Macquarie Telecom: MacTel signs on to be distributor for Broadcom-owned VeloCloud products

ASX-listed Macquarie Telecom has been appointed to distribute Broadcom-owned VeloCloud's SD-Wan managed service providers.The four-year agreement with VeloCloud was part of a restructure of its channel model globally which saw the Broadcom-owned company implement a new partner program, said MacTel's chief marketing officer Tony Emmanouil.He told ARN, as MacTel's largest partner in Australia and New Zealand, it was "in the best position and saw the opportunity to become VeloCloud's first Pinnacle Partner in the entire Asia Pacific region."All services will be direct from Macquarie Telecom either as a white-labelled solution or co-sold under our brand," said Emmanouil. "Macquarie will offer a broad spectrum of solutions including licensing and hardware, managed SD-WAN, managed networks, and customised solutions depending on what works best for partners.The distributor will allow MacTel to offer a package comprising of hardware, licencing, managed services, carriage, and industry-leading, net promoter score (NPS)-proven customer service.This according to the telco company, will allow partners to work with a local provider that operates in Australian dollars."We will offer a predictable commercial relationship with partners," said Emmanouil. "We're an ASX-listed company with a 30-year track record who can offer Australian contacts, rates and invoices in AUD, standardised pricing eliminating need for unnecessary quoting, and a fast turnaround on important commercial decisions for partners as we're located here in Australia."This is on top of the best pricing in market for VeloCloud SD-WAN - our scale and long-term commitments with VeloCloud give us, and partners, cost certainty and optimisation."According to Emmanouil, MacTel are authorised to provide rebates to reward partners' success without the need for large upfront commitments."Our offering will create advantages for partners who've worked with VeloCloud, partners of other US vendors that want to move to an Australian support model, and those looking to grow their own SD-WAN business," he said."We believe the main benefits for partners are the best commercial pricing and predictable, customer service-focused relationship Macquarie Telecom is renowned for."On top of that, partners can benefit from our carrier-grade SD-WAN network architecture, which includes dedicated redundant orchestrators, redundant gateways at dual POPs in each state as well as New Zealand."We also have the most experienced SD-WAN engineers in the country, onshore support and flexible models to best suit partners."The Australian telco has also announced the promotion of Emmanouil from CMO to director of marketing and channel, which will see him lead the company's VeloCloud Partner Channel and working closely with partners."This agreement empowers us to deploy a wide range of VeloCloud solutions, ranging from licencing to fully managed services to best suit different partners across Australia," said Emmanouil."This isn't just a resell play, we will go to market with partners to bring the world's leading SD-Wan technology to their customer base."We've got a truly unique blend of experience, expertise, commercial value and service to enable more partners to bring this technology to a greater cross-section of Australian businesses."Broadcom's VeloCloud division vice president and general manager Sanjay Uppal said the partnership serves "the needs of people who otherwise may not get access to technology"."The world is changing, with new apps coming in, security threats, and people are really relying on their distributed networks a lot more on a day-by-day basis," he said. "This partnership together really epitomises what people are looking for in mid-to-large enterprises."Macquarie Telecom group executive, Luke Clifton, says the agreement is testament to the company's bet on bringing SD-Wan to Australia in 2017 and more recently expanding into SASE (Security Access Service Edge), and will generate significant value for Australia's channel."We've worked closely with VeloCloud and nearly all of our customers to harness the value of this technology while major telcos have maintained a complete lack of vision, zero innovation, and buried their heads in the sand," said Clifton."We see many of the same issues affecting our traditional mid-sized-enterprise customer base hitting the channel. They're overcharged and underserved by vendors and major telcos, and we can deliver a far better experience together."