Encoo builds up channel play with new program

Encoo national sales manager Chris Eaton

Melbourne-based technology and communications provider, Encoo, is ramping up its channel agenda and launching a new partner program.

Encoo, originally started out as a voice company about six years ago, but has since evolved into owning and operating an MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) network, soft switching and a hosted telephony platform, which is vendor agnostic.

In February, the company took on the initiative to embark on a channel strategy, recognising the pivotal role they can play in providing an underlying platform for managed service providers to manage their customer telecommunication requirements.

Chris Eaton was hired as the company’s first national sales manager in December, and he will be using his IT industry experience to help engage with partners. Eaton previously spent four years at Cloud Plus, and has worked at Gateway Business Communications and Telarus.

“Everything that Encoo has done to date has been through word-of-mouth, they’ve never had sales people," Eaton said.

"They have a full team of engineers and I was their first salesperson hire. I’ve been in the channel for 10 years now, and I like to think that I understand it well."

To help ignite its channel strategy, the company engaged with Channel Dynamics, helping to develop its Encoo Edge Partner Program.

Partners will have access to competitive wholesale pricing; marketing material; pre-sales support; dedicated account management and third party billing, which can also be integrated with other platforms such as Xero or ConnectWise.

Partners will have access to an online portal, which is currently in a beta trial allowing them to service and qualify their client environments.

Eaton said Encoo will be selective with its partnership process, aiming to attract about 20 - 25 partners that can ideally meet its criteria around providing invoicing to clients; a minimum 8x5 help desk support with an escalation process; hit quarterly revenue targets; and have a minimum of two in-house network engineers.

“We want like-minded partners that want to jump in with us and we want to provide them with a solid experience from the start," Eaton added.

"We’ve come up with a mission statement in being the best data, network and voice aggregator in the country, and in order to do that we’ve got to do things that are sustainable and grow in a sustainable manner.

"The value for a client of partnering with their MSP [manage service provider] for their telco requirements, as opposed going direct to a telco, is that their MSP has a holistic view of their IT environment.”

Eaton said the company has also finalised its ‘zero touch’ provisioning system for customer premise equipment (CPEs), expanding upon its ‘zero touch’ telephony offering.

“Traditionally dealing with telco, one of the biggest pain points, particularly for the channel, is the fact when the routers reach the customer, they’re not configured correctly, they can’t get online, they have to wait for services to become active, but this eliminates all that,” he said.