Some of the biggest names in the industry recently named their top channel partners from the past year. Missed some when the news first broke? We've compiled them, in no particular order, in this slide show. It's not a comprehensive list, but it includes a lot of the best-known companies in the channel and the very best partners who sell their products and services

1. Top Partners: The Best of the Best
A Channel Partners Slide Show

2. AT&T Celebrates BTG
It's a hat trick for Breakthrough Technology
Group (BTG). For the third year in a row, the
company has been recognized by AT&T as its
Top Revenue Producing Solutions Provider. In
addition to a full portfolio of AT&T products
and services such as voice, Internet protocol
(IP) and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS),
data, hosting, mobility and application services,
BTG offers a suite of cloud, professional, and
managed IT and telecom services.

3. Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications honored its top performing
partners at a dinner reception in conjunction with
the Channel Partners Conference & Expo. Those
earning accolades were: Intelisys – top partner
(highest overall sales) and most new logos; Avant
Communications – top partner East; Simplify – top
partner West; Select Conferencing – top
collaboration partner; Teleproviders – highest
percentage increase in sales; MicroCorp – highest
percentage increase in new agent participation;
RDS Solutions (subagent) – biggest deal of the year;
and D&M Enterprise Group (subagent) – biggest
new account of the year.

4. Polycom
Polycom honored its top-performing partners
from around the world; in all, 70 companies –
including systems integrators, resellers and
service providers – received awards. The UC
provider announced the awards at its annual
sales and partner conference, TEAM Polycom, in
Vancouver, B.C., in early February. The winners
are too many to display here, but you can find
the list here.

5. SimpleSignal Lauds Sandler Partners
Cloud-based UC&C provider SimpleSignal
named Sandler Partners, the private
consultancy and auditing firm specializing in
telecom service, as its Partner of the Year for
2012. Sandler Partners has been a
SimpleSignal partner for the past two years
and focuses on leveraging SimpleSignal’s
voice and video solutions for business
customers. Besides hosted voice,
SimpleSignal offers unified-communications
applications like call recording, backup and
storage, SMS, voice-mail-to-text and CRM
integration.

6. Windstream Gives Props to Telarus
Business communications giant Windstream
named master agency Telarus its top partner of
2012. It's the sixth straight year the distributor
has claimed the title and it set a new sales record
in the process. Also notable is that it's the first
top partner award handed out by Windstream
since the PAETEC and legacy Windstream indirect
sales channels came together.

7. Cbeyond’s Pinnacle Club
Cbeyond announced the winners of its 2012
Pinnacle Club Contest. Ranked in order by
revenue recorded June 1-Dec. 31, 2012,
Cbeyond's top five channel partners are: Sandler
Partners; IQ Wired; iBS; Aligned
Communications; and Telarus. Winners went on
an all-expenses paid trip to Grand Cayman,
March 9-12.

8. CenturyLink
CenturyLink Channel Alliance named its top indirect
sales partners for 2012. Telecom Brokerage Inc. took top
honors as the first partner to win a million-dollar bonus
for increasing revenue by $2 million per month between
summer 2010 and summer 2015. Among the Premier
Elite partners (with monthly billed revenue of $2.5
million or more), the winners are: TBI (top large deal,
highest revenue growth, highest sales attainment);
Intelisys (top retention); and Carrier Access (top data
center sales). Among the Premier partners (with
$500,000 in monthly billed revenue or more), the
winners are: LincLogix (top large deal); Liquid Networx
(highest revenue growth and highest sales attainment);
Affiliated Computer Services (top retention).

9. EarthLink Business
EarthLink Business announced its top performing
partners and Chairman’s Club members for 2012.
In the fourth quarter of 2012, the IT services and
communications provider held a partner contest
to enhance the competition for these rankings.
Partner Chairman’s Club members, in order of
ranking, are Telarus, Intelisys, WTG, MicroCorp,
Simplify, Sandler Partners and Total
Communications Inc. (TCI). Company reps earned
a trip to Mexico, March 21-24. EarthLink also
named Ali Niroo of CNSG as “Top Rookie of the
Year."

10. Telesphere Honors Concierge
Cloud-based UCaaS provider Telesphere has
named Concierge Communications its winning
channel-partner producer of 2012. It's the
ninth straight year that Concierge, the Tempe,
Ariz.-based master agency, has nabbed the
honor. Concierge offers Telesphere's
communications services, as well as services
from other providers, to its national base of
business customers. Among the types of
services Concierge offers are: managed
services, mobility, hosted services, voice and
data, and contact-center services.

11. snom
IP phone and solutions developer snom technology
announced its Gold and Platinum Partners for
2013. Novus once again gets the nod for Platinum
Partner status, while ABP International and
TeleDynamics are touted as Gold Partners for the
second year in a row. These distributors are being
honored not only for strong sales of snom
products, but also for high levels of support to the
company's customers throughout 2012.

12. Google
Google recently congratulated its top
partners at its inaugural Global Partner
Summit in Mountain View, Calif. The search
giant recognized the work that its partners
have done helping businesses embrace new
solutions and move to the cloud. Winners
included SoftBank (Japan), Cloud Sherpas
(U.S.) and APAC), Onix Networking (U.S.),
SPH (Korea) and PA Consulting (U.K. & U.S.).

13. Digium
Digium named its top channel partners for North
America and around the globe based on annual sales
in 2012 and commitment to customer satisfaction.
Winners are Dynamic Solutions Group: Partner of the
Year – North America; AVENCALL: Partner of the Year
– Europe; IPTek: Partner of the Year – Middle East; ATS
Design, LTD: Partner of the Year – Asia Pacific;
Clarotech Consulting: Partner of the Year – Africa;
Telonline: Partner of the Year – Latin America; Tango
Technology: Partner of the Year – Australia. Other
category winners for North America were VoIP Supply
– Direct Marketing Partner of the Year; and NETXUSA –
Distributor of the Year.

14. Telecom Association Recognizes Telarus
Telarus was voted the top Master Agent of 2012 by
the members of the Telecom Association (TA). The
win marks the fourth straight year that TA
members have chosen Telarus as the top master
agent. Telarus also won the top spot for TA
Partner’s Choice Awards for best-in-class
multilocation research tools, wireless and mobility
management, and CRM.

15. CP 360: The Business Value Awards
Channel Partners handed out some
awards of its own last month to top
partners. The inaugural CP 360 Business
Value Awards, sponsored by AT&T,
recognized channel partners – agents,
VARs, dealers, systems integrators, MSPs
and consultants – of all sizes for
innovation, solutions-orientation and
customer focus. See the list of winners
here.

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Top Partners: The Best of the Best
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