Just back from the 15th Annual Microcorp One on One event in Atlanta. It is always great to see folks. The Georgia Aquarium is a cool venue.
I spent some time listening to Telstra talk about the SDN launch. In the most basic terms, on-net globally for Telstra a customer can spin up a circuit or a cloud server instance. It is an interesting take on on-demand telecom.
APXnet has agreements with most cable and fiber providers including LUMOS, CableOne and Mediacom. They can reach rural better than most on any size pipe.
CenturyLink had a huge presence. (Probably because Microcorp was a huge Level3 and CenturyLink master agency before the merger.) Garrett Gee and Jimmy Sands explained that the integration is moving along. It is still segmented on legacy C-Link and Level3 systems but the integration of the businesses is progressing. The product catalog is under review and should be out soon.
Janet Schijns of Office Depot was the keynote. She threw me off with the Nike comment at the onset. She discussed digital transformation then segued into how Office Depot is trying to become the MSP for all businesses.
Many companies are in the MSP space, like Black Box, TPX and Dimension Data. The MSP space is going through a bunch of M&A (like 3 per week!) It would be great to know what segment of the marketplace the MSPs are good at. Specifically.
Chuck Piazza of Momentum did a great job presenting challenger sales.
Angela Leavitt of Mojo Marketing gave a great talk on using LinkedIn.
ACC Business, a division of AT&T, is celebrating 20 years since AT&T acquired them. (ACC is my go-to vendor for network.)
NITEL had the new logo flying. It looks good.
Bullseye and TPX channel teams were in attendance to inform partners about the new directions of each company.
Of course, the biggest topics were cloud and SD-WAN. Partners should be looking for ways to move beyond just selling network. By asking what is riding on the WAN and internet, opportunities will arise.
Thanks for another great show!