Unify Expands Channel Program and Service Offerings Driving Growth for Thousands of Partners Globally

MUNICH and BOCA RATON, Fla., May 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Unify, the Atos brand for communications software and services, unveiled new programs and offerings to accelerate channel partner business growth at its annual Unify Partner Conference held recently in Barcelona, Spain. Addressing the audience of more than 250 global partners, Unify reaffirmed its ongoing commitment to being the partner of choice in the communications and collaborations industry.

Unify continues to deliver on its intent to dramatically increase business through its global partner network, and today over 50 percent of Unify's product revenue is through the channel.  The recent appointment of industry and channel veteran Jon Pritchard to CEO of Unify confirms the company's ongoing commitment to strengthening its channel business and more firmly embedding partners within its business. In the past year, Unify's partner base has more than doubled in size to over 2,000 partners in more than 50 countries, along with 13 new distributors.

Based on ongoing partner feedback, Unify made a number of improvements in key areas, including streamlining and simplifying the on-boarding process and experience, making it easier to do business with Unify. Unify has focused on reducing the time and requirements for partners to begin selling in order to achieve a faster time to revenue. Today, 80 percent of the partners that Unify on-boarded in the last 12 months are already actively selling.

New specializations were added to the Unify Partner Program to help further differentiate and grow business in new markets, including the Health Station HiMed Specialization that was made available in December 2015. Additionally, Unify has made its large enterprise OpenScape portfolio available through distribution, enabling partners to access these solutions quicker and at a lower cost.

Training and certification updates are another area of ongoing investment. Additional training courses are now available online, with all OpenScape Business training courses accessible via the web, helping to reduce travel costs and time. Unify has also reduced the large enterprise certification requirements 50 percent, resulting in less investment for taking VUE certification tests. In total, between 20 and 56 days of required training have been eliminated by combining implementation and support certification requirements. Additionally, 11 authorized training partners have been added to Unify's training portfolio, bringing the total global number to 17.

"Our team is excited about the opportunity to work with Unify and Atos more closely," said Brian Gendron, vice president of Large Enterprise Sales, Black Box Network Services.  "It's inspiring to see Unify remain so dedicated and responsive to the channel in a time of immense change. We're excited to see what's in store for the upcoming year and beyond."

Unify also introduced new tools and offerings to make it easier for partners to grow:

• A new configure, price, quote (CPQ) tool delivers a seamless, automated solution for the design, pricing, proposal and ordering process. This user-friendly, SaaS-based tool provides a simplified interface for partners, thereby accelerating the sales cycle and reducing the complexity and time needed to produce Unify solution proposals. This reduces partner's total operating costs for selling Unify products.
• New guided selling methodology and workflow integration to request special bids and technical approval are now available.
• A new OpenScape Business software bundle offering to support customer requests and full solution selling approach.

"Through Unify's annual Voice of the Partner survey, we suggested a number of enhancements to the partner program – mainly simplification and improving certain processes. We are delighted to see our views have been listened to," said Michael Brase, managing director of Telba GmbH , Germany. "In particular, we are looking forward to the benefits that the new configure, price, quote tool will afford our business. Not only will it speed up our sales cycle and streamline current processes, but it will also free up time that will allow us to focus on winning more business." 

"The new OpenScape Business promotions that were presented at the conference are very compelling – they will enable a smooth upgrade path to the latest version and via software support our customers can be confident they are benefitting from the latest features," added Iain Simpson, managing director of Active Voice and Data.

About Unify

Unify is one of the world's leading communications software and services firms, providing integrated communications solutions for approximately 75 percent of the Fortune Global 500. Our solutions unify multiple networks, devices and applications into one easy-to-use platform that allows teams to engage in rich and meaningful conversations. The result is a transformation of how the enterprise communicates and collaborates that amplifies collective effort, energizes the business, and enhances business performance. Unify has a strong heritage of product reliability, innovation, open standards and security.

About Atos

Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is a leader in digital services with pro forma annual revenue of circa € 12 billion and circa 100,000 employees in 72 countries. Serving a global client base, the Group provides Consulting & Systems Integration services, Managed Services & BPO, Cloud operations, Big Data & Cyber-security solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry. With its deep technology expertise and industry knowledge, the Group works with clients across different business sectors: Defense, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Media, Utilities, Public sector, Retail, Telecommunications, and Transportation.

Atos is focused on business technology that powers progress and helps organizations to create their firm of the future. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and is listed on the Euronext Paris market. Atos operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Bull, Canopy, Unify and Worldline.

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