2018 was nothing short of amazing for AVANT and our Trusted Advisor community. Our investments in Channel Sales Enablement are accelerating with record sales in UCaaS, SD-WAN, Data Center and security services.  Our investments in our telecom back office have resulted in over 45% growth in legacy connectivity services as the channel continues to come to AVANT for cloud and stays for our world-class back office Connectivity services.

2019 marks the start of AVANT’s 10th year of business; our mission is to think 10x in everything we do.  As we look forward to helping you grow 10x in the new year, we reflect back on the milestones of 2018 that brought us here.

AVANT’s 2018 year in review :

1. First Annual Special Forces Summit with an 87 NPS score.
Over 450 attendees of the channel ecosystem joined AVANT’s first annual Sales Enablement “conference” designed for both new and longtime AVANT channel sales partners.   This event helped the channel change their game in selling today’s hottest IT solutions across UCaaS, SD-WAN, Security, IaaS, Connectivity, DRaaS, HyperSacle and more.  Don’t miss our even bigger and better Summit coming up in Chicago this June where you will be able to build your own educational journey. Register here!

2. Scaled Channel Enablement with Six Regional BootCamps with over 1,000 people trained!
We took our Special Forces on the road and brought them in region in an information pact 1-day event, to New Jersey, Denver, Dallas, Boston, Atlanta and London!  NPS scores ranged from 80’s to an amazing 100 NPS for Boston.  We’re excited to be hosting even more in 2019, bringing them coast to coast with our first one in SoCal on January 17th! Check them all out, and sign up for an upcoming BootCamp near you here!

3. Scaled Support for our Channel with Over 30% growth of AVANT Employees. 
AVANT’s growth to support the channel was bigger than EVER before! And we were honored to be recognized by mayor Rahm Emanuel as one of the fastest growing tech companies in Chicago.  Check it out here!

Key areas of growth included: 

• Channel Managers – Increasing support with Inside and Outside channel managers
• Finance – Expanded our finance team by 150% to enhance revenue recognition
• Back Office Support – More than doubling our back office support team
• Sales Engineers – Doubled the size of our Sales Engineers team
• Marketing Support – scaling production of channel ready material

4.  First Special Forces at Channel Partners in Philadelphia breaking Channel Partner attendance records. 
We took our Special Forces & Bootcamp Curriculum and brought it to Channel Partners Evolution. This was the largest attended pre-show event in Channel Partners history! We’re looking forward to doing it bigger and better in Vegas in 2019.  See everything that AVANT is doing in Vegas here, and make sure to come visit us at our VIP Session, our Lounge, and our BIG Party at the Omnia Roofdeck on Thursday, April 11th.

5. Major Upgrades to our AVANT BattleApp.
A major enhancement this year was the addition of a machine-based learning search engine that gets smarter as our channel uses it to search over 1,000 pieces of collateral.  We took our  matrices to the next level with the new Dynamic matrices, giving you the ability to slice and dice the information you need when engaging with a customer, and back office commission tools to track your business.

6. Hosted 22 AVANT Insights all over the country!
These intimate, AVANT quality networking events were focused on bringing together our top providers with our valued trusted advisors in unique and fun social settings.  These included events like styling at JCrew and Rag & Bone, the Louisville bourbon trail, the Seattle Lamborghini Museum Tour, the Chicago air & water show, and many more. Keep an ear and eye out for more insights in 2019!

7. First Cloud Channel Survey
AVANT launched the 1st Cloud Channel Survey to understand the attributes of a successful channel partner.  Turns out successful “Lean Forward” partners were very different from slow growth “Lean Back” Partners across dozens of attributes.  Next generation cloud sellers outsold legacy data connectivity providers in their own game!  We also created a channel risk score discovering data connectivity sellers are most at risk from security channel sellers.   The survey was sponsored in partnership with Channel Partners, Hosting, Masergy, Navisite and Talari.  Find out how you compare at http://goavant.co.uk/survey!

8. Expanded AVANT’s Comprehensive Security Portfolio
AVANT made a serious investment in a complete Security Practice, including a robust portfolio, trained sales engineers, Matrices, and IQA forms. We are the first to bring to market two powerhouses in security, Trustwave and AlertLogic.

9. Created a New Custom Branded AVANT Marketing Programs.
AVANT’s marketing team created a new way to support you, the Trusted Advisor.  Here’s how!

  • Created tools like your very own customized branded videos with your logo and colors
  • Created customer facing collateral with your branding
  • Hosted CIO Events – We are helping you with your customer engagements!   Our talented marketing team is helping take your customer events to the next level with CIO events. We helped host 8 events in 2018 all over the country and are planning on doubling that in 2019!
  • Rolled out the AVANT Blue Carpet – Trusted Advisors like you are inviting their customers into our BattleLab in Chicago, where AVANT is hosting all day training sessions with strategic business conversations with our executive teams, and technical deep dives with our sales engineers to help design their future technology strategy.

10. AVANT’s Largest Attended President’s Club 
AVANT held our largest ever Presidents Club for our Trusted Advisors.  No one throws an event like AVANT does, and the 2019 President’s Club is sure to be the best one yet.  This year’s contest is well underway with many opportunities to win!  Generate $150K in AVANT related new business or meet one of our sponsor funded trips. Learn more about this amazing trip in Punta Mita, Mexico!