Cisco 360 is here, and partners are ready for it

by James Anderson, Channel Dive

Cisco's revamped partner program officially launched Monday with a system designed to push resellers into professional and managed services, cross-portfolio sales and deep specialization. Partners say the vendor's gradual rollout minimized disruption.

The program uses a points-based system to incentivize partners to expand services across the customer lifecycle beyond resale. New habits are emerging among partners as they look to maximize rebates and profits and ultimately provide a better customer experience.

Partners have added professional or managed services or both, and partner participation in Cisco technical enablement training has grown exponentially. 

"I think all of the partners understand clearly what Cisco is expecting, and they've demonstrated that almost unilaterally. We continue to see that hockey stick sort of movement," Ken Seitz, Cisco Global Senior Director of Partner Managed Services, told Channel Dive.

Cisco's efforts to spur partner evolution are a long time in the making. Partners first got a look at their Cisco Partner Value Index in August to learn if they pre-qualified for the preferred tier. That gave the others time to catch up.

In an age when IT vendors caused mass upheaval with program revamps, Cisco made a point of being gradual and deliberate.

The value-added reseller and system integrator has been adjusting to the program for the better part of 18 months and has been giving Cisco pointers along the way.

"In many cases we get handed a new program, and then there's the collateral damage and feedback after the fact," Ortbals said. "I sit on a lot of partner advisory boards where it's like, 'What were you thinking? Why didn't you call us and ask us before you did this?'