RingCentral devolves power to partners – but only for SMB customers

New program allows partners to handle parts of the sales process previously overseen by RingCentral

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Unified communications vendor RingCentral has launched a new partner program that claims to give the channel more control over their sales.

Named ‘Ignite’, the program allows partners to handle parts of the sales process previously overseen by the vendor itself, including deal closures.

Although only available for customers with maximum 400 employees, the program will in theory allow partners to move faster on deals and potentially generate more upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

RingCentral already has its Channel Harmony program, which acts as a referral model where the partner identifies and registers the opportunity and the vendor manages the sales, implementation and activation process directly.

That program will continue to operate for enterprise customers. However, under the Ignite scheme, partners can themselves register an opportunity, generate quotes, complete the negotiations, undertake demonstrations and close the deal.

According to RingCentral, partners operating under the Ignite program will still have access to sales assistance for opportunities of 50 or more employees.

Partners can either do implementation on their own or work with RingCentral, as well as handle customer support themselves. They will also still have the option to switch over to the Channel Harmony Partner Program prior to collecting billing information and placing the order, the vendor added.

RingCentral was unavailable to provide further information about how Ignite program will differ from Channel Harmony in terms of the partners’ cut and vendor rebates at the time of publication.

“Now more than ever, organisations need technology that allows them to work from anywhere,” said Zane Long, senior vice president, global partner sales, RingCentral. “With the new Ignite program, we remain committed to our partners by providing them with even more flexibility and choice. Partners can continue to look to RingCentral as the complete cloud solution for today's modern digital workforce across businesses of any size.”