Networking News

WATCH: News You Missed From Cisco Partner Summit Day 3

Wednesday was a good day for Cisco. The networking giant beat estimates in its first quarter earnings; but, at the Cisco Partner Summit, execs were smiling about much more than that.

“What I really think it is: We have great technology solutions we are actually bringing them together in new architectures and driving them with software,” said Rick Snyder, Cisco Americas Channel Chief.

Partners are playing a big role in that success with 85 percent of Cisco’s sales running through the channel. Cisco’s new Global Channel Chief Oliver Tuszik says the latest incentives and specializations will make partners even more profitable.

“We're saying, ‘Hey partners, we're together on a journey and we'll need to lead together and for the next 12 months you can do your business the way you've done in the past and for those 12 months we'll give you support for learning new capabilities,” he said.

A new Business Specialization and an updated Architecture Specialization will be among the first changes to take hold. The specializations are intended to help partners recognize and take advantage of business in previously untapped areas in hardware and software with a strong emphasis on life-cycle services.

A new Customer Experience Specialization also is on the way in July 2019. The specialization builds on the company's Lifecycle Advisor program and keeps its existing incentives in place while developing additional incentives in the next fiscal year.

It all comes as Cisco pushes to move services away from a performance-based incentive strategy to one that includes recurring revenue.

For more coverage, watch CRNtv’s video.