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Tim Acker, VP of channel sales at Lumen Technologies, talked about customers’ increasing connectivity needs from telecom companies and how Lumen strives to “get the preponderance of our revenue integrated with partners” in this CPTV interview.
“Customers are looking for different experiences from us,” Acker told Channel Partners’ VP of content Bob DeMarzo. “They’re demanding more of telecom companies, the ability to more seamlessly connect with people, their data, and their applications.”
Acker said Lumen is widening its partner base as it moves to become a technology company (techco) as well as a telco.
“We needed to think about tech partnerships in a different way,” said Acker, who moved to Lumen in January. “Specifically, you know, think about hyperscalers, what that enables for the entire channel ecosystem. It's also about transforming our culture, thinking about how we show up differently for the customers, and then how that translates to partners.”
Lumen is expanding to new types of partners, beyond its historic telecom advisor base.
“We really value the relationship that we have with agents and advisors, and we've been through that evolution with that channel,” Acker said. “We're continuing to build that out, and we're continuing to bring capabilities to those agents and advisors.
“But part of our vision last year in creating global partner solutions [GPS] was to think about new routes to market. When we think about MSPs, GSIs alliances, ISVs, which we're starting to add to our program – that benefits this channel in incredible ways. We really want to think about multi-partner, how we can get multiple partners to bring solutions to customers.”
Acker said Lumen’s looks at its sales as “instead of being direct versus indirect, it’s direct and indirect. We need to figure out how we help customers achieve their goals.”
Like other telcos, Lumen is striving to be more of a techco as the industry transform.
“We are on that journey,” Acker said of moving from telco to techco. “We think there’s a tremendous amount of upside and frankly we’ve not really tapped that opportunity in the channel yet. Partners have a whole new stack to sell, very lucrative commissions and a differentiated conversation.”
Be sure to watch the entire interview.