Cisco to build collaborative partner ecosystem

DQC News Bureau

Mumbai: As part of its effort to help build a collaborative and adaptive
channel to accelerate customer and partner success, Cisco has introduced the 'Cisco
Industry Solutions Partner Network', an initiative aimed at increasing the
level of collaboration among channel partners, independent software vendors, and
Cisco.

The new Industry Solutions Partner Network will engage, enable and reward the
community of channel partners in India, application providers and device
manufacturers to collaborate and deliver industry-specific solutions that
address the business needs of customers. Partners that qualify for this new
program will also be the first to have access to Cisco Partner Space, a virtual
environment that facilitates the partner-to-partner collaboration required to
deliver complete industry solutions.

“We want to expose our partners to a growing variety of solutions, and help
ISVs interact with our channel partners,” explained Mike Allen, Senior
Director of Channels, Distribution and Partner Alliances, Cisco - Asia Pacific.
“We are going to launch this program with solutions that Cisco has defined in
addition to those that partners have defined, and decided to share. Companies
and governments are looking to deploy industry solutions to increase
collaboration and productivity, while partners are looking to deliver industry
solutions to increase transaction size and gross margins.”

The solutions that Cisco has defined are divided into seven vertical markets
and one hybrid category: education, financial services, government, healthcare,
manufacturing, real estate, retail, and 'cross industry.' Partners may
choose to focus on one particular vertical, or branch out into multiple
verticals.

Commenting on the launch, Avinash Purwar, VP, Cisco Channels- India &
SAARC said, “Cisco recognizes the current market needs and has developed
innovative programs for channel partners to help them deliver a broader range of
solutions. This new initiative is aimed at creating a collaborative channel
between partners and ISVs and encourage them to work together to deliver
real-time business solutions.”

Program benefits:

The Cisco Industry Solutions Partner Network will support partners by
providing industry training, expertise, industry specific communications, and
collaboration tools based on Web 2.0 technology, such as Cisco Partner Space.
Cisco will promote the capabilities of the partners in the network in various
ways, and will provide collaborative business planning, proposal-based joint
marketing funds and turnkey demand generation programs. This will allow partners
to engage each other, expand their geographic reach, and better address the
business challenges of customers. The collaborative delivery of these
industry-specific solutions will be rewarded with product discounts offered
through the Cisco Solution Incentive Program, provided that the Cisco product
and services component accounts for no more than 70 percent of the total
solution.

Cisco partners must meet additional requirements, such as having industry
references, an industry-focused business plan and dedicated resources to
participate in the program.