Cisco Changes Channel Partner Organization

By Josh Long

Cisco on Thursday laid out changes to its global channel partner organization as the networking giant continues to reorganize its operations.

In a blog posting, Ciscos Keith Goodwin senior vice president of Ciscos Worldwide Partner Organization announced a Partner Led” sales model that is designed to aid partners through investments in such things as systems and marketing.

The Partner Led global sales model will increase Ciscos reliance on partners to address the needs of customers across all market segments where Cisco will not have a high-touch sales presence,” Goodwin wrote.

Andrew Sage, a 12-year Cisco veteran who most recently spearheaded the companys small business sales efforts, will serve as vice president of Partner Led.

Goodwin also revealed that Cisco is consolidating its geographic sales regions.

The company had seven regions (U.S./Canada; Europe; emerging markets; Asia Pacific; Japan; China; and global enterprise). Under a new structure, Stanimira Koleva will head up channel sales for the APJC (Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China) geography. Milo Schacher will lead channel sales for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) while Jim Sheriff will be in charge of the Americas region.

Cisco also announced that Amanda Jobbins will lead Partner Marketing as vice president.

Through its Partner Marketing organization, Cisco aims to help partners create customer demand and understand why they should work with the company, among other things.

The organization will now fall under the Cisco Global Marketing organization, and Jobbins will report directly to Ciscos Chief Marketing Officer Blair Christie, according to Goodwin.

Amanda will also be an active member of my leadership team,” Goodwin wrote. I strongly believe this structure will allow us to simplify how you work with us, and most importantly, will ensure additional marketing investments in you, our Partners.”

Some Cisco channel managers will stay put. Edison Peres will continue to lead Worldwide Channels and Wendy Bahr will still head up the companys Global and Transformational Partner Organization, Goodwin said.

Cisco announced the changes a few days after revealing plans to cut about 6,500 jobs or 9 percent of its regular workforce, including 2,100 employees who agreed to take a voluntary early retirement.

The layoffs are part of Ciscos plan to simply its organization, refine operations and slash annual costs by $1 billion.

Earlier this year, Cisco announced a series of changes across its global engineering, sales and services teams to streamline its organizational structure and speed up decision making, Goodwin said.

San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco relies heavily on its channel partners to drive its sales. In fact, about 80 percent of Ciscos revenues come from channel partners.

The company has approximately 40,000 partners around the world, including 12,000 Cisco-certified partners.