Solutions Specialist (Collaboration, A/V)
About the role
The Solution Specialist is a key partner of the Account Executive/Sales Representative and is responsible for driving the technical strategy and delivering additional revenue from services and solutions associated with a practice. You will be mapped to several accounts within your primary sales region with occasional support to other sales regions. You will drive opportunities and new relationships within accounts related to practice services and solutions.
What you'll be doing
- Partner with business leaders to position and sell services that support company objectives and that are consistent with Winning Together values.
- Serve as a technical advisor in pre-sales engagements, aligning Cisco and Microsoft collaboration solutions with customer requirements.
- Delivery of product demonstrations, proof-of-concepts (POCs), and technical workshops for VAR clients.
- Collaborate with account managers and vendor partners to develop and present solution proposals.
- Design and architect collaboration solutions integrating Cisco Webex, CUCM, and Microsoft Teams tailored for VAR customers.
- Provide competitive analysis and positioning of Cisco and Microsoft collaboration tools.
- Support RFP/RFI responses with technical documentation and solution architecture.
- Maintain strong relationships with customers, vendors, and distributors to ensure solution success and post-sales satisfaction.
- Technical sales lead driving opportunities and deals including bringing in the right people and expertise.
- Focus on increasing services and hardware/product and revenue.
- Responsible for oversight for pre-sales deals (engaging the Solution Architects & Post-Sales Team as needed).
- Proposal development and collaborate with the Pre-Sales Engineering Teams to develop final quotes and proposals.
- Attend customer opportunity / strategy meetings to understand and articulate business and technical strategy for the company and customer.
- Provide qualification of designs or opportunities and produce technical architecture/design documentation.
- Work with peers to advise and recommend on future technology and services.
- Ensure that proposed solutions are valid and meet Customer specifications.
- Research technology and deliver associated white papers to promote Computacenter’s offerings.
- Work closely with Vendors / Partners to keep up to date with current and future technologies, products and strategies to manage the ‘cradle to grave’ solution provisions cycle.
- Maintain high level of industry awareness through training and self-development
- Engage in and manage Customer demonstrations and Proofs of Concept
- Collaborate with Solution Specialists and Solution Architects to develop new service offerings, utilizing newly released products having ensured that functionality claims are valid.
- Play a pivotal role in ensuring end to end delivery to client.
- Embrace and support Computacenter’s mission and core values.
What you have
- Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Management Information Systems (MIS) (preferred) or equivalent in work experience.
- 5–10 years of experience in a Sales Engineer, Solutions Architect, or Pre-Sales role within a Value-Added Reseller environment.
- Vendor Certifications (CCNA Collaboration, Cisco Certified Specialist – Collaboration Core, Cisco Collaboration SaaS Specialist, Microsoft Certified Teams Administrator Associate, Collaboration Communications Systems Engineer Associate, Microsoft 365 Certified Enterprise Administrator Expert)
- Legally eligible to work in the United States.
- Deep understanding of Cisco Collaboration technologies: CUCM, Webex Suite, Expressway, Jabber, and Telepresence.
- Strong knowledge of Microsoft Teams: Teams Phone System, Direct Routing, Microsoft 365 integration, and Teams Rooms.
- Experience with interoperability between Cisco and Microsoft platforms.
- Familiarity with SIP, VoIP, QoS, SBCs, and network fundamentals.
- Knowledge of Collaboration endpoints such as Cisco, Poly, Logi, Yealink, Neat, as well as Apple and Android mobile devices.
- Excellent communication, presentation, and vendor engagement skills.
- Ability to understand client requirements and engage with cross-functional technical teams for solutions development
- Relevant industry leading qualification or accreditation in one or more technology
- Knowledge of IT Infrastructure technology and its business application
- Demonstrable ability to provide input into commercial/technical documents and to develop solution specific business cases
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to present at large internal and external audiences and at board level.
- In-depth understanding of service lifecycle.
- Ability to lead and organize a large virtual technical team
- Good negotiation skill
- Excellent people management skills
- Experience with third-party SBCs (e.g., AudioCodes, Ribbon) a plus.
- Familiarity with Zoom, Google Meet, or other UCaaS platforms a plus.
- Background in cloud migrations or hybrid collaboration environments a plus.
- Experience with APIs or scripting (Python, PowerShell) for automation or integration a plus.
- Experience working with distributors and vendor incentive programs a plus.
What you can expect
There’s so much more to enjoy about being at Computacenter than just having a rewarding career. In addition to offering competitive compensation plans and long-term career opportunities, we provide an attractive mix of benefit plans to contribute to your good health, future financial security, and peace of mind.
About us
Computacenter is a leading independent technology partner, trusted by large corporate and public sector organizations. We help our world-renowned customers to source, transform, and manage their IT infrastructure to deliver digital transformation, enabling users and their business. We’re a public company quoted on the London FTSE 250 (CCC.L) and employ over 20,000 people worldwide. In the US, we support some of the country’s best-known businesses with regional hubs in San Francisco and Irvine, CA; Norcross, GA; Plano, TX; and New York City; and Integration Centers in Silicon Valley and Atlanta. www.computacenter.com/us
Nearest Major Market: Plano
Nearest Secondary Market: Dallas