Cisco announced enhancements and tools for its partner community. As Cisco creates value throughout the customer lifecycle, it has initiated an evolution of its incentives to reward partners for selling Cisco hardware, software and as-a-service solutions. To support partners, Cisco is adding up to six Solution Specializations within the next nine months.
“The Cisco Partner Incentive is the biggest change we’ve made to partner incentives in more than a decade and is the capstone on the Cisco Partner Program evolution started in 2020,” said Marc Surplus, vice president of Partner Strategy and Programs at Cisco. “In broadening Cisco’s suite of Solution Specializations, we are helping our partners differentiate in the market and demonstrate their expertise in the technologies and solutions sought by customers.”
Cisco also introduced enhancements to the Partner Experience Platform (PXP), a personalized online portal to support partners’ productivity, competitiveness, profitability and go-to-market strategies. PXP has been augmented with AI/ML-powered predictive insights that can guide partners in ways to differentiate and grow their businesses. These enhancements are complemented by a revamped dashboard that provides a holistic view of funds activities and investments, removing the need for costly third-party tools.
PXP will see the introduction of a Sustainability Estimator, exclusively available to Environmental Sustainability Specialized partners. Launching today, the Sustainability Estimator will provide partners insight into the estimated energy savings, emissions reduction, cost reduction and environmental impact that a customer may realize by modernizing their IT hardware. The tool is supported by a Sustainability Partner Journey with resources and collateral to help partners build their sustainability practices.
As a single simplified incentive, the Cisco Partner Incentive will combine elements from several of Cisco’s most valued partner incentives. Aligned with Cisco’s transition to more software and services-based offerings, it will reward partners with rebates to drive predictable and profitable growth.
Considering business outcomes sought by customers and the need to maximize the return on customers’ IT investments, the incentive will support new logo acquisition, up-sell, and cross-sell opportunities. Implemented in a phased approach, the Cisco Partner Incentive is expected to begin in the second half of 2024, providing partners with plenty of time to transition to the new incentive framework.
The incentive will cover three tracks:
- non-recurring offers
- recurring offers
- customer value
Partners will earn rebates based on the total contract value of a closed sale, completion of activities to drive customer adoption of the solution, and incremental annual contract value as they increase subscriptions. Additionally, partners will have the opportunity to earn bonus rewards-based investments in their Cisco practice or selling solutions. The Cisco Partner Incentive will complement recent changes made to Cisco seller compensation to better serve customers and drive greater alignment in Cisco’s joint go-to-market with partners.
Intentionally partner-led, managed services represent $161 billion market for Cisco products ($357 billion with partner services included), with 46 percent of the company’s sales expected to be sold as a managed service by 2027. To enable MSPs to deliver a premium support experience, Cisco has launched Partner Advanced Support for MSPs with the added benefit of guided access to API integrations that build on MSPs’ existing services. Featuring faster access to experts and tools in Cisco’s Technical Assistance Center (TAC) — a global organization that provides around-the-clock technical support services online and over the phone — Partner Advanced Support for MSPs enables MSPs to offer faster, multi-product support, predictive insights, and issues resolution to scale an outcomes-based service model.
Cisco’s Small Business Specialization has been refreshed and renamed the Small and Medium Business (SMB) Specialization. New specialization content showcases Cisco’s commitment to SMB customers through end-to-end solutions from four primary experiences: Smart SMB, Hybrid SMB, Secure SMB, and Remote SMB. Cisco’s SMB Specialized partners are unique in the industry in offering this full-spectrum approach.
Cisco plans to launch two new Internet of Things (IOT) Solution Specializations in the first half of 2024. Between them, there is continued focus on the ruggedized industrial IOT segments and expanded recognition for partners working in non-industrial IOT spaces. This allows greater differentiation of IOT partner expertise, making it easier for customers to find the right fit for their business needs.
