8×8 announced that channel industry veteran and former channel leader for CenturyLink and Westcon Group, Bill Corbin, has joined 8×8 in the newly created role of Senior Vice President of Channels & Alliances. Reporting directly to 8×8 Chief Executive Officer Vikram Verma, Bill will be responsible for further accelerating the company’s channel growth and momentum, and driving adoption of the newly launched X Series, the next generation enterprise system of engagement and intelligence.
“Demand from the midmarket and enterprise segment is accelerating as companies increasingly replace legacy PBX telephony systems with a cloud solution, and this migration is largely led by channel partners,” said Vik Verma, CEO at 8×8, Inc. “Bill has 27 years under his belt successfully finding new routes to market and growing global partner programs. Under his leadership, 8×8 is well positioned to help our partners and joint customers succeed in the next wave of enterprise communications where one cloud solution for phone, meetings, collaboration and contact center is necessary to deliver a more intelligent, integrated employee and customer experience.”
The 8×8 global channel program has significantly expanded in the past year. In the third quarter of fiscal 2018, ended December 31, 2017, six of 8×8’s top ten deals were contributed by channel partners, and overall channel bookings increased 50 percent year-over-year. Most recently, CRN gave the 8×8 Partner Program a 5-Star rating in the 2018 Partner Program Guide.
“It is a really exciting time to join 8×8, a leader in IDC’s $40.8 billion unified communications, collaboration and contact center market¹,” said Bill Corbin, Senior Vice President of Channels & Alliances at 8×8. “Partners are critical to 8×8’s market leadership in the midmarket and enterprise segments, and with the positive response to the new X Series from customers, investors and analysts, we will continue to invest in our partner growth to drive X Series adoption.”
Bill comes to 8×8 from CenturyLink where he oversaw all aspects of $3 billion in partner revenue as the Senior Vice President, Alliances and Strategic Partnerships, and led a team of 400 employees. Prior to CenturyLink, he was Executive Vice President, Global Sales & Partner Management at Westcon Group, a leading global value-added distributor of solutions in security, collaboration, networking and data center. He also has an entrepreneurial side, having co-founded RedCard Solutions, a channels consulting business, as well as Network Catalyst, a network integration company. Bill holds a B.A. from California State University, Fullerton.