Cisco Australia unveils plans of two new Partner Programs

At the close of Cisco Networkers 14 in Brisbane, Williamson told CRN about the formation of two new channel programs, slated for this fiscal year, to complement Cisco’s collaborative work practices.

“We are going to get our partners linked in to our WebEx Connect capabilities so we will have a special Partner Connect Program. It’s really about account managers from Cisco working with engineers and channel people and their teams, working in collaborative online spaces for mutual planning, mutual strategies and mutual proposals,” explained Williamson.

“We are really going to enhance the way that we work with our partners and that’s an immediate rollout. Not all partners are going to embrace that from the get go. We will take that step by step and pick a couple of trial partners or beta partners first up.”

Williamson is excited about the change which will ensure more intimate planning with their partners. He added that it provides the ability for Cisco to be more transparent about their business with partners.

The second program has been formed to assist partners with their global reach. Cisco receives requests from customers to have one solution provider cover their multi-national needs and the new Multi-national Partner Program will assist partners with strategies as well as back end tools.

“We’ve got a multi-national program starting which is in recognition that more and more Australian companies are expanding offshore. Predominantly into APAC, but into Europe and into the US,” said Williamson.

“Our customers want a partner that can handle that from a central point, wherever that may be, to multiple locations around the world. The program has back end tools but it also has the geographic reach that channel partners can handle as a single point of contact, a single business dialogue. Our partners have been asking us for that for some time,” added Williamson.

CRN will announce further information when the programs are officially launched. Williamson advised that this won’t be until Jeff Sheard, the vendors previous channel manager is replaced.

“I had hoped to announce something now but it will probably be in a couple of weeks we are very comfortable with that and excited to get some new external blood into the leadership team,” he said.

“I will have more details once I have a new leader in place, I will let them take the time plan for that but it is sooner rather than later because we are seeing good growth.”