What an unimaginable week we had in Los Angeles at Cisco Companion Summit 2024! It was unbelievable to attach with so many companions and colleagues, sharing concepts and constructing relationships that drive our collective success.
Thanks to everybody who participated—whether or not in particular person or just about. Your dedication introduced us right here, and your continued assist will hold us transferring ahead on this thrilling journey.
Ahead as One was our theme this yr, centered on how we ship buyer worth collectively and the way we join and defend prospects within the AI period. The resounding message all through the week was that by leveraging your complete ecosystem, we’re empowered to create distinctive buyer experiences—collectively.
Chuck Robbins, our Chair and CEO, mentioned it nicely: “We’re at a main inflection level as our prospects are feeling relentless stress to deploy AI infrastructure. They want our experience and know-how greater than ever, and powerful partnerships are vital to their success.”
Introducing the New Cisco 360 Companion Program
At Companion Summit, we unveiled the brand new Cisco 360 Companion Program—one ecosystem, shared success. This program was constructed with enter from over 1,000 hours of suggestions from companions, prospects, and trade analysts.
It builds on our wealthy {hardware} and networking legacy whereas evolving with right this moment’s shift to software program, subscriptions, and providers. This system helps all forms of companion fashions, specializing in what issues most—driving worth by means of go-to-market methods, constructing capabilities, and interesting deeply with prospects. Its portfolio-based framework ensures companions develop with us as we innovate.
The Cisco 360 Companion Program displays international affect, agility, and ease—and most significantly, it represents our dedication to working collectively and successful as one ecosystem.
What this implies for you
Let me break it down into the three issues that matter most:
Cash. Time. And relationships.
For these of you who’ve constructed relationships with Cisco, your funding is protected. We are going to give you instruments and sources to attain predictable profitability, offering stability and long-term success.
Additionally, you will have loads of time to transition. With 15 months to regulate—earlier than the brand new program takes impact on February 1, 2026—you’ll be able to transfer at your individual tempo with confidence.
Most significantly, this program is constructed with you on the heart, aligning along with your wants and supporting your progress for years to return.
A brand new technique to measure companion worth
The Cisco 360 Companion Program introduces the Companion Worth Index, a brand new framework for measuring your contribution throughout 4 dimensions:
- Foundational: The maturity of your lifecycle or managed providers practices.
- Capabilities: Your funding in technical and different abilities.
- Efficiency: The way you land, retain, and renew buyer worth.
- Engagement: The way you join with prospects all through their journey.
This strategy ensures that your distinctive strengths—whether or not in Safety, Networking, Collaboration, Cloud & AI, Providers and Observability, and/or throughout a number of portfolios—are acknowledged and rewarded.
Amplifying your worth to prospects
We wish to spotlight the investments and capabilities that set you aside. That’s the reason we’re introducing two new designations: Cisco Companion and Cisco Most popular Companion; and will probably be sunsetting the present Gold, Premier and Choose ranges.
These new designations mirror your strengths and dedication to excellence. We’re additionally investing in them to make sure prospects acknowledge their worth—making it clear why they need to select you as their companion.
All companion anniversary dates for present roles, ranges, and the Buyer Expertise Specializations will probably be prolonged to February 1, 2026. In the course of the transition interval, in the event you obtain a brand new function, degree, or Buyer Expertise Specialization, your anniversary date will probably be set to February 1, 2026, no matter when that credential is earned.
Subsequent-gen Specializations and boosting advantages
The shift from conventional Structure Specializations to Resolution-based Specializations will proceed as we transition to the Cisco 360 Companion Program. We are going to develop subsequent gen Specializations that may mean you can differentiate your technical experience both extra deeply into one particular portfolio or throughout portfolios; going ahead, these specializations will probably be obtainable to our Cisco Most popular Companions.
Get began right this moment
We’ve got some thrilling fast steps obtainable to you:
We’re excited to announce the primary AI centered specialization. The Cisco AI-Prepared Infrastructure Resolution Specialization was designed to satisfy demand for superior Cisco AI infrastructure options, delivered by knowledgeable Cisco companions. This new specialization positions you to ship enterprise outcomes that matter most right this moment.
For Managed Service Suppliers (MSPs), we’ve got additionally added two new Cisco Powered Providers Specializations:
- Safe Entry / Safety Service Edge (SSE)
- Industrial OT Safety
These will enable you meet rising market demand for security-focused managed providers, whereas driving progress with differentiated options.
Lastly, we encourage you to get skilled within the newest Safety & Observability options obtainable within the present Cisco Companion Program and Splunk Partnerverse. To assist your investments, we’re excited to announce cross-program companion specializations. These specializations, obtainable on November 20, 2024, will defend Splunk companions’ investments and permit Cisco companions to broaden their experience and attain extra prospects.
Evolving incentives
To boost your profitability and competitiveness, we’re boosting our vary of advantages supplied. You’ll profit from a mixture of upfront reductions and back-end rebates aligned to the worth you carry to prospects.
As we already introduced at Companion Summit ‘23, our flagship rebates—VIP, Lifecycle Incentives, and Cisco Providers Companion Program (CSPP)—will roll into the brand new Cisco Companion Incentive, providing the identical rewards with a extra streamlined strategy.
We’ve got expanded the Buyer Evaluation Incentive to cowl Networking and Collaboration, along with Safety. These proactive assessments not solely determine new alternatives but additionally enhance buyer loyalty and speed up deal approvals.
The Carry out Plus program now presents much more methods to earn, with elevated payout ranges and rewards for progress throughout architectures and midmarket prospects.
Lifecycle Incentives additionally continues to evolve, including new incentives for Enterprise Networking, Safety, and Information Heart, plus new Buyer Expertise use circumstances like Duo. We’ve got simplified monitoring with a brand new single-step view in Funds Supervisor, making it simpler to foretell earnings.
Wanting forward
Over the following 15 months, we are going to roll out this system in a phased strategy beginning with a concentrate on the Safety portfolio and offering deeper insights into your group’s worth index. Then we are going to roll out further indices for Collaboration, Networking, Cloud & AI, Providers, and Observability —all accessible on Companion Expertise Platform (PXP).
The Cisco 360 Companion Program displays all the pieces we’ve got heard from you—your insights, challenges, and ambitions. We all know that predictable progress fuels your capacity to innovate, make investments, and create significant outcomes for patrons. And we’re dedicated to your profitability, offering the instruments and sources you could unlock new alternatives.
Let’s join
I look ahead to connecting with lots of you within the coming months by means of advisory boards, occasions, and one-on-one conversations. For extra particulars, go to the brand new 360 Companion Program web page to discover a wealth of sources and registration hyperlinks for upcoming webinars on the Cisco 360 Companion Program. You may also e mail askpartnerprogram@cisco.com with suggestions and questions.
And, in the event you missed my breakout session BIS 05 at Companion Summit—or wish to watch it once more—test it out on November 12 when it goes stay on the Companion Launch Expertise platform.
Collectively, we are going to transcend assembly buyer expectations—we are going to exceed them!
Unsure we wish to assure this profitability forecast, esp in writing?
Watch breakout session BIS 05 at Companion Summit on Companion Launch Expertise
We’d love to listen to what you suppose. Ask a Query, Remark Under, and Keep Linked with #CiscoPartners on social!
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