In this Friday the 13th episode, Founder Frank G. Cannata’s guest is Eric Tuttle, director of distribution and strategic communities at Intermedia Cloud Communications. Tuttle explains how Intermedia’s encroachment into the dealer channel over the past five years has been a silver lining in COVID’s cloud. It all started with introductions from Pacific Office Automation, the largest reseller of Intermedia services, which led to meetings with Loffler Companies, Milner, and other imaging dealers. The team at Intermedia recognized there “was a need,” Tuttle explains, so they invested. He reports that, to date, more than 250 dealers are doing over $2 million in monthly recurring revenue! “Nobody can sell like the copier dealer channel,” Tuttle says.
Intermedia as an intermediary
To help partners with the transition, Intermedia developed a co-selling program. Unlike traditional UCaaS agent models, Tuttle notes that Intermedia’s business model is a “private-label way to go to market,” adding that dealers can make some nice margin.”Nothing is more fundamental to office technology than a phone system,” he says: a communication system to talk to customers. Cannata encourages more dealer owners to embrace the opportunity of unified communications as a service, VoIP business phone services, and other cloud-based technologies, calling them “viable, worthwhile products.” There are good reasons why Intermedia was voted “Diversification Partner of the Year” in 2025 by those who participated in The Cannata Report’s 40th Annual Dealer Survey last year.
