Lisa Del Real, associate vice president at RingCentral, was recognized by Cloud Girls in collaboration with the Alliance of Channel Women and Channel Partners, the leading resource for the telecom and IT channel community, as a Trailblazer in the third annual Cloud Girls Rising “Women to Watch” Awards announced April 19, 2018, at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.
The Cloud Girl Rising award was created to honor women in the telecom and IT channel who have shown leadership and innovation in the emerging cloud space as well as to inspire more women to step forward and follow their example. This year the award was given to one Trailblazer and one Rising Star.
Del Real was honored as a Trailblazer, a female technology industry veteran who is paving the way for her organization, customers and industry in advancing cloud and next-generation technology solutions. She is recognized as a role model and mentor to colleagues and others at work and the partner community.
Del Real is a dedicated channel champion, scaling the company’s cloud partner program from zero to more than 4,000 actively transacting channel partners worldwide. One of her biggest accomplishments is the RingCentral Channel Harmony Program, which establishes harmony between direct sales and channel. Through Channel Harmony, RingCentral is eliminating conflict and making it easier to do business with RingCentral.
In 2018, Del Real was named to CRN’s Power 100, an elite subset of its prestigious annual Women of the Channel list.
Cloud Girls is pleased to share more about Del Real in this edited excerpt from her award application.
How have you created a corporate vision for cloud services in your organization?
I co-founded and laid the foundational elements of the partner program in my cloud organization. When the channel program began seven years ago, it contributed less than 5% of company revenue. Through execution of vision, the program now makes up 35% of new RingCentral Office revenue, based on Q4 2017 results.
What have you done to inspire employees and team members to take risks and move ahead with regard to cloud services?
We’re born in the cloud. This is what we’ve always done. We’ve always been innovative and knew that as a cloud-based communications service, incentivizing partners and how you operate business supersedes the parameters of boxes that were put in place before. We’re fluffy and free, just like the cloud itself.
We’re differentiating our product as well as our partner program to align with the freedom and flexibility of the cloud; all the benefits of our partner program reflect those of the cloud. This is a different world. RingCentral embraces innovation, and our partner program reflects that. Having worked my way up at RingCentral over the last seven years, I began as a foundational contributor to the RingCentral Channel Partner Program; I have directly influenced the revenue growth, global expansion, and operational and programmatic evolution of RingCentral.
After building a team from the ground up and changing channel strategy, every new hire is key, strategic, and so, so important. The people I choose to join my team, along with the ways in which I lead our innovative partner program, inherently encourages and inspires my team members to take risks and move forward with regards to the cloud. The entire RingCentral culture lives and breathes innovation and cloud.
What work have you done around developing future women cloud leaders in your organization and in the industry?
I’m entirely dedicated to the development of future women cloud leaders in my organization and in the industry. Along with the support of my leadership team, we have made a commitment to hire more women over the past two years. And when RingCentral makes a commitment, it sticks to it. I’m so pleased to see so many future women leaders both on my team as well as in RingCentral as an organization in general. Additionally, we are paying for all our female channel team members to hold memberships in Alliance of Channel Women, because we firmly believe it will be an excellent opportunity for them to seek out different mentors, peers, and other women in the same positions as them from whom they can benefit from knowledge and expertise.
About the Editor
Amy Kramer is a Senior Engagement Manager with NTT America, an NTT Com Company and member of the Cloud Girls Communications Work Group.