Qwest Outlines 2002 Objectives at Annual Partner Conference

Speaking here at Q.Marketplace 2002, which runs though Thursday, Michael McDonnell, vice president of the Qwest Business partner Program, proclaimed that the theme for this year's event was "change" and that his company was poised to drive it.

McDonnell and his boss, Pat Lewis, senior vice president of indirect channels, presented their goals and plans to partners in attendance. Foremost atop their agenda: drive revenue, of course.

"We want to position partners as a fundamental contributors to sales," noted Lewis in an address to gathered allies, an audience that included VARs, telecom agents, system integrators and other companies.

Lewis went on to outline the company's other goals, which include expanding and diversifying the Qwest partner base, better aligning products and services with partner capabilities, driving demand and awareness of partner services, and making it easier to engage Qwest.

Reflecting on the company's recent actions, Lewis noted that the company merged three programs into one a year ago and made substantive changes internally to help drive partner revenue. This year, the company hopes to accelerate channel growth and build deeper skills within the partner community. Come next year, Lewis hopes to help expand the market and scope of opportunity for members of the Qwest Business Partner Program, which, today, is managed by the national business accounts organization. The channel program represents approximately 20 percent of that business the latter organization generates, Qwest said Wednesday.

In particular, Lewis said Qwest was keen on driving the growth of partner revenue derived from the sales of goods and services in data, voice, IP and hosting. He also said Qwest is hoping to better integrate partners within its greater go-to-market strategy. Qwest also pledged to help partners get certified and target customers in the SMB space.

But it will have to achieve all that without the help of Craig Schlagbaum, who is resigning this week to take a position as vice president of channel sales and marketing with an area IP/Web hosting company. The current director of channel programs at Qwest, Schlagbaum played a critical role in program refinement, recruiting and partner development at Qwest.