SAN JOSE, CA - January 21, 2003 - As part of its continuing effort to help channel partners focus on revenue generating market opportunities, Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today unveiled a new specialization. The new specialization recognizes channel partners for having focused expertise and experience in planning, design and implementation services for solutions that provide high-speed access in public areas. The Public Access Specialization extends the business value of the network by delivering a complete solution based on several Cisco technologies. Specifically, the Public Access specialization focuses on Long Range Ethernet, Aironet Wireless, traditional switching products combined with the Building Broadband Service Manager (BBSM) application to deliver a complete solution.
"Many channel partners have been asking us to help them focus on selling complete solutions," said Surinder Brar, senior director of marketing for Worldwide Channels, Cisco Systems, Inc. "This specialization integrates multiple product categories and software applications to deliver a complete solution - it will help our channel partners differentiate themselves from competitors, pursue new markets and migrate to higher margin solutions."
Market Opportunities
Public Access is an end-to-end networking solution that enables high-speed Internet access and services delivered to people on the move, as well as providing other value-added capabilities to the host venue such as billing, provisioning, bandwidth limiting and customizable advertising or marketing portals via the initial home page. This solution focuses on the hospitality industry (hotel guest rooms, conference rooms and lobbies), public hotspots (airports, coffee shop, convention centers) and higher education (dorm rooms, campus public areas, and classrooms) markets. The market opportunity can also be extended to enterprise, government and healthcare markets.
Typically, a public access solution can be implemented in one of two different ways. First, it can be deployed as a revenue-generating service for the hospitality, airport, higher education and public hotspot market segments. Second, it can be deployed as a guest, visitor, or contractor access to the Internet for corporate customers or convention centers.
"We have a dedicated practice focused on the hospitality industry, which has delivered our InRoom Connect solution to over 400 hotels, providing tremendous benefit to our clients, said Larry Mays, director of the Building Broadband Solutions Group at Unisys. "Our solution, built around the Cisco broadband technology, allows our clients to expand the range of services they can provide, offering significant additional value to their customers, resulting in new revenue streams and increased customer loyalties for their properties."
"We have been focusing on the public hotspots market by providing wireless access solutions to coffee shops, airports and convention centers. Our Intelligent Building Solutions, for example, enable value-added, broadband application delivery and widespread wireless access," said Ray Arndt, vice president of the Americas, Consulting and Integration at HP. This enhances mobile productivity and services in many industries including emerging markets such as higher education and hospitality. HP has more than 1,100 Cisco-certified engineers worldwide and teams with Cisco to deploy best-of-breed solutions for mobile productivity in many environments."
Ensuring Customer Satisfaction
The Cisco Channel Specialization Program allows partners to gain expertise in specific technology areas and to differentiate themselves based on verified expertise. The specialization training roadmap provides a complete list of Cisco recommended training courses that are designed to provide channel partners with the knowledge to successfully pass the corresponding specialization exams. This extensive list of training courses is offered in a wide variety of formats including on-line training, instructor led and CD-based; providing partners with both traditional and self-paced learning options. Cisco utilizes the training roadmap and exam-based verification process to help ensure channel partners gain the technology specific expertise to deliver the highest level of customer satisfaction.
Public Access Specialization Course Requirements
The new Public Access Specialization is the latest addition to the Cisco technology specializations, which encompass key technologies such as IP Telephony, VPN/Security, and Wireless LAN. It requires the channel partner to place skilled individuals into the specific job roles of account manager, system engineer and field engineer. The account manager is responsible for the knowledge of market conditions and sales methodology of the public access solution. The account manager is required to pass the Public Access Exam for AMs v1.0 (#SEO-293). The systems engineer is responsible for the network planning and design, and is required to have a CCDP and pass the Building Broadband Service Manager (BBSM) Exam #9E0-811, Long Range Ethernet (LRE) Exam #9E0-821, and the Wireless LAN for SE Exam #9E0-576. The field engineer is responsible for the implementation and support, and is required to have a CCNP and pass the BBSM Exam #9E0-811, LRE Exam #9E0-821, and Wireless LAN for FE Exam #9E0-581 ensuring that the partners' engineering staff has the knowledge and skills to plan, design, implement and support Cisco public access solutions.
Cisco Channel Partner Program
The Public Access Specialization is worth 20 points toward a Cisco certification under the Channel Partner Program. For those partners interested in learning more about the Cisco Channel Partner Program go to www.cisco.com/go/partnerprograms, and for specific training roadmaps, exams and applications for the Public Access Specialization go to www.cisco.com/go/specializations.
