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While McCorcle declined to provide details surrounding VAR discounts on AT&T solutions and partner margins, she said the opportunity for recurring revenue will be huge.
"AT&T is in the business of providing services that recur on a monthly basis and get billed on a monthly basis," McCorcle said. "So we will sell our services to a solution provider, or the elements of that service that they want, at discount, and those discounts will be competitive in the market place. They will then provide tier-one care, they will do the design, they will own the end-user customer [account, and] they will customize the solution. And we've built [the program] in such a way that they can set their own price point in the market place."
Flitcroft agreed, describing the margin potential as "phenomenal," given the breadth of AT&T's networking and mobility practice.
As part of the its new Partner Exchange program, AT&T is also opening up its application programming interfaces (APIs) to solution providers, allowing them to independently monitor end users' networks and troubleshoot any issues, without having to connect with AT&T directly or tap into one of its customer portals.
"[VARs] will be able to gain visibility into certain systems and processes and tools ... in terms of being able to provision a service, being able to look at trouble tickets, being able to change a service and being able to monitor the network," McCorcle said.
Flitcroft said the open APIs piece is something unique not just to telecom space but the channel in general. "That's something that most channel programs have never seen," he told CRN.
PUBLISHED FEB. 20, 2013
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