This is the first in a three-part series that will run monthly through the end of the year where we’ll be taking a close look at various cloud-related solutions, what’s trending, and partner expectations as we head into 2020.

Q4 is upon us, and we’re entering the home stretch for the year—and the decade. Businesses of all sizes are looking back on 2019 to audit crucial infrastructure and evaluate performance and cost-effectiveness to inform both their short-term organizational investments as well as long-term planning.

TBI's Emily Ball and Bryan Reynolds deliver October Channel News.

Telecom Master Agent and technology distributor TBI highlights Woman of the Channel, Michelle Kadlacek from Spectrum Enterprise.

Telecom Master Agent and technology distributor, TBI, highlights Woman of the Channel, Luz Torres from TBI.

In her role as a Commissions Auditor, Luz supports multiple operational, analytical, and informational functions for the commission’s team to ensure commissions are properly assigned to TBI partners, in an accurate and timely manner.

Telecom Master Agent and technology distributor TBI highlights Woman of the Channel, Jean Yau from Comcast Business.

Telecom Master Agent and technology distributor, TBI, highlights Woman of the Channel, Megan MontBlanc from TBI.

As an Administrative Assistant, Megan's goal is to keep the TBI office running smoothly and make everyone’s work day just a little bit easier.

Selling mobility? What does the category “mobility” actually mean in channel? From fixed wireless to backup, IoT and management and actual devices, there is no shortage of solutions to sell.

TBI's Emily Ball and Bryan Reynolds deliver September Channel News.

The infiltration of mobile devices in the workplace isn’t new news; although it may be hard to believe, mobile devices entered the workforce just a little more than a decade ago. More recently, the influx of BYOD, the ever-growing number of remote workers, and the mind-blowing pace at which technology is advancing have kept IT departments on their toes and CIOs awake at night trying to manage it all. As such, it should come as no surprise that with this increase comes growing strain and an increasing number of obstacles facing a CIO; they and their staff need to continuously shift their priorities and strategies to accommodate the current challenges that are plaguing their organization and adapting to the constant changes.

Telecom Master Agent and technology distributor, TBI highlights Woman of the Channel, Iliana Herrera from TBI.

As a Cable Specialist, Iliana assists TBI's enterprise partners through the entire order process, from quoting to installation, to ensure that their often large-scale orders are handled with the utmost care. 

With a 230-person workforce and more than 20 open positions across sales, marketing, support finance, and engineering, it is safe to say TBI is a rapidly growing organization. As we know, growth in business goes hand-in-hand with growth in headcount. It is because of this growth, TBI decided it was time for a bigger headquarters.

In June, TBI moved to a new office building, a nearly 28,000 square foot, single floor office space that enables our Chicagoland team to work more collaboratively. Our swanky new digs offer several upgraded features, including the Technology Evaluation Center (TEC), a lab showcasing technology solutions, hands-on training, and a place to perform proof-of-concept solution testing. We also installed a fully-equipped video studio that enables our videographer to professionally produce in-house video content for TBI as well as our vendors and partners.

CHICAGO, IL – September 4, 2019 -  TBI, the white-glove technology solutions provider, continuing the tradition of positioning itself at the forefront of IT landscape through new strategic partnerships added one new vendors in July. The addition of CyrusOne not only provides partners with new sets of solutions, but also offers additional resources for end-user engagement. As always, TBI’s solution engineers are accessible to help all selling partners confidently to position, design and implement the new portfolio additions.

We’re excited to collaborate with our new and existing TBI members to offer the opportunity to sell a blended portfolio of Verizon wireline and wireless business solutions. With over 25 million Small Business customer prospects, we have tremendous opportunity to leverage the scale and expertise of the channel to meet customers where they want to buy.

Telecom Master Agent and technology distributor TBI highlights Woman of the Channel, Tori Stowick from TBI.

As a commissions manager, Tori works first-hand with her team on ideas and processes that can be put in place to best serve TBI's partners and providers, as well as TBI's internal teams.

Telecom Master Agent and technology distributor TBI highlights Woman of the Channel, Deborah Deringer from NICE inContact.

Deborah Deringer is currently a National Partner Manager for NICE inContact. She started her career in the early 90’s, selling hardware and is very grateful for the journey this industry has provided her. She loves the opportunity to build and develop her career through the daily challenges the telecom industry presents her.

Telecom Master Agent and technology distributor TBI highlights Woman of the Channel Vanessa Fonseca from TBI

Understanding the Alphabet 

Before diving into network soup and getting a better grasp on how the various solutions work together, it is imperative to understand them individually.

TBI's Emily Ball and Bryan Reynolds deliver August Channel News.

Telecom Master Agent and technology distributor TBI highlights Woman of the Channel, Meredith Caram from Intrado (formerly West).

Meredith Caram is currently the Vice President of Global Distribution, Insights and Growth for Intrado (formerly West). Known for successfully leading transformational business initiatives, she is driven by a relentless focus on the customers, where success is measured by improved end user experiences, increased efficiency through productivity, and successful business outcomes.

According to IDG Research , The SD-WAN market is expected to reach $8B by 2021. SD-WAN sales and implementations are growing. The report indicates that adoption rates increased from 35% to 54% over the past two years, with 90% of their respondents saying they are actively researching, piloting or about to upgrade to SD-WAN. And the reason for growth is to solve for a few business challenges, mainly: optimizing networks to support cloud technologies, simplifying network management and improving application performance which all, in turn, help deliver on a better customer experience.