Cisco Designed New Channel Sales Blueprint for Partners

With the service and solutions industry steadily moving forward and in the process of change, Cisco outlined a plan to motivate channel partners away from basic product sales and volumes.

The new company blueprint, explained to ITChannelplanet.com by Cisco Systems senior vice president and channel chief Edison Peres, is designed to move partners toward architectures, value, services, and cloud computing.

A key aspect of the plan is to collaborate with channel partners and change partner revenue and profit mix to that of “trusted advisers.” Perez advises, “Where there’s mystery, there’s margin.” The new partner program will allow partners easier and quicker access to Cisco, which in turn will make it easier for them to do business with the company.

“As Cisco moves to transitional and adjacent markets, partners will play a more important role than ever before,” noted Perez. “We want to collaborate even more with our partners. Partners that focus on architectures as a practice have a competitive advantage,” he added.²

In 2009, according to a survey, only 30 percent of Cisco’s channel partners “maintained a vertically-directed business.” The percentage for 2010 rose to 80 percent. This is an indication that the tech company’s strategy to move toward positioning architectures and solutions with vertical industries is effective.

This along with the fact that 80 percent of Cisco System’s revenue is driven by channel sales, the company is striving to meet the industry’s forward movement and change head on.