The ServiceNow telecom sector is heating up for partners

SaaS giant ServiceNow and its channel partners converge in the trillion-dollar-plus telecom vertical market.

The company has intensified its partnership with consultancies and service providers over the past two years, while also looking to expand its presence within the industries. Those two initiatives now intersect. This week, Elite-level ServiceNow partner Thidera launched an order management service and offering built on the ServiceNow platform and designed for telecom customers. The industry accelerator includes a customer portal and assurance dashboard, available in the ServiceNow Store. Cloud consultants are increasingly making products such as software accelerators, frameworks and applications.

ServiceNow’s other telecom moves in the partner ecosystem include the NTT Ltd alliance. to ServiceNow to speed up the use of private 5G. NTT, a technology services provider in London, said the alliance announced on February 9 aims to use an AI-based workflow automation platform to simplify customers ’technology deployment and integration.

Fully Managed, an MSP that specializes in ServiceNow, was acquired by Canadian telecom company Telus. Fully Managed, based in Ottawa, is a ServiceNow Elite -level partner focusing on verticals including telecom. Telus is a ServiceNow Specialist-level partner. The deal was revealed on Feb. 10.

Telecom factors

The growth prospects specific to the telecom vertical stem from several trends. One is the rapid expansion of emerging technologies such as 5G. Grand View Research raises the global market of 5G services to $ 47.3 billion for 2021 and predicts a compound annual growth rate of 52% between 2022 and 2030.

ServiceNow’s portfolio includes industry -specific telecom offerings that make way for 5G services, said Parm Sandhu, vice president of enterprise 5G products and services at NTT. “ServiceNow’s pre-built assets help businesses digitize workflows that are essential to private 5G deployment and adoption,” he said.

Jason Wojahn

Another factor is the aging of IT systems used by telecom providers to automate business-critical functions. Many companies use outdated, diverse systems to run processes such as order management, according to Thidera. Jason Wojahn, the Leesburg, Va., CEO of the company, said Thirdera’s ServiceNow-based order management offering “aims to address legacy system challenges.”

The company plans to launch additional industry accelerators in its telecom offering lines, with insurance, health and financial services assets in the works.

Partner list updates

• Kyndryl, a New York -based IT infrastructure service provider, has added communications company Nokia to its list of partners. The companies aim to drive customers ’digital transformation projects through LTE and 5G private wireless networking. Prior to the partnership, Kyndryl and Nokia made an offer that combined the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud application platform with Kyndryl’s consulting, design, implementation and managed services. The companies also collaborated on private LTE and 5G deployment and proof-of-concept projects for Dow Inc. Nokia is the latest partner in the Kyndryl alliance, the service provider that has already partnered with Microsoft, Google Cloud and VMware.
• Ingram Micro Cloud has added the Google Cloud Platform to its IaaS portfolio. The move makes GCP available to distributor resellers in the US, United Kingdom, France and Canada. Ingram Micro Cloud said it will help partners develop GCP skills.
• Accenture is partnering with League, a PaaS company in the healthcare market. The relationship combines Accenture’s data analytics and system integration services with the Toronto -based League healthcare experience platform. The companies are partnering with Shoppers Drug Mart to expand the retail pharmacy chain’s PC Health app, where customers can access providers and other healthcare resources.
• Rackspace Technology, a multi-cloud technology solutions provider, has expanded its partnership with Cloudflare, a web performance and security company. Under the agreement, Rackspace will offer managed services for Cloudflare Zero Trust, a secure access service edge technology.
• TD Synnex, a distributor based in Clearwater, Fla., Has added security company Claroty to its product lineup. Claroty, which specializes in cyber-physical systems, will offer its Claroty Platform, focused on industrial cybersecurity, and Claroty’s Medigate, a clinical device security offering, through TD Synnex and partners on its channel.
• Evoque, a Dallas -based connectivity, cloud and data center service provider, has partnered with Telarus, a technology services broker based in Sandy, Utah. The partnership aims to bring Evoque’s data center, colocation and hybrid cloud services to resellers who have partnered with Telarus.
• HBR Consulting, a Chicago-based managed services and advisory firm, has partnered with LogicMonitor, which offers cloud-based observation and vendor infrastructure monitoring products to legal industry clients. HBR Consulting specializes in legal verticals.
• Xebia, an IT consultancy headquartered in Atlanta, has partnered with Mendix, a Siemens business that provides a low-code application development product.

Channel program launches and updates

• Managed discovery and response provider Red Canary, headquartered in Denver, has launched Red Canary Partner Connect. The partner program provides its MSP partners with cybersecurity tools to identify and protect themselves from threats and breaches. The program has five categories: technology partners for integration with the Red Canary platform, response to the incident with MDR support, managed service providers to bring MDR services to customers, insurance and risk to offer referrals, and solution providers to resell the Red Canary.
• Axcient, a software company having a business in Denver, has updated its partner program into the silver, gold and platinum tiers. Partners can get promotion at higher levels by following program requirements and business performance metrics such as monthly recurring income. The benefits of the program increase as partners climb the levels. The platinum tier, for example, offers marketing concierge services, a quarterly solutions operational audit and the ability to join Axcient’s partner advisory committee.

Other news

• Upstack, an online platform that sells cloud services through sales agents, has merged with RDS Solutions, an independent telecom agency in Clinton, NJ RDS Solutions, which employs 30 people, provides connectivity, cloud and data center offerings. The company’s managing partners, JR Vernick and Darren Jones, will join New York -based Upstack as partners and executive managing director.
• Thoughtworks, a technology consultancy in Chicago, has entered into a multi-year agreement to jointly create a digital marketplace for Ritchie Bros., a Vancouver-based company that sells new and used heavy equipment. Engineering teams from Thoughtworks and Ritchie Bros. will design and build the marketplace.
• OpsRamp, an AIOps company based in San Jose, Calif., Has added features for MSPs and system integrators to its platform. The latest release allows service providers to separate SaaS instances into tiers that cover their own IT environments, their customers ’IT environments and customers’ business units and regions. Other capabilities include the ability to speed up customer onboarding and monitor website and application availability and customers ’performance in real time, according to OpsRamp.
• Equinix, a data center services and interconnection company in Redwood City, Calif., Said channel partners accounted for 40% of its Q4 bookings and approximately 60% of its new customer wins in the quarter.
• Otava, a hybrid cloud solutions provider in Ann Arbor, Mich., Has earned VMware validated status for its disaster-recovery-as-a-service offering.

Executive appointments

• Checkmarx, an application security testing vendor, has named Mark Osmond as vice president of global channels and alliances. Osmond joined Checkmarx, headquartered in Ramat Gan, Israel, from Veeam Software, where he is the director of the global cloud program and service provider.
• Deep Instinct, a cybersecurity company in Tel Aviv, Israel, has hired three channel executives. Mike Saletta, area vice president of Americas channels, and Joe Santamorena, area vice president of global managed security service provider programs, joined the company from SecurityScorecard. Phanneth Wood, director of global distribution, was previously with Okta.
• NetFortris, a managed provider of IT and cloud communications, has appointed Rich Gavaghen as senior vice president of sales. He was previously a sales executive at Digital Realty, ByteGrid and Zayo Group.

Additional reporting by Kristen Gloss.