Show Notes
Granite Telecommunications is a nearly $2B business serving multi-location enterprises and government customers across the U.S. and Canada. But if you listen closely to Charlie Pagliazzo, Vice President of Channels, the story of Granite’s growth does not start with revenue. It starts with partners. Charlie has been at Granite for more than two decades, including building the channel organization from scratch. What began as a one-person effort has grown into an 80+ person channels team supporting more than 800 active selling partners delivering over $500M of that total ARR number. That scale did not happen by accident. “We look at our partners as our customers. Without their success, we don’t have any success.” That philosophy shows up in how Granite structures its teams, invests in enablement, and evaluates ROI across the entire partner lifecycle. Inside Partnering is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Scaling a channel without losing focus One of the most striking aspects of the conversation is how deliberate Charlie is about scale. Granite’s channel organization is large, but it is not generic. Roles are segmented by partner type, solution expertise, and regional coverage. “Partnerships are about ROI - but not just dollars spent. It’s human resource spend as well. How are our people spending their time, and who are they spending it with?” ROI, in Charlie’s view, is not just a finance exercise. It is a discipline that forces focus. Which partners are aligned. Where Granite can truly add value. And where deep expertise - not just broad coverage - makes the difference. This is especially important in a channel ecosystem that includes individual agents, large VARs, MSPs, distributors, and mobility-focused specialists. Each partner operates differently, and Granite adapts its engagement model accordingly. The evolution of the network business Granite’s roots were in simplifying telecom complexity - aggregating disparate copper-based services into a single billing and service platform. That model fueled early growth, but the industry has changed dramatically. Copper is being retired. Networks are converging. UCaaS, CCaaS, SD-WAN, 5G, fiber, and edge computing are now table stakes. And AI is putting unprecedented pressure on bandwidth, latency, and security. “AI is impacting every facet of the business. The need for throughput and bandwidth is putting real pressure on end users.” Charlie makes it clear that these changes are not abstract trends. They directly affect how partners sell, how customers buy, and how Granite builds solutions. The company has responded by developing proprietary offerings, including patented POTS replacement solutions, while also aggregating best-of-breed providers across mobility, networking, and security. Collaboration as a competitive advantage A recurring theme throughout the discussion is collaboration. Granite does not position itself as the single answer to every problem. Instead, it acts as an orchestrator - combining its own network and platforms with a broad ecosystem of underlying providers. “The whole ecosystem requires partnership. We want to make sure partners see all the different things available to take to market.” This approach gives partners flexibility while still benefiting from Granite’s scale. Volume matters. Granite’s purchasing power and critical mass translate into leverage with underlying carriers and technology providers - leverage that partners can bring to their customers. Measuring partner performance beyond revenue Revenue matters, but it is not the only metric that counts. Charlie describes a performance framework that looks at engagement, responsiveness, and mutual investment. “If we’re providing training, marketing, and expertise, what’s coming back? It has to be a win-win that leads to an end-user purchase.” Granite aligns partner-facing roles around relationship management, solution exp
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