Avaya last year revamped its channel structure and strategy to line up with its cloud goals. To that end, the unified communications (UC) giant promoted Dennis Kozak to lead Avaya’s global channel efforts – its first channel chief at the global level in years — Steven Spears was hired as Avaya’s first chief revenue office to handle global sales, and the company also brought on Mike Coleman to lead North American channel efforts.
Coleman, Avaya’s North American Channel Chief as of December, has been busy getting to know Avaya’s partner community and encouraging cloud and subscription-based sales. This comes at a time where the channel is critical to Avaya as it continues to see Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), Avaya Spaces and Avaya Cloud Office (ACO) momentum.
Coleman is no stranger to the channel, having spent the last four years as vice president, mobility channel chief for Samsung. With a tech background that also includes directing Hewlett-Packard’s cloud practice and sales and distribution for SAP, Coleman is confident that his skills will transfer to his new post, in which he told CRN he’s thrilled to be working with his team to take Avaya to “the next level” in terms of revenue through partners.
Here are excerpts from Coleman’s conversation with CRN.
SOURCE CRN