CMS' Saxby Calls for Structured Practice-Building with VARs
CMS' Saxby Calls for Structured Practice-Building with VARs by UCStrategies Staff
The new president for master agent Communication Management Services (CMS) is Mike Saxby, who has been in the telecom channel for a number of years and has filled many roles in that time. According to Saxby, the telecom service is selling a bridge too far for a selective number of VARs. In his new CMS role, Saxby seeks to take IT solution provider relationships beyond supplier management expectations.
In an interview, Saxby said: “The approach CMS is taking is really one based on strategic investment. We are working with partners and plan to work with net-new IT partners to help them build their practice and create a much bigger relationship.”
In late January of this year, Saxby was named president of CMS, and prior to this role, was master agent Telecom Brokerage, Inc. (TBI)'s chief strategy officer. Saxby was also a group publisher for the telecom division of Virgo Publishing for many years.
Gene Foster is associated with Saxby, and the former is CMS' CEO and founder of the company. Foster is also one of the biggest master agents in the U.S.
Commenting on the new strategy, Saxby said: “The thing that was most attractive about this is that Gene, who founded the company and still owns it, is a visionary in terms of the mobility space. CMS even built a separate practice focused on being a distributor of mobility solutions.”
Telecom and carrier services practices are being embraced by many VARs, and it is essential for them that the telecom world's residual revenue model is understood. However, it is difficult for those VARs to reconcile that model considering the traditional structuring of their businesses, all the way from staffing to compensation.
According to Saxby, CMS is planning to pay particular attention to those conversations: “What it means is that we're working with [the partner's] executive management team: sitting down with the CFO, looking at staffing, looking at how to build a proper financial model. It's a real, honest conversation about how this business works, and building a recurring revenue stream that acts a lot like an annuity. They have to understand that it works – it’s going to take two-plus years for this to become profitable. So they, and we, have to go down the road of strategic investment.”
Saxby said: “They have to understand that this is an additional line of business. It's not just sending the contract over. It's not going to build that way.” (CY) Link