Comcast Business Modifies Compensation, Support Structure Amid Masergy Channel Integration
Comcast Business is announcing multiple updates to its channel team and strategy as it continues its integration with Masergy.
Comcast last year entered into an agreement to acquire Masergy. The companies have since integrated with one another, creating a combined company that Comcast Business executives say runs a $1 billion channel business. Craig Schlagbaum, who is leading channel efforts for the combined company, laid out a list of changes that include rules of engagement, financial incentives and personnel.
Schlagbaum said his team engaged in discussions with partners about what the combined company’s joint channel efforts should look like going forward. Specifically, the Comcast channel team met with partner advisory board members in November to get feedback on integrating with the Masergy channel.
“We had deep discussions with them about what we needed to do to preserve the goodness of Masergy, and I’m happy to say we’ve put it on steroids at this point,” Schlagbaum told Channel Futures.
Organizational Structure
Heather-Violet Minnella, who joined from Lumen in December, is now leading an advanced sales team for Comcast Business. This group will initially support partners selling the Masergy product set, but it will grow to include advanced Comcast solutions like SD-WAN security and UCaaS. Minnella’s team includes two directors and 10 senior partner sales managers. Schlagbaum said Comcast had previously operated a Comcast channel management team, but for the first time it is running a group dedicated to advanced offerings.
In addition, Comcast has placed its business with technology services distributors (formerly known as master agents) under the purview of Cary Tengler, executive director of national partners. Five TSD directors will be working under Tengler.
Compensation Changes
Schlagbaum also said Comcast has introduced new teaming rules. For example, partners who teamed with direct to sell Comcast’s ActiveCore software-defined networking platform previously saw a 15% reduction in compensation. Comcast has done away with that reduction for teaming partners selling either ActiveCore or Masergy SD-WAN. That reduction had never existed at Masergy.
“We mirrored the Masergy model, took the goodness of that model and put it on the Comcast side,” Schlagbaum said. In addition, he said partners will benefit from being able to choose which SD-WAN offerings are best for their customers: the Versa-based platform from the Comcast side or the Fortinet-based platform from the Masergy side.
Moreover, Comcast gave Masergy agents the same residual commissions they would get with their agreement for Comcast services. Previously, these partners had been receiving residual commissions of 8-10% on off-net deals.
“Masergy had a legacy perception of being a higher priced product. But now, by driving down their network access costs on our network for on net as well as off-net connectivity providers, we are far more competitively priced today,” said Terry Connell, Comcast Business’ senior vice president of sales and sales operations.
Market Opportunities
Schlagbaum said Comcast and Masergy complement each other in terms of the deals they typically pursue. Much has been made of how Masergy will bolster Comcast’s international and enterprise opportunities. But on the other hand, he said Comcast will drive a larger frequency of deals.
“The thing about Masergy is that it’s always been more larger opportunities and fewer of them. Typically Masergy would have…
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