Award winners celebrated for commitment to sales results, innovation and disruption in the channel.
Chicago, Illinois July 19th, 2019 – AVANT Communications announced today the winners of the second annual Special Forces Summit Awards. Recipients were recognized across several categories for their sales achievements and sales resourcefulness.
“AVANT was thrilled to honor our partners’ impressive achievements at the Special Forces Summit.”
Said Ian Kieninger, CEO, at AVANT. “We are constantly motivated to help our Trusted Advisors take their business to the next level through our training activities, our tools, and our resources. These Trusted Advisors and Providers are the embodiment of what it means to think 10X.”
Channel Sales winners were chosen based on performance. Vendors were elected by AVANT’s channel partners.
The AVANT Special Forces Partner Excellence Award categories and winners are:
Top Channel Performance – Based on AVANT 2018 Fiscal Year ending March 31, 2018
Top Sales Performance, VAR: CDW, ePlus, Presidio
Top Sales Performance, Trusted Advisor: Acliviti, CloudAdvise, Opex Technologies
Rookie of the Year: CrosStar Network Soutions
Top Deal in UCaaS: CDW, Shamrock Consulting
Top UCaaS Provider: RingCentral
Top Deal in CCaaS: CDW, Acliviti
Top CCaaS Provider: NICE Incontact
Top Deal in IaaS: CDW, Pivot Network
Top IaaS Provider: Tierpoint
Top Deal in SD-WAN: CDW, Commquotes
Top SD WAN Provider: Masergy
Top Deal in Security: CDW, Opex Technologies
Top Security Provider: Masergy
Top Deal in WAN: CDW, United Technology
Top Deal in Voice: CDW, ATC
Top Voice Provider: Granite
Top Deal in Colocation: CDW, CloudAdvise
Top Colocation Provider: Equinix
Best use of Sales Resources
Best Use of AVANT BattleApp: MR2
Best Use of IQAs: Connection
Best win from using AVANT BattleLab: Subsidium
Best CIO Event: C3 Technology Advisors
Best New Vendor: Talkdesk, Trustwave
Best Sales Engineers: Masergy
Best Channel Program: RingCentral
Most Responsive Vendor: 8×8
Best Channel Managers: 8×8, NICE Incontact
“Avant has powered an ecosystem of top tier Trusted Advisors that we are proud to be a part of. Having Opex Technologies recognized as one of Avant’s Top 3 Trusted Advisor for 2018, is a huge accomplishment for our team and validates the work we are doing every day for our client’s, partners and providers!” – Courtney Humphrey, CEO, Opex Technologies
“Opex is honored to be recognized as a top Avant Trusted Advisor for Security solutions. As our clients look to Opex to help them find the top managed security providers in the industry we are thankful to partner with Avant to ensure we serve the growing OpEx demand for managed security solutions.” – Rich Nowalk, COO & Managing Partner, Opex Technologies
“The CDW Team was honored to receive the top awards at AVANT’s Special Forces Summit in Chicago. AVANT’s sales enablement support has been a key factor in our continued success. Our partnership with
AVANT and our collective partners gives us the edge we need to remain the dominant force in the Channel.” – Marcia Dempster, Cloud Platform Executive, CDW
“Awards are incredibly motivating for the CDW team. In the moment, we reflect on the thousands of hours of training, the late nights and weekends, and the constant drive to perform on behalf of our clients. That
moment quickly fades and we shift our focus to building and delivering innovative client engagements.” – Tony Giannini, Manager, CDW
“Acliviti is honored to win the Trusted Advisor Award at the 2019 Avant Special Forces Summit. We believe trust is earned as a result of transparency, hard work, and finding a way to get things done. We appreciate
our awesome team, demanding global clients, and strategic vendors for providing us the opportunity to be recognized.” – Ryan Young, Managing Partner, Acliviti
“Winning the Top CCaaS Partner award in 2019 was only possible through the hard work of our team. We are excited to continue growing our expertise as we prove that CCaaS technology allows companies to move faster, improve customer engagement, and outperform their competition. We believe CCaaS is more than cloud technology – it’s business transformation.” – Joe Rice, Managing Partner, Acliviti
“RingCentral is honored to be recognized as the Top UCaaS Provider and Best Channel Program by AVANT and their Trusted Advisor Community. AVANT is a vital partner in our efforts to bring industry-leading cloud communications, collaboration, and contact center solutions to businesses around the world. We are humbled to see our commitment to the channel, our partners, and products be reflected in these awards.”- Zane Long, SVP Global Channel Sales, RingCentral
“We are honored to receive this recognition as Top Cloud Provider from the Avant team! This recognition ultimately highlights the strong partnership between our respective organizations and the ongoing investment of tools, resources & support that Avant provides to its partner community, which is a key reason as to why we believe our robust portfolio of solutions here at TierPoint has experienced tremendous success within the Avant ecosystem.” – Kenny Ash, VP of Channel, Tierpoint
“NICE inContact is honored to receive these two important awards. They are a result of our shared commitment to work together for continued reciprocal success, and show the ongoing commitment to do more and exceed expectations every time. Jaime Matoba’s passionate connection with the sales partners and the Avant channel team is a huge part of our success, and we are very proud of her achievements. Avant is an extension of the NICE inContact team and a vital part of helping contact centers win in the CX economy, and a relationship we greatly value.” – Geoff Chretien, VP Channel Sales, Nice InContact
“We are honored to have been named Best New Provider of managed security services for AVANT’s Master Agent Network. Working with leading technology distributors like AVANT is a core growth strategy for Trustwave as we continue to offer enterprises effective solutions that help fight cybercrime.” – Suzanne Swanson, Vice President, Worldwide Channel Sales, Trustwave
“8×8 has invested heavily in our channel organization which has rendered tremendous results for our partners. We continue to pursue operational excellence across the organization which will only accelerate our ability to partner and address the market. Avant’s recognition of these efforts only further affirms our pursuits.” – Chandler Legarreta, Vice President, Strategic Masters
“As the global platform for digital business, Equinix is proud to have earned Avant’s top provider honors in the colocation space. In this golden age of the trusted advisor, Avant’s channel partners are winning by
helping customers manage through the disruption, employing Avant’s Pathfinder/BattleApp to revolutionize how they bundle and deliver digital services for customers. When those customers build their digital business platform with Equinix, they dynamically interconnect with the world’s largest ecosystem of people, clouds, data, and things. With 200 International Business Exchange™ IBX® data centers on 5 continents and 99.9999% global uptime, Platform Equinix™ provides unparalleled access to 52 major markets and enables channel partners and customers to reach every destination on demand.” – Dick O’Hara, Senior Director of Global Partner Programs at Equinix
“As voice services increasingly migrate to cloud-based and software-defined network environments for higher quality and lower cost transport, we are honored to be selected as the Top Voice Provider in the Avant Communications voice solution set. Voice remains a high priority in most businesses throughout these important data network transitions.” – Charlie Pagliazzo, VP, Channels at Granite Telecommunications “We greatly appreciate Avant’s recognition of Talkdesk as Best New Provider. Talkdesk is driving the contact center industry forward with a breakneck pace of innovations and we are committed to providing the tools enterprises need to make customer experience their competitive advantage.” – Jon Heaps, VP Channel, Talkdesk
“Avant has consistently ranked as one of Masergy’s top channel partners, and we are proud of our joint success in enabling global enterprises to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives. Being named the top SD-WAN provider, top security provider and best sales engineering team by Avant validates our ongoing commitment to providing innovative solutions and world-class service to enterprise customers.” – Bill Madison, VP of Global Channels at Masergy