Partner Content - Stronger together: How Konekt and Zoom are shaping the modern channel

The channel landscape is being reshaped by a convergence of forces: cloud-first communications, accelerating AI adoption, and growing demand from customers for partners that can deliver not just tools, but lasting business outcomes

As vendors refine their go-to-market strategies and partners look for new ways to drive margin, services, enablement and customer success are becoming central to growth. In this environment, the relationship between Zoom and Konekt offers a clear view of how distribution is evolving—combining platform innovation with technical expertise and partner support to help the channel adapt, differentiate and scale.

CRN sat down with Joel Chimoindes, CEO at Konekt, and David Fisher, Head of Distribution at Zoom, to discuss these shifts, as well as how their partnership is helping to shape the modern channel.

For those who may be unfamiliar, how would you describe Konekt’s role in the channel today, and what makes your offering unique?

Chimoindes: We exist in the distribution layer and are focused around cloud communications. We think of ourselves at the heart of cloud communications in the distribution layer. Our role is to extend the capability and capacity of our channel partners around cloud communication solutions, as well as our services capability. Working with partners like Zoom, which is our biggest partner, we help the channel get educated on Zoom and provide the services capability to help them design, implement and manage Zoom solutions for their customers.

From your perspective, how is AI reshaping productivity for your partners and their customers, and where is Konekt seeing the most immediate impact?

Chimoindes: The biggest challenge today is that end users already have access to AI tools, whether that is Zoom AI Companion, Microsoft Copilot or others. The issue is not the technology itself, but awareness of how to use it to drive productivity in the business. There is so much noise around AI that people are starting to lose sight of what it can really do. In our own business, tools like Zoom AI Companion are driving productivity forward at an exponential rate, and we are taking what we learn as an end user and applying that to the channel so we can help partners do the same.

Chimoindes: We have the highest level of Zoom technical accreditations and have deep understanding of the Zoom ecosystem, with existing capability around meetings, phone and contact centre. What we are really excited to launch next is our solution called Konektor, which allows us to take partners’ end users’ own connectivity solutions and plug them directly into Zoom. We act as the glue that enables them to integrate their existing networking and connectivity seamlessly into Zoom. In the UK, that matters because the ISDN switch-off is coming next year, and many end users served by our resellers want to move to a UCaaS platform while staying with their existing connectivity provider. Konektor helps them do that.

David, what is it about Konekt that makes them a strong strategic partner for Zoom, particularly in the context of the evolving channel landscape?

Fisher: The longevity of the partnership has been a real strength. As Zoom has evolved its channel go-to-market and moved toward a 100% distribution strategy, Konekt has invested heavily in certifications and services capability that can be delivered to partners. That is especially valuable for new partners adopting new technology who may not want to build those services themselves straight away. Konekt is also leading the way in customer success, using adoption and utilisation insights to help partners identify churn risk, upsell opportunities and ways to expand the Zoom platform within customer environments. Just as importantly, they are helping make AI real by turning the message into practical use cases and monetisable services for partners.

As the channel continues to shift, what are your key priorities for partners across EMEA, and how does the Zoom–Konekt partnership support those over the next 12 months?

Fisher: For partners, it ultimately comes down to profitability. The priority is to build a profitable business not just through licence sales, but by wrapping services around those licences. Zoom is focused on putting incentives and programmes in place to help partners drive more sales and stronger margins. There is also a major opportunity around migrations from on-premises to cloud, and Konekt’s Connector offering helps partners combine Zoom Phone licences with carriage to support those moves. Beyond that, the focus is on platform consolidation, customer productivity and AI adoption, all supported by Konekt’s services capability. Ease of doing business is another priority, and Konekt’s investment in APIs and automation helps make transactions faster and simpler so partners can focus on pipeline and profitability.

Any final words to our readers, Joel?

Chimoindes: Come and talk to us about Zoom. There’s a preconception that Zoom is just about meetings. Zoom is not just about meetings. Zoom is driving business productivity with industry leading UCaaS, CCaaS solutions, combined with industry leading AI capabilities. This presents a fantastic growth opportunity for the channel.

Find out more about Konekt at https://www.konekt.tech/

This article is sponsored by Konekt & Zoom