Speakeasy is helping its channel partners drive revenue and deliver more value to customers through the Speakeasy Partner Program. This month the Speakeasy program was among the Top 50 Channel Programs for 2008 recognized by PHONE+ magazine, a resource for the telecommunications indirect sales channel. Selected from among hundreds of companies by more than 1,000 indirect sales partners, Speakeasy was recognized for its support of the more than 6,000 partners in its program, providing each with a portfolio of VoIP, broadband and managed hosting and colocation services for small businesses.

Speakeasy offers free VoIP training and certification for its channel partners. This provides Speakeasy partners with knowledge and skills so that they can take advantage of the high demand for IT consultants with VoIP competency. Recent industry research has found jobs in VoIP commanded the highest hourly rates of all IT service positions during the second quarter of fiscal 2008 (OnForce), and 61 percent of small businesses in the US plan to invest in VoIP solutions within the next three years (Gartner).

Partners are also having success with Speakeasy’s new Business Ethernet broadband services, which offer faster connection speeds than T1 with a lower cost per megabit. Peter Goldman of Goldman Lockey Consulting, a San Francisco-based Speakeasy partner who provides IT consulting services to small businesses, says, “Nothing else in the marketplace is really matching Business Ethernet right now.”