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NetFortris has promoted Shawn Berry to lead the company’s channel team for UCaaS, CCaaS, SD-WAN and connectivity sales.
Berry’s official title is vice president of U.S channel sales. He will lead the U.S. channel sales team in delivering cloud communications and network services to partners and their clients. About 97% of sales come from indirect sales partners.
Berry is an 18-year veteran of IT and telecom channels sales.
Tessley Smith is NetFortris’ senior vice president of sales. He said Berry has done a “tremendous job” strengthening existing relationships and cultivating new partner relationships. He has also expanded NetFortris’ reach in the master agent community, Smith said.
“He’s shown great resolve amid the global pandemic by growing the NetFortris channel in the central and Northeast regions of the country,” he said.
Long History in the Channel
Berry joined NetFortris in February as regional vice president of channel sales for the Central and Northeast.
Previously, he was senior partner development manager at Telarus. And earlier in his career, he held positions as national channel manager at Net2Phone, director of UC&C strategic solutions at Level 3 Communications, and senior channel manager for the Midwest at EarthLink Internet.
NetFortris’ Shawn Berry
In a Q&A with Channel Partners, Berry talks about his expanded role leading the channel sales team and what partners can expect in the coming months.
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CP: What’s at the top of your to-do list in this new role?
SB: We have so many exciting things happening right now at NetFortris. But my first to-do would be to expand our channel program from coast to coast. Also, very soon we will release UCaaS integrations for Microsoft Teams and Salesforce that will really appeal to the needs of our enterprise clients.
CP: What sort of challenges have NetFortris and its partners faced during the pandemic?
SB: Of course, our agents are seeing fewer clients in person. The lack of the human contact has slowed some of the buying time frames.
CP: What’s your role in addressing those challenges?
SB: Our UCaaS platform is 100% cloud-based, which allows us to deploy at a rapid rate. In addition, we’re offering very affordable pricing. That will help clients ease the choice of moving from premises to cloud, especially for those companies who are looking to deploy work-from-home initiatives. The pandemic has shone a light on the urgency and importance of shifting from on-premises solutions to fully managed cloud-based solutions that can be deployed quickly. The redundancy benefits alone make moving to a NetFortris UCaaS solution a very easy decision.
CP: What’s your take on NetFortris’ current channel strategy and partner program? Are any changes needed?
SB: NetFortris has an exciting, fully functional and, most importantly, secure UCaaS and SD-WAN solution that really resonates with agents and their clients. We’re making so many exciting changes to our channel program, such as hiring some of the best channel manager talent in the industry and pushing our marketing team to the limit to build mind share with our channel community.
CP: What sort of feedback have you been receiving from partners? How will that affect your approach in your new role?
SB: We have received positive feedback from our partners and master agents about our product, feature set and onboarding experience. My approach will be to increase mindshare, expansion and growth, as well as to continue to bring our best-of-breed UCaaS solution to our agents and customers.
CP: What do you hope to have accomplished a year from now?
SB: I would like to see our team continue the successful trajectory we’re on, but also grow our international markets. With the combination of UCaaS and SD-WAN, we’re able to serve global clients as well as our U.S. clients who have international offices.