What's Inside

1. AireSpring Appoints Industry Veteran as New Director of Global SD-WAN
2. AireSpring at Channel Partners Conference & Expo, Las Vegas
3. AireSpring Hosts NYC Datacenter - 60 Hudson Street Tour and Luncheon
4. May Promo - When Only the Best Will Do
5. Partner Training - AireSpring VeloCloud vs. Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
6. Visit AireSpring at These Events
7. Partner Spotlight - John Agathon, Channel Partner, Sandler Partners
8. Meet the AireSpring Team - Louise Parker-Flett, Project Coordinator

AireSpring at a Great Channel Partners Conference & Expo, Las Vegas!

The AireSpring Team was a dynamic presence at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, April 9-12, demonstrating our 100% commitment to serving the Channel. Beyond a very busy booth presence, we had a full slate of special events and tremendous opportunities to talk about AireSpring's state-of-the-art solutions and services with a great many Partners. Thanks for making this another successful, productive Channel Partners event. Please enjoy some photos of AireSpring in action.

When Only the Best Will Do

Reach out to your AireSpring Channel Manager today or call us at 888.389.2899.

Your clients rely on you to recommend the best solutions to support their communications network and IT portfolio. When it comes to SD-WAN, are you confident that you have the data you need to direct your client toward the best fitting solution for their enterprise?

Join AireSpring's SVP of Solutions Engineering, Mike Chase, for a deep dive comparison of these two AireSpring solutions, with practical, detailed use cases and applications. We will:

Mike will provide the data that you need to make informed recommendations to your clients. He will also review the value of selling a fully managed SD-WAN solution and the competitive advantage it can provide both to you and your clients. Register today for this must-attend partner training!

Complete our brief survey at the end for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card!

Visit AireSpring at these Coming Events:

AIRESPRING with VERIZON AIRESPRING'S DATACENTER TOUR
Digital Realty Datacenter
60 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
May 7, 2019
10:30 AM to 11:30 AM

Followed by
AIRESPRING & VERIZON
HOSTED LUNCHEON
Sarabeth's Tribeca
339 Greenwich Street, Corner of Jay Street
New York, NY 10013
11:30 AM to 1:30 PM

Invitation Only - Limited Seating -Contact Your Channel Manager for information, send an email to kailyn.wolf@airespring.com or RSVP below:

TBI THE BIG EVENT
Soldier Field
Chicago, IL
May 9, 2019
REGISTER HERE

REGIONAL TELARUS INNOVATION CONFERENCE
Silver Cloud Hotel Stadium
Seattle, WA
May 16, 2019
REGISTER HERE

TELARUS INNOVATION CONFERENCE
US National Whitewater Center
Charlotte, NC 28214
May 23, 2019
REGISTER HERE

Welcome to the latest edition in our series of profiles, shining the spotlight on AireSpring’s amazing partners. This month, we’re speaking with John Agathon, Channel Partner, Sandler Partners.

Hello John, thank you for agreeing to speak with us. To begin, please tell us a little about yourself and your professional background.

I’ve been in the telecom industry for 30-plus years, working on all sides of the business, in direct sales, ownership and start-ups. I started out in the early 1990s, just as the internet was getting going and everyone was rushing to capture market share with dial-up and modems. I was one of the first employees for Networks On-Line as VP of Sales. Then I joined a regional ISP in Houston called Excellence-in-Connectivity (EIC) where I led their sales group. After EIC, I moved over to NetStar Telecommunications in Houston to be their VP of Sales. NetStar was a technology consulting company that provided internet, colocation, metro Ethernet, and fiber services. NetStar was then bought out by Alpheus where I stayed for another 5 years, until I joined Sandler.

I’ve been with Sandler since October 2017 in the role of what’s known as “Superstar Channel Manager,” which is a relatively new approach to the traditional role of channel manager. My job is to recruit sub-agents in the Houston area, help train and mentor them on any areas they need help with, and ensure that they succeed. Sandler agents in the Houston area reach out to me as their local superstar to get that extra support and help them close deals.

What do you like about working with AireSpring?

I’ve worked with AireSpring for about 10 years. At NetStar I was responsible for sourcing everything and was working through master agents at the time, so I was aware of AireSpring as early as 2007-2008.

I love AireSpring, you guys have done a great job. In fact we just signed another big deal with you. Gabe [Gabriel Valderrama, AireSpring Channel Manager] is a young go-getter and I like that. My experience with AireSpring is that they are nimble and fast. I call it the “un-carrier” experience. There is so much “big carrier fatigue” among agents and customers these days and AireSpring brings a breath of fresh air to the table, from ordering, provisioning and billing, through to support. The entire life cycle is so much easier than with a really big carrier with all their rules and regulations. You’re left dialing into their systems with thousands of options and no true account management to help navigate their system. Working with AireSpring is in total contrast with that experience.

Here’s a case in point: one of my customers required SNMP access to their carrier’s router. At first, the big carrier we tried said no, then said yes, but we had to call support—who in turn said no again. We went round and round. By contrast, when I called AireSpring, we first spoke with Mike Chase [AireSpring Senior VP Solutions Engineering] whom I had met in Dallas. He said, “No problem, we’ve got you covered,” and I wondered why I hadn’t called you guys before. You have a can-do attitude, it’s “we’re going to get it done.” Another strength is the breadth of solutions you bring to the table, so you really can just go to one carrier for all needs, including managed connectivity, cloud, voice and data.

When I was at NetStar, which was an aggregator, one of the biggest challenges we faced was managing all the different carriers, which I did for a number of years there. We had multiple NNIs, but nowhere near the amount and connectivity that AireSpring has. That makes AireSpring a great platform for an SD-WAN play, which you do extremely well, because you’re not just in one box. When I spoke with Mike Chase, instead of saying he could only offer VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud™, he explained that he could pull together different choices to create exactly the right solutions for our customers.

Having one vendor makes things easier, especially for SMBs and SMEs. They’re tired of trying to manage 40 different vendors, and they are happy to do it all with one company that has shown they can perform in all those disciplines. AireSpring has demonstrated to me that they are capable of all that, which leads me to recommend you to all my customers, agents and resellers. At AireSpring, you have the great advantage of being able to bring the whole solution to the table under one bill, with “one throat to choke.”

Another area where AireSpring really differentiates itself is with taxes. Here’s an example: if a customer wants 100 MBps of DIA at a site, you may have a big carrier provider for the last mile, and you may see price parity between quotes from different carriers. However, if you take the time to look at the bottom line, you’ll find that taxes are a lot less with AireSpring quoting on the same services. As a result, both the customer and agency’s bottom line cost of ownership is as much as 5% less.

AireSpring offers something that you don’t see from many other carriers if any, namely a way to escalate an issue. For example, if you order service from a vendor and something goes sideways it’s a hit-or-miss event trying to get support. AireSpring on the other hand, publishes their escalation list with phone numbers going all the way to the CEO level. The customer comment shown on your website from Steven Carter, CEO of Clarius Health, is impressive—and totally accurate—when he says, “I was given mobile numbers and even phone numbers of company executives…Never in my life with any product have I experienced such a dedication to making things right.”

What would you say is the secret to being a successful agent?

Relationships with your existing customers are the number one source, then you can leverage partners to bring in deal flow. In our circles, we talk about being in a good position for deal flow. Unless you have very good communication and transition skills with all the customers and partners you worked with previously, you’re going to have a significant dry spell.

Joining a master is really helpful, and it’s important to choose the right one. Pick a master agency that is on your side, fights for commissions, and has a support team to help you close deals. That’s how Alan Sandler has built his “superstars system,” with over 50 of us nationwide, so in any major market you can tap into someone to help you go on meetings and with vendor selection. The next big concern as you get started is watching the evergreen clauses. Sandler has done a great job of negotiating the strongest evergreen deals with the carriers, maximizing on great relationships with all the big cablecos and telcos.

Last but not least, think about your commissions. If you go to the Sandler portal website, there is a ticker that shows how much in commissions the company has obtained for agents. Some companies will end a month with hundreds of thousands of dollars that are not tagged to any agent. The master gets paid, but they are not passing it on. Sandler will always go to bat to make sure we reconcile all our commissions and no dollars are left behind. It’s a great group of guys and I’ve been blessed to be a part of the organization.

What is the "next big thing" you think agents should be aware of in 2019?

It’s always important to look for the next wave to catch in technology trends. Now, the focus is on IoT to SD-WAN to AI. Everything that’s part of the tech ecosystem needs to be taken into account. That ever-changing landscape is the sort of thing that keeps me excited about the industry.

Everything’s moving to the cloud, so there’s an increase in hosted voice taking over from analog, PRI and older services. Connectivity requirements will just keep growing. SD-WAN is the MPLS-killer, although there are good hybrid solutions. I am hearing that from a customer that I sold a $30,000 MPLS network to, whose contract is up. They’re saying they no longer want it, they just want two internet connections. You can quote it at half the price of their old system, and it’s more resilient and better quality. There’s a lot of hype around SD-WAN, but the customer response depends on how educated they are, who they’re listening to, where they are geographically and how their systems are set up. Are they in the cloud with Azure or AWS? Do they need private connections into those resources instead of doing everything over the internet? In some cases they do and some industries like healthcare and banking want to stay on an MPLS network.

No one has a crystal ball, but it helps to be with a master agent that has an excellent portfolio of vendors at the forefront of these developments, one that can help you bring them to your customers and work to monetize them. Focusing on technology that can be monetized means choosing things that are really solutions for your customers. Agents need to know what to recommend in advance of a meeting.

What are some of your hobbies and interests outside of telecom?

I’m an enthusiastic swimmer and I do yoga. I was on the swim team for UT Austin while in college, then took 30 years off. I got involved in masters swimming about eight years ago to keep fit. Master swims are organized through USMS.org competitions, which were started back in 1972 by top level swimmers who wanted to keep competing. There are time trials you have to pass in order to qualify for certain national events. It’s a lot of fun.

An old friend of mine who was an Olympic swimmer started Swim Across America (SAA). I’ve gotten very involved in the organization as well as participating in many of their competitions. They raise funds for cancer research dollars into stage one or stage two drugs, where funds are hard to get. SAA puts on swims in cities all across the U.S., including in Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, Denver, Long Island and Boston Harbor. I’m helping to launch one in Houston for next year. I also do a lot of triathlons, and all these things cross over quite a bit. I have a beautiful wife, Kay. I am John Jr., and my son is John III. He wasn’t interested in swimming,

and chose to play football in school. Now, he has joined the telecom industry and works for an agency.

John, thank you for taking time to talk with us today.

At AireSpring, we know that it is our dedication to customer service that sets us apart, and customer service begins with great employees. Here is your chance to get to know another key member of the AireSpring team. This month we are talking with Louise Parker-Flett, Project Coordinator.

Hello Louise. To begin, please tell us about your professional background.

I started in the industry with a small telecom company in London called Shape Networks LTD. The company was still quite small and it meant wearing a lot of different hats. In addition to customer service and billing support for our business telecom customers, I was interfacing and supporting our partner crowdfunding company. As a result, I was able to expand my customer service skills, acquired in early work experience. 

Having a broad customer relations background has helped me in my current role as Project Coordinator (PC), where my primary goal is to make sure the customer gets what they need. The PC role is so interesting and challenging as we work to keep the focus always on the customer’s needs while pulling together all the different tasks and processes involved at the same time as technical aspects change and expand. 

When I first graduated from the University of Leicester in my native England, I followed my passion for other cultures and places, and took an internship in China, teaching English to Chinese students aged 7 to 15. I started in Xiaolan, Guandong Province, a charming small town with picturesque canals, then got a year-long contract in Suzhou, known as the “Venice of the East,” in Jiangsu Province, just 30 minutes from Shanghai. There was a lot of personal growth in learning to stand up in front of and manage a classroom of 55-plus students. I learned a bit of Mandarin, although in Suzhou they spoke a distinct dialect. The whole experience taught me tremendous lessons in communicating across cultures and personalities, which actually applies to many aspects of PC work.

Tell us about your role at AireSpring and how long you’ve been with the
company.

I started with AireSpring soon after moving to southern California. I was initially in Sales Operations for several years, which was a great opportunity for growth and development. My job involved taking orders, getting them entered into the system, checking service availabilities and running quotes through our proprietary QuoteSpring™ real-time online quoting tool. I was responsible for catching any availability issues that might come up, working those out with channel managers and agents, revising quotes and checking for alternate carriers.

Now, having the opportunity to be a Project Coordinator, I can draw on my understanding of relationships with all the individuals that are part of the total process. I am able to stay involved throughout the life-cycle of the order, anticipating where issues might arise and taking proactive steps to prevent them. You could say I’m a shepherd for the order, doing initial quality assurance. We work with multiple groups here, including provisioning, sales engineers and channel managers, to get everything correctly set up and input into the system. Even at later stages we facilitate communication between the carrier and the customer so that every step is completed quickly. I want to make the customer’s life and the partner's life as easy as possible, giving them a chance to get on with running their business and making a profit. I would rather contact the customer before they need to contact me, then I can provide what they need and they don’t find they are missing a step. 

What do you enjoy most about working with AireSpring?

Our training at AireSpring is very process-oriented and ongoing. As Project Coordinators, for example, we continuously work with a specialized department member-trainer. I really enjoy the challenge of having to constantly expand my understanding, and I love helping people and learning more about the industry and about technology.

Within the PC team, everyone is very supportive. We help each other out when needed, so the customer is never neglected and we ensure that we deliver the best possible customer experience. When a customer is grateful and expresses it, that is very rewarding.

What are some of your hobbies or interests outside of the office?

Travel is my biggest passion, as these photos show. Left to right, I'm standing in front of the temple in Tikal, Guatemala; my husband and I are in Prague, Czech Republic, and I am on the beach in my hometown of Folkestone, UK. I’ve visited Sri Lanka, a favorite place, and traveled throughout Europe. I met my husband Toby, who is American, while teaching in China. After returning from China, we lived in London, but he was missing the U.S. and we felt it was time to be near my husband’s family in northern California. Eventually we chose to live in southern California to be around friends and enjoy the lifestyle. Now, my travel mostly involves visiting family, whether in the SF Bay Area to see my in-laws, or home to the UK, often at Christmastime. I enjoy just spending time with my husband, going surfing and occasionally hiking. We’ve just started taking tennis lessons, and we love socializing with friends.

Louise, thank you for sharing your story with us!

AireSpring is an award-winning provider of Managed Connectivity and Cloud Communications solutions providing fully managed and connected end-to-end, next-generation solutions for multi-location enterprise customers, including:

• AireContact Cloud Contact Center
• AirePBX Cloud Phone System
• MPLS Mesh
• SD-WAN
• SIP Trunking
• Managed Connectivity
• Managed Failover
• Dedicated Internet Access
• Wholesale Long Distance

AireSpring's services are delivered over its revolutionary nationwide MPLS Mesh Network, providing customers a fully integrated, end-to-end solution from a single vendor.

sales@airespring.com | 888.389.2899 | www.airespring.com