What an unbelievable week we had in Los Angeles at Cisco Companion Summit 2024! It was implausible 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 preserve us transferring ahead on this thrilling journey.
Ahead as One was our theme this 12 months, centered on how we ship buyer worth collectively and the way we join and shield clients within the AI period. The resounding message all through the week was that by leveraging the whole ecosystem, we’re empowered to create distinctive buyer experiences—collectively.
Chuck Robbins, our Chair and CEO, stated it nicely: “We’re at a main inflection level as our clients are feeling relentless strain to deploy AI infrastructure. They want our experience and expertise greater than ever, and robust partnerships are crucial 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, clients, and business analysts.
It builds on our wealthy {hardware} and networking legacy whereas evolving with right now’s shift to software program, subscriptions, and providers. This system helps all kinds of associate fashions, specializing in what issues most—driving worth by go-to-market methods, constructing capabilities, and interesting deeply with clients. Its portfolio-based framework ensures companions develop with us as we innovate.
The Cisco 360 Companion Program displays international impression, agility, and ease—and most significantly, it represents our dedication to working collectively and profitable 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’ll offer you instruments and sources to realize 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 may transfer at your individual tempo with confidence.
Most significantly, this program is constructed with you on the heart, aligning together with your wants and supporting your progress for years to come back.
A brand new technique to measure associate 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 clients 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 clients
We need 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 well-liked Companion; and shall be sunsetting the prevailing Gold, Premier and Choose ranges.
These new designations replicate your strengths and dedication to excellence. We’re additionally investing in them to make sure clients acknowledge their worth—making it clear why they need to select you as their associate.
All associate anniversary dates for present roles, ranges, and the Buyer Expertise Specializations shall be prolonged to February 1, 2026. In the course of the transition interval, should you obtain a brand new function, stage, or Buyer Expertise Specialization, your anniversary date shall 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’ll 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 shall be obtainable to our Cisco Most well-liked Companions.
Get began right now
We now have some thrilling speedy steps obtainable to you:
We’re excited to announce the primary AI centered specialization. The Cisco AI-Prepared Infrastructure Resolution Specialization was designed to fulfill demand for superior Cisco AI infrastructure options, delivered by professional Cisco companions. This new specialization positions you to ship enterprise outcomes that matter most right now.
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 show you how to 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 associate specializations. These specializations, obtainable on November 20, 2024, will shield Splunk companions’ investments and permit Cisco companions to broaden their experience and attain extra clients.
Evolving incentives
To boost your profitability and competitiveness, we’re boosting our vary of advantages provided. You’ll profit from a mixture of upfront reductions and back-end rebates aligned to the worth you deliver to clients.
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 now have expanded the Buyer Evaluation Incentive to cowl Networking and Collaboration, along with Safety. These proactive assessments not solely establish new alternatives but in addition improve buyer loyalty and speed up deal approvals.
The Carry out Plus program now provides much more methods to earn, with elevated payout ranges and rewards for progress throughout architectures and midmarket clients.
Lifecycle Incentives additionally continues to evolve, including new incentives for Enterprise Networking, Safety, and Information Heart, plus new Buyer Expertise use instances like Duo. We now have simplified monitoring with a brand new single-step view in Funds Supervisor, making it simpler to foretell earnings.
Wanting forward
Over the subsequent 15 months, we’ll roll out this system in a phased strategy beginning with a deal with the Safety portfolio and offering deeper insights into your group’s worth index. Then we’ll roll out extra indices for Collaboration, Networking, Cloud & AI, Providers, and Observability —all accessible on Companion Expertise Platform (PXP).
The Cisco 360 Companion Program displays every little thing we’ve got heard from you—your insights, challenges, and ambitions. We all know that predictable progress fuels your skill to innovate, make investments, and create significant outcomes for purchasers. And we’re dedicated to your profitability, offering the instruments and sources you might want to unlock new alternatives.
Let’s join
I look ahead to connecting with lots of you within the coming months by 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 can even electronic mail askpartnerprogram@cisco.com with suggestions and questions.
And, should you missed my breakout session BIS 05 at Companion Summit—or need to watch it once more—test it out on November 12 when it goes reside on the Companion Launch Expertise platform.
Collectively, we’ll transcend assembly buyer expectations—we’ll exceed them!
Unsure we need 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 assume. Ask a Query, Remark Under, and Keep Linked with #CiscoPartners on social!
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