EDITOR’S QUESTION
This makes the emphasis on end-to-end
specialisation of channel partners more
important and they are now expected to
provide the full stack of components in the
solution, in which the Cisco part may only be
one amongst many.
In the past, Cisco may have encouraged
its channel partners to adopt a more broad
based, multiple specialisation approach, and
may have chosen to ignore highly specialised
partners as not fitting into its overall partner
programme structure. However, that is
changing now.
“Cisco needs its partners to deliver the
whole outcome to the customer,” is the
current benchmark for qualification.
Within Cisco the responsibility for
onboarding specialised channel partners
is now with partner account managers.
Previously Cisco partner account managers
used to manage both specialised and
generalised channel partners. But now
some of the channel partners are being
managed by Cisco distributors allowing
partner account managers to increasingly
focus on specialised channel partners.
“This has helped Cisco take a bet on
partners that want to be partners and not
want to be only resellers.”
Over the last few years Cisco has
also put the same emphasis on its
tier-one distribution partners. It has
extended certification programmes to its
distributors, getting them to specialise
and hence straddle different parts of
regional market opportunities, distancing
competition from each other. With this,
Cisco distributors are also expected to take
up a significant amount of workload from
new onboarded channel partners including
pre-sales, proof of concept, integration,
and services.
TAKEWAYS
• Cisco needs its partners to
deliver the whole outcome to the
customer
• Era of the general physician is
over
• If you go more specialised you
will not all be doing the same
sort of project
• Installed base of networking that
partners sit on is a huge door
opener
• Looking for this difference to
create value for each partner and
Frida Kleimert Knibbs, Head of Channels and
Commercial UAE region, Cisco Systems Middle East
Cisco needs its
partners to deliver
the whole outcome
to the customer
each customer
• Not having too many of the same
and gaps
• Still have these gaps in the
market
• To make the network agile
you will need to go through an
analysis
• Trying to give the right tool box
to the right partner
Cisco also recently undertook feedback
from channel partners on areas where
they wanted Cisco to help them build the
solution stack along with distributors. They
identified datacentre security and solutions
for retail, hospitality, collaboration. Cisco
is now working with multiple vendors
including NetApp, Citrix, RedHat, Purple
Wifi, IQ Wifi, to build these solutions stacks
for channel partners.
Cisco has also identified other opportunity
areas for channel partners that are providing
significant returns or can provide returns.
These include upgradation of the vast Cisco
SNAPSHOT
Cisco’s global channel partner programme certifications are categorised as: Select,
Premier, Gold, Multinational, Global. Its technology specialisations for partners
are categorised as: Express, Advanced and Masters. It also has a list of Retired
specialisations. Its tier-one distributor partners in UAE, Oman, Yemen, Pakistan,
Afghanistan include Ingram Aptec, Comstor, Logicom.
• We had a lot of partners, lot of
gold and premier partners
• You can add your value as a
partner in a special area
installed base of network and security
products with end users, its recent alliance
with Meraki, and its cloud solution stack,
amongst others.
“The installed base of networking that
partners sit on is a huge door opener for
these areas. As a partner, you cannot not be
agile on these fronts for old infrastructure.
To make the network agile and digital you
will need to go through an analysis of the
current equipment, and this is the big door
opener for the partner,” stresses Frida.
However, on an overall basis, the glue
is still in three areas: embedded security,
embedded software applications, and
services. These are the opportunities for
partners that Cisco is enabling.
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