Cisco Partner Summit 2021: 7 Hot Partner Takes from Channel Chief Oliver Tuszik
Tuszik reveals several initiatives to reduce complexity between Cisco and its partners.
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Channel chief Oliver Tuszik said Cisco is delivering new cross-architecture offers to serve customer needs.
“These will be easier for you to bundle, price and deliver. Will bring together the different parts of our portfolio to create solutions that nobody else can offer,” he said.
Tuszik said full-stack observability to provide visibility insights and actions “will deliver the best app experience.”
On hybrid work, he said, “We provide a secure, connected and inclusive experience for everyone, no matter where they work from. Cisco + hybrid cloud [is] the first offer that allows partners to easily provide a managed offer with a true consumption model.
“Of course, you can always develop your own IP on top of the platform providing even greater customer [value],” he added.
Next, Tuszik said Cisco is expanding partner access to new customers.
“We are increasing key routes to market because we need to be where our customers want to buy,” he said.
“The first route is one of the biggest: managed and as-a-service. Last year we drove almost $8 billion in bookings through partner managed services. Building on this, we’re delivering more managed-ready offers with aligned financial terms.
“We’re adding to our portfolio from enhanced managed secure SD-WAN offers to Cisco + hybrid cloud and the new collaboration wholesale,” he continued.
The exec said Cisco has improved its programmatic pricing to support partners’ need “for speed and predictability.”
He also said that partners have been requesting better alignment with Cisco sales. As such, it has updated incentives for partners. It has also expanded the Managed Services Locator, making it easier for Cisco sellers and customers to find partners’ services.
“Finally, we doubled our resources in the field. [We] have already more than 100 new service creation engagements that will add to the 2100 on monitoring offer,” he added.
Tuszik said Cisco is seeing an enormous growth in marketplaces. As such, it is enabling partners to transact by cloud marketplaces from AWS, Google and Microsoft.
“Over the coming year we will onboard more Cisco offers and enable more partners to have a joint co-selling motion and develop more automation,” he said.
“We will also continue to invest in the fast growing partner and distributor marketplace. We continue to enable more offers and build APIs that automate quoting ordering and provisioning. In addition, we’re looking at other routes to market, including agent and referral pilot for selected market segments,” Tuszik continued.
Elsewhere, Cisco believes there is an opportunity to increase its market share by focusing on new and different buying centers.
“Both existing and new buying centres are increasingly looking for solutions that require multiple partners to match their needs,” said Tuszik. “We have both Partner Connect and digital co-selling capabilities in PXP [Partner Experience Platform] to support you in this motion.”
Next, Cisco wants to make it easier for partners to build, price and sell.
Starting with pricing, it has launched SaaS Track. This is a tool to create a quick quote and receive automated discount and approvals, speeding up the quoting process.
It has also expanded deal registration to include managed services in addition to resale.
However, the big news is the new Enterprise Agreement (EA). This brings the entire Cisco portfolio under one agreement, one experience one set of terms and one renewal.
“The entire Cisco software portfolio and associated services can be purchased with one agreement and managed by one portal, massively simplifying our customers experience. The new EA includes the ability to expand into new technologies and also the flexibility to shift spend between DNA and Meraki, providing investment protection as customer needs,” Tuszik said.
Additionally, Tuszik said it is “more critical than ever” to find the right financial model to support customers. Cisco has therefore simplified its capital payments solutions portfolio.
“It is now global, architecture-agnostic and structured to how you sell,” he told partners.
“We are introducing Cisco Enterprise Agreement Pay, which allows customers to spread the cost of the EA and software over time at no additional cost. It supports you in selling EAs and other software at a lower risk,” he said.
“There’s one thing that is becoming more important to all of us: sustainability,” said Tuszik.
Cisco has announced an environmental sustainability specialization which recognizes partners’ commitment to environmental stewardship.
The specialization provides partners with discounts, branding and training, “opening new doors into customer CSR initiatives,” said Tuszik.
Finally, the exec said Cisco wants to provide data and insights for partners to grow their businesses. He said updates to the PXP include an improved holistic view on renewals across services, products and EAs; also, for well peer benchmarking for bookings and profitability. Additionally, there are dashboards for visibility into incentives.
Since announcing the new Cisco Partner Program at last year’s Summit, the vendor has onboarded 11,000 integrator partners and 1,800 provider partners. This month Cisco is launching the developer and advisor roles.
Tuszik said Cisco was working hard to reduce complexity and improve how partners experience the company.
“We are driving transformation capabilities including an as-a-service platform for pricing and ordering,” he said.
“These changes won’t happen overnight,” he added. “But you have our commitment that we will continue to remove complexity from our systems to support the new business models.”
Finally, the exec said Cisco wants to provide data and insights for partners to grow their businesses. He said updates to the PXP include an improved holistic view on renewals across services, products and EAs; also, for well peer benchmarking for bookings and profitability. Additionally, there are dashboards for visibility into incentives.
Since announcing the new Cisco Partner Program at last year’s Summit, the vendor has onboarded 11,000 integrator partners and 1,800 provider partners. This month Cisco is launching the developer and advisor roles.
Tuszik said Cisco was working hard to reduce complexity and improve how partners experience the company.
“We are driving transformation capabilities including an as-a-service platform for pricing and ordering,” he said.
“These changes won’t happen overnight,” he added. “But you have our commitment that we will continue to remove complexity from our systems to support the new business models.”
Cisco has revealed its ‘partner priorities’ to help reduce complexity with the channel. Oliver Tuszik, senior vice president of global partner sales, addressed partners at this week’s Cisco Partner Summit 2021.
“Customers expect choice and flexibility and they want the best solution for their needs. It is now on us to manage that complexity and create the best customer experience,” he said. “Some of you might say ‘where there’s complexity, there’s margin’ as customers need your help to make it simple. But complexity that impacts your own productivity is a profit killer.
“We need to manage together the complexity that can slow down your business. Our No. 1 priority is your profitability,” he added. “So we will break through the complexity to ensure you can focus on delivering the best outcomes for your customers in a profitable way.”
To do this, Tuszik told partners that Cisco is “providing the right offers with the customers in mind. By making sure you have greater access to customers, whoever and wherever they want to buy. By making selling simpler and faster and by improving your day to day business with greater productivity.”
See the slideshow above to see how Cisco is helping partners.
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