• How can we create recurring revenue without owning customer billing?
• How can we support customers while aligning contract management with Intermedia?

Co-Op is designed as a shared operational model. Partners drive the relationship where they create the most value: pricing strategy, deployment, Tier 1 support, and customer expansion. Intermedia manages the commercial framework behind the account.

How Co-Op Compares with CORE

Co-Op and CORE have important similarities. In both models, the partner has a buy price and can set the customer sell price. The partner also provides deployment services and Tier 1 support, which keeps the partner in a visible customer-facing role.

The difference is ownership of the contract and billing relationship. In CORE, the partner owns the customer contract and bills the customer. In Co-Op, Intermedia owns the contract and bills the customer. That difference changes how customer agreements, billing workflows, and contract-related matters are managed.

This distinction makes Co-Op a fit for partners who want to remain active in selling and supporting Intermedia services while preferring Intermedia to manage the customer contract and billing process. It can also create a cleaner path for customers who expect to contract directly with Intermedia while still receiving partner-led deployment and support. From a partner operations perspective, the model can reduce billing administration while preserving a meaningful role in implementation and first-line customer care.

A Clear Path for Partner-Led Growth

The Intermedia Co-Op partner model gives partners a balanced way to sell Intermedia services, including Intermedia Unite®. Partners remain closely involved in pricing, deployment, Tier 1 support, and ongoing account growth. Intermedia manages the customer contract, billing relationship, and related billing and collections processes.

For partners who want recurring commission potential without owning customer billing, Co-Op can be a strong fit. It gives sales teams a clear structure, operations teams a defined workflow, and customers a direct Intermedia agreement backed by partner-led service.

To evaluate whether Co-Op is the right fit for your business and sales model, connect with your Intermedia channel team, PAM, or partner support contact or visit this page. They can walk through eligibility, pricing workflows, SPIFF details, contract terms, and operational steps for your next opportunity.

Kat Jensen

Kat is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Intermedia in charge of email and productivity applications. Kat grew up in the midwest and attended undergrad at the University of Iowa. She moved to Arizona after college and worked in digital marketing until she went back to school at Arizona State for her MBA. She comes to Intermedia most recently from GoDaddy where she did product marketing for web design products. In her spare time enjoys reading, playing volleyball, and hanging out with her family.