Time for Cisco's SMB channel to rejoice

Vinita Bhatia

LAS VEGAS: Small and medium businesses (SMB) spell big money. Worldwide, vendors are falling all over themselves trying to reach out and cater to this segment to augment their business. Cisco too has been working aggressively on breaking into more and more SMB accounts for the past four years.

And now it has finally realized that if it wants to really make inroads into this business, then it needs to acknowledge the efforts of the channel that engages with SMB customers.

This is precisely why the networking major has introduced a new facet to its global channel certification program. It has created a new category of partners called ‘Select Certified Partners’. This was announced at the Cisco Partner Summit 2007 held at Las Vegas from 3rd April to 7th April, 2007. Keeping in mind that this is Cisco's first new certification in 10 years, it highlights just how important the SMB channel is to the company is.

Cisco had initiated the SMB Select Marketing Program in Germany in 2004 before taking it global. Within two years, it had around 5000 members and today that number has touched 5000. Currently, Cisco is surveying 2500 members globally and trying to enroll them in this new Select Certified partner category.

Talking about the new certification, Andrew Sage, Senior Director, Worldwide Channel Marketing, Cisco Systems noted that enterprises account for 50 to 65 percent of Cisco’s worldwide sales while SMB made up for the rest. This is why it was imperative that partners catering to the SMB segment had unique skillsets. “During our interaction with the channel, we learnt that 90 percent of the local resellers who were not Gold or Silver partners were considering investing in an higher level of certification. Cisco represents almost 15 to 25 percent of their overall business and therefore if we wanted them to bring in more business, we had to invest in them,” he added.

Features of Select Certification

The new 'Select Certification' is being touted as a quick entry point into Cisco's Channel Partner Program. “Earlier, a lot of our SMB partners felt that getting Cisco certification was tougher. We decided to make it easier so that they can get benefits which they can pass to the customers,” said Stuart Hendry, Director, Commercial Segment, Asia Pacific, Cisco Systems (USA) Pte Ltd.

Under the ‘Select Certification’ program, Cisco will identify from its 30,000 registered partners to select candidates not on the basis of the volume of business they transact, but on the value of this business. They will then be slotted into categories like Gold, Silver and Premier. The key criterion for partners who will qualify for this program is that they should have SMB specialization. They should also have technical and sales capability across routing, switching, security and wireless technologies.

Partners who get the ‘Select Certification’ will get free e-learning and partner development funds. “This fund can be used for training and procuring demo equipment. We will facilate an online wallet, which will make it convenient for partners to figure out how much funds they have in hand, how much they have used and wher,” explained Sage.

Additionally, partners will also get incentive packages including Opportunity Incentive Program (OIP) and Value Incentive Program (VIP). OIP is given to partners for bringing in business to Cisco while the latter is given for the technology they sell. Cisco will also ensure that one channel account manager will be on hand and will act as partners’ single point of contact with Cisco.

Also Cisco will be extending its Capital program for the new certification members. “Our experience tells us that partners are able to bag 25 percent bigger deals if customers get some finance options. Therefore we will be introducing EasyLease programs across 25 countries by the end of FY 2007.

Other channel deliverables under the ‘Select Certification’ program is the Google-based partner locator. This will help customers connect to partners as well as partners connecting to their peers. Cisco’s Smart Business Communication System has also been designed exclusively keeping the SMB market in mind.

Currently Cisco has 380 SMB partners in APac and it expects them to be the early incumbents of the ‘Select Certification’ program. Over time, others will join them as the vendor is working hard to have a wider network. “But the idea is not to bring in more partners as much as it is to develop those who are working in the SMB space,” reiterated Michael Allen, Director Channels Operations, Asia Pacific, Cisco Systems USA Pte Ltd.

The author was hosted in Las Vegas by Cisco

Courtesy: DQChannels