Partner Portal On Tap

Called Qwest Central, the XML-based extranet will enable partners to view and track customer account information in realtime,a giant step forward from most carriers' outdated account information, said solution provider agents.

"This is vital to our business," said Jeff Kaufman, CEO and founder of Linwood Communications, a Wellesley, Mass.-based Qwest partner. "We need to be able to give customers timely information about their order and scheduled installations [without having to hunt for it."

Qwest's existing partner portal does not consistently provide realtime account information, some partners said.

Qwest Central is currently available to Qwest's direct-sales force and is being beta-tested by partners.

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"Partners that have seen [the portal are excited because they haven't seen anything like it," said Pat Lewis, senior director of indirect channels for Qwest. "They'll now be able to really manage their business. We're going to have the strongest partners in the industry, and to do that we need to give them the best tools."

Qwest acknowledges, however, that it is not immune to the current turmoil in the telecommunications space, Lewis said. Qwest recently announced it expects to restate its financial results for 1999 and 2001 because of accounting discrepancies, and last week it reported a $1.14 billion second-quarter loss.

But Lewis said financial concerns will not detract from Qwest's support of the channel. "There's a lot of noise out there about financial issues that we can spend a lot of time on, or we can get down to some business with partners and get it done right," he said.

Lewis added that although the telco space is surrounded by negativity, interest from VARs and solution providers that do not traditionally sell communications services is rising. Qwest may develop a program for such partners, he said.

Some of Qwest's efforts have stalled, however, including its push into the SMB space, which the company announced in March. Qwest planned to co-develop bundled solutions with service partners, and at the time the company was in talks with IBM and Cisco Systems to bundle their technology with Qwest's, and with Ingram Micro and Tech Data to distribute the solutions.

Those relationships have yet to materialize, but Qwest is working on other, undisclosed relationships, Lewis said.