LAS VEGAS – It’s been a busy few days for Avaya as it continues to hire new channel leaders around the world.
The company has announced that Walter Denk will be Avaya’s new worldwide channel chief at its Engage event in Las Vegas, which ran from Feb. 13-15.
Denk has been on the job for four weeks already and has been tasked with creating and executing Avaya’s partner strategy, architecture and policy management under its new Edge Channel program, and lead revenue growth within the channel.
“With the launch of the Avaya Edge Channel Program and a number of exciting innovations announced over the past few months, partners are well positioned for success with Avaya,” Denk says in a Feb. 15 company press release. “Our partners play an critical role in Avaya’s future, and as the global head of channel sales, I’m committed to driving the programs and support that partners need to excel in serving our customers, delivering world-class customer satisfaction scores, and increasing revenue.”
Denk has been with the company for five years. He comes from his previous role as vice president of Avaya Germany’s small and medium business group, where he led initiatives that “enhanced customer and partner satisfaction, sales coverage, productivity and alignment.” Before that, he held sales and marketing positions at global companies such as Deutsche Telekom, IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
At Avaya Engage, Denk tells CDN that his promotion has gone well so far.
“Almost 90 per cent of the business is the same wherever you go around the world, in terms of the products and technology used, and goals, which is prioritizing our channel partners,” he explains. “So I picked up the role immediately and it’s been a smooth transition.”
His number one priority will be working with partners, communicating with them (which includes putting their fears of the Chapter 11 declaration to rest), and closing deals with new ones. He says Avaya has already received several new partner applications since his promotion, despite uncertainty around the company applying for debt restructuring at the end of January 2017, right around when Denk was hired.
“The channel is important to Avaya and I plan to be its biggest advocate,” he stresses. “Nothing has changed since Chapter 11 and it’s business as usual. I plan to use this partner confidence to grow our channel even further.”
US channel market gets a new leader
In addition to the Denk announcement, Avaya also unveiled the promotion of Gary Levy, who will now lead US channel sales. He is a 20 year Avaya channel partner veteran.