Former vice president and country manager of Avaya partner AGC Networks Tony Heywood has joined US-based Telarus to lead its expansion into Australia and New Zealand.
Telarus, not to be confused with the eponymous Melbourne-based telco acquired by Over The Wire in 2016, specialises in providing data, voice, cloud, and contact centre services.
Heywood joined the company this month as head of channels for ANZ, after departing AGC in November last year, where he worked for more than four years.
“I am excited to be part of the Telarus team,” Heywood said.
“From my time at Westcon, local ISPs and systems integration partners, I worked alongside channel partners who focused on solving technology solutions using services they built themselves and/or resold under their own brand.”
He will be introducing the agency model concept to ANZ, where third-party “cloud brokers” are recruited, trained, and supported to advise clients on which cloud communications and infrastructure service is right for them.
Heywood added that while the traditional business model is what’s popular now, the broker model that he will bring in with Telarus “will win out in the coming years”, with early adopters getting the opportunity to jump out to an “insurmountable” lead.
“With Telarus’ help, we will create an Australian version of the company using their 16 years of best practice knowledge, proprietary technology, and understanding of the industry spread across 150 US-based employees,” he said.
Telarus chief executive Adam Edwards said that the company’s expansion into ANZ is a “monumental step”, seeing Asia an important presence for growth.
“Although our business inside the United States has continued to grow at a robust 40 percent in each of the past three years, we feel it’s important to establish a presence in other geographies that hold even greater growth potential,” Edwards said.
“We see the broker model there in its infancy, waiting for a market leader to come in and take a leadership role. Our vision is to become just that: the leading master agent in the ANZ market.”
He added that Telarus will be working closely with its many suppliers – some of them with assets currently deployed in Australia – gain their “unfair share” of the market.
“Tony is going to be the best friend cloud brokers and cloud service providers could ever have Down Under,” Edwards said.
Heywood at this stage as the sole ANZ person for Telarus will be expected to “wear many hats” as a “partner development manager, supplier manager, commissions analyst, marketing expert, and events coordinator”.
He will, however, be expected to establish a permanent office in Sydney as the company grows, and to eventually hire staff to take over support roles and focus his full-time efforts on growing sales and vendor partnerships.
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