Adaptive strategy looms as test for partners, clients

Twilio taps Deloitte Digital, expands channel ecosystem

Twilio, a cloud communications platform provider based in San Francisco, unveiled a partnership with Deloitte Digital, underscoring the company's work with systems integrators and increasing focus on enterprise business.

Deloitte Digital joins the Twilio Build partner program as a premier Global Systems Integrator. The integrator will offer Twilio Flex for contact centers as well as Twilio's communications APIs and platform services. Twilio has been recruiting systems integrator partners since launching Build in 2018 and now has more than 300 certified consulting partners in that program.

Twilio chief customer officer Glenn Weinstein oversees the professional services and systems integrator ecosystem at the company. He was previously CIO at Appirio, a cloud services firm with a specialization in Salesforce.

"Twilio will be a more channel-focused company moving forward," Weinstein said.

The channel strategy dovetails with Twilio's enterprise interest. Twilio previously cultivated relationships with ISVs that embedded its technology in their products and worked with digital ecosystem companies such as rideshares. And while the company continues to work with technology partners and on-demand services providers, it's looking to make a broader push into the enterprise with the help of partners.

Weinstein said he believes the best way to approach enterprise customers is to "be partner-friendly and have our solutions available through partners who are trained and capable of delivering Twilio solutions." The addition of partners like Deloitte Digital reinforces the company's relevance to the enterprise market, he added.

Twilio's relationship with Deloitte Digital also signals an expansion of integrator use cases. Integrators previously anchored their Twilio activities around contact centers. The Build program now focuses on use cases across all industries, Weinstein said.

"The broader focus on digital communications generally, not just in contact centers, is a big change in our SI ecosystem," he noted.

Deloitte Digital, for example, will "go beyond the contact center" to pursue various types of enterprise digital transformation initiatives, Weinstein said.

As for industries, Deloitte Digital and Twilio will initially focus on financial services, healthcare and public sector. Weinstein expects the relationship to eventually expand to all of Deloitte Digital's industry sectors.

In addition, Twilio will work with Deloitte Digital to build its communications APIs into its intellectual property. The companies will collaborate to expand Deloitte Digital's ConvergeHealth Connect platform, a patient engagement offering that uses Salesforce Health Cloud.

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