Cisco 360 A “Modern” Channel Program That Puts Artificial Intelligence at the Center: Exclusive

“The core of our application was hardware and transactions. It was who we were as a company at the time and it served us well…but the reward was a transacting partner and the way we do business today is very different. This is the first significant change in how we evaluate partners since we first moved into the (partner) ecosystem,” Cisco Channel Head Rodney Clark told CRN about Cisco 360, the all-new partner program.

The iconic partner program, known for its ability to fund significant industry change for Cisco partners, is getting the biggest update in the company’s history.

Cisco 360, a new partner program the tech giant unveiled Monday at Cisco Partner Summit 2024, was designed to attract more MSPs and MSSPs by focusing on the value partners bring to transactions. This is a significant departure from the largest payouts that go to partners who enter into large capital infrastructure deals.

“The core of our application was hardware and transactions. It was who we were as a company at the time, and it served us well…but what it rewarded was through the rebate mechanism and a number of other discounting mechanisms, the transaction partner, and the way we do business today, completely different, our customers’ expectations are completely different, and we wanted our program to reflect that,” Rodney Clark, Cisco Systems’ senior vice president of partnerships and small and medium business, told CRN in an exclusive interview. interview. “This is the first significant change in how we evaluate partners since the initial push into the (partner) ecosystem.”

The new program recognizes a new era in which network services, security and AI are at the fore. The company’s focus on value-based rewards will open the door to “boutique” security and networking partners, Clark said.

“We’ve designed it this way: As we move from transactions to value index, it actually gives way to those partners who are specialist partners in things like security and networking. That’s giving way to those boutique partners that are maybe very niche, but important to us from an ecosystem perspective,” Clark said.

Cisco 360 will eliminate certain partner programs and incentives, such as VIP, Perform Plus, and the Cisco Services Partner Program, or CSPP. They will be combined into a single structure called the Cisco Partner Incentive (CPI), which was first discussed during the 2023 Partner Summit. According to Clark, the CPI will reflect an overall value index that will measure partners in four areas: foundation, capabilities, effectiveness and engagement.

The famous Cisco Gold Partner is also canceled in the new program, and instead there will be two names: Cisco Partner and Cisco Preferred Partner. Cisco partners can obtain these designations for each portfolio, such as security or networking, the company said.

“This is definitely a modern program for us that puts AI at the center. It’s a program that’s built around building partner capabilities and creating value in five areas for us: network, security, observability, collaboration, cloud, and there’s this AI thread in that,” Clark said. “It allows us to establish value of each of the architectures, and then also reward partners that intersect with our architectures and deliver AI-related results.”

The new program replaces Cisco’s current complex incentive system with a more predictable structure that better aligns with how Cisco wants to do business; driving software adoption and improving business outcomes, said Stephen Bland, director of alliances at UK-based global solutions provider Computacenter, one of Cisco’s largest gold partners.

Computacenter is one of the partners that worked with Cisco behind the scenes to redesign the affiliate program.

“As Cisco has expanded with product lines and different routes to market, I think existing partner programs are likely to become increasingly complex and time-consuming for partners,” Bland said. “I think it was a very appropriate and good time to completely refresh and look at it from the ground up, to think about how Cisco has changed, the changes in the markets, and to simplify and get rid of some of the existing complexity.”

Cisco is a very large organization with partners around the world who will have to adapt to the new program. To this end, the new program will enter into force no earlier than February 2026.

“We really need to dig deep into the new metrics, rewards and how we make money. There’s still a learning curve, so Cisco (is spending) the next 15 months sharing details and piloting “This is such a big change that their partners and Cisco itself need time to understand what it means in the market.” said

In the meantime, Cisco wants to help protect its partners’ investments, Clark said.

“If you’re a Gold Partner today, you can continue the investment you’ve made, and we’re protecting that investment all the way through our program in 2026. The reason we’re taking this much time is so we can be open and transparent about the new value index requirements and ultimately what that means in this new Cisco 360 partner program. We’ll be working with all of our partners , to make sure they play as high as the maximum value index possible,” he said.

Cisco 360 will also include the Splunk Partnerverse program, which will be integrated with the new program over the next 15 months, Clark said.

According to him, there will be incentives along the way that will allow partners to penetrate deeper into the network, security and surveillance.

“We specialize in security as well as observability, which we will honor — going back to investment protection — allowing those Splunk partners who have invested in their journey to be able to carry that investment into the Cisco Partner Program, as well as those Cisco partners who have started cross-investment in Splunk, allowing them to bring that investment into the Cisco 360 Partner Program.”

Honoring the heritage

While Cisco 360 is a major update to the company’s existing partner software structure, the company will honor its history of hardware and networking, which remain central to Cisco, while helping to elevate these classic Cisco partners, Clark said.

“(We) are considering the possibility of introducing this concept of value. So the transaction, and the ability to build capabilities and how we actually manage the lifecycle and the overall maturity of the practice, looking at the investment that partners can make in skills and learning and putting some value on that, looking at overall performance metrics and adding things like that, as an opportunity to move the earth, to expand, to adapt, to upgrade, to move, (which is) a big part of our service delivery strategy,” he said of the biggest change to the partner program in three decades.

To help partners make the transition, Cisco also announced $80 million in new partner investment and support. $60 million of this investment will support qualified partners with benefits including full access to Cisco U. for advanced training and certification. An additional $20 million will fund quarterly training events for all partners focused on artificial intelligence, security and networking through self-paced learning, hands-on labs and continuing education credits, the company said.

“We’re really working hard to make sure that, again, all the investments are protected and we’re giving enough runway and time for partners to establish themselves in the new designations,” Clark said.