By Sonal Desai, CRN, December 9, 2011, 1045 hrs
Networking major Cisco has outlined five priorities around core (business), data center, collaboration, voice and architecture, and has opened new opportunities for tier-2 partners in the SMB and mid-market segment.
The vendor launched a new program dubbed Partner Led, which is being led by Stanimira Koleva, MD, Partner Business Group, APJC.
Koleva said that in Partner Led, partners get preference and clarity in field engagements, investment to drive growth, simplicity, and increased access to technical and sales support. “We have earmarked $15million (off $75million globally) for Partner Led in the APJC region. With our Partner led strategy, we want to scale the hi-touch Cisco customer experience with our partners, extend and develop our sales force through 280,000 partner AMs and SEs, and execute innovative sales and marketing programs to generate demand.”
Focusing on the importance of the partner ecosystem, Koleva said that last year, Cisco aligned hundred percent of its sales force, technical support and services teams with the partners. “We mapped 16,000 customers to partners sales teams, simplified pricing, leveraged distribution support and market transition. We will invest in end-to-end solutions, and partner capabilities. By the end of the year, we will develop joint videos of what a customer wants, how to sell and how a partner can help. We will continue to invest in the Avante Grade Partner Program and increase offerings in services around applications, migration and integration.”
Cisco also launched the Collaboration Professional Services for partners in APJC. Explaining the concept, Glen Cox, Vice President, Cisco Services, APJC, said, that the services would enable the partners to enter new markets—faster and with increased differentiation. Besides a professional service would give partners increased profitability and drive customer loyalty, said Paul Mountford, President, Emerging Market Theater, Cisco.
He informed that the company has clocked $1billion in UCS in the last 12 months globally, and the business was growing faster than other segments. Outlining the importance of vBlock and Flexpod, he said that the addressable opportunity for UCS globally stands at $7.8 billion. “We are now connecting system, process and robotics over common infrastructure essentially in the manufacturing segment. Solutions are also being developed for the commercial and mid-market.”
Cisco would also continue to focus on core technologies namely switching and routing, and cloud computing, mobile technology, IT management, BI, virtualization, networking, voice and data, enterprise applications, Web 2.0 and infrastructure, through Partner Led it would prepare partners for professional services around collaboration and other priorities. |