Highlights:
- The CRN Women of the Channel list honors exceptional women for their strategic vision, thought leadership and channel advocacy that impacts growth and innovation in the channel.
- Wendy Harmon is RingCentral’s AVP of Channel Marketing and leads initiatives for our award-winning Partner Program.
- This is the second consecutive year Wendy has been honored with this recognition.
RingCentral’s Partner Program racks up a ton of awards, and we greatly appreciate all the recognition we receive from the partner community and the industry as a whole. We recognize the value of our partners’ time and effort, which we respect by always striving to make the partner experience as frictionless as possible.
Keeping that focus top of mind takes the hard work and talents of hundreds of people who advocate for our partners every day. We have people around the globe who live and breathe Channel Harmony, and how it helps partners grow their business while providing impactful solutions to customers.
But today, I’d like to help honor one leader in particular.
I’m happy to announce that Wendy Harmon, RingCentral’s AVP of Channel Marketing and the leader of our Partner Program, has been named to CRN’s Women of the Channel list for the second year in a row! This award recognizes leading women in the IT channel whose vision, expertise, and contributions make an impact on the industry every day.
Even in the face of tremendous change, what makes a good leader stays constant.
First, a leader is consistent.
No matter what the world throws at them (and lately, that’s been a lot), they show up for their people every day. Wendy demonstrates this with her laser-sharp focus on the partner experience. RingCentral prides itself on being known as the most partner-friendly vendor to work with. As I mentioned earlier, we accomplish this through Channel Harmony, which eliminates conflict with direct sales and offers 100% commissions regardless of partner involvement or deal size. By consistently putting our partners first, Wendy has helped create a frictionless way for them to do business with RingCentral. It’s this philosophy that has also led to RingCentral being named a five-star partner program by CRN for seven consecutive years. We are the only pure-cloud communications vendor who can make that claim.
Second, a leader communicates effectively.
Throughout the upheaval of the past few years, Wendy has worked to maintain RingCentral’s industry-leading partner support as her team has expanded globally. In particular, our channel business in Europe has grown dramatically, and as we’ve added channel partners, we’ve also built out the team to enable them.
As the pandemic has evolved differently across these regions, keeping such a dispersed team connected and engaged has been no easy feat. But Wendy has handled it with aplomb, and her growing team serves as an example of what hybrid work can look like. The European market continues to thrive, and partners there are helping larger and larger customers adapt to digital transformation.
Finally, a leader listens.
Everyone on the RingCentral Partner Team recognizes the value of direct feedback from our partners, but Wendy has a knack for putting it into action. One example: at the recent Channel Partners Conference & Expo, many partners expressed that while RingCentral is recognized as a leader in the unified communications space, they’d like to see us emphasize our Customer Experience solutions equally. Our integrated UC+CC product is consistently rated the best in the industry by independent analysts, so a key focus for us this year will be equipping partners with everything they need to lead with contact center. This strategy has already begun to pay dividends, as many of RingCentral’s largest deals now include both unified communications and customer experience elements.
Strong leaders are always critical to success, but this is especially true in these dynamic times. We are immensely grateful for the passion and drive Wendy brings to the table every day in support of our partners.
Please join me in congratulating Wendy Harmon!
If you’d like to learn more about the RingCentral Partner Program, click here, call (800) 595-8110 or email partners@ringcentral.com.
About the Author
As SVP of Global Partner Sales, Zane Long oversees RingCentral’s Global Channel Partner division, which he has grown into an organization that generates more than $600M a year.
Bringing more than 21 years of channel leadership and management experience, Zane was the architect behind Channel HarmonyTM and a big reason why partners “Think RingCentral First.” His passionate enthusiasm and collaborative approach have been essential to the team’s overall success.
Zane has been named a CRN® Channel Chief six years in a row, and is a three-time winner of the Channel Futures Circle of Excellence award. Prior to joining RingCentral, he held senior roles at Genband (Ribbon), Cbeyond, and Level 3.
Originally published May 09, 2022