Twilio aiming to build channel momentum

Twilio is looking to push on with the channel after spending the second half of last year focusing on recruiting partners.

The comms specialist has strong relationships with the developer community because of its open approach to expanding its platform but has also been increasing resellers links as more customers in the traditional call centre space look for multi-channel comms offerings.

Chetan Chaudhary, Global VP of Partners at Twilio, said that it was committed to building an ecosystem with partners and was looking to make gains with the channel this year.

"We had a big push in Q3 and Q4 in 2018 to get as many partners as possible and we have been finding we have a good handful of partners around the globe," he added.

The firm is building out its support for partners and has been putting more resources into the support it can provide the channel.

"This is a journey and it is going to be a multi-year approach. A year ago we didn't have a training programme and now we have a programme," he added "This is a multi-year investment not just a 12 month investment but a 24 or 36 month investment."

Twilio's senior management has signed up to working with partners and Chaudhary said that other executives also had experience building channel ecosystems at some of their previous employers: "They are great leaders that are very supportive.

He added that the partner recruitment had not ended and it was keen to work with partners that came to the company with something fresh in terms of opportunities and market coverage and it had also been charting the rise of the MSP.

"We are seeing more about a managed service offering and we are looking at what is happening there," said Chaudhary.

In terms of the top tier partners the business is looking to work with, "a dozen or so partners globally that can help us get to the next level".