SINGAPORE - September 5, 2006 - Cisco Systems® has appointed Mike Allen as director for channels in Asia Pacific. Reporting to Keith Goodwin, senior vice president for the Worldwide Channels Organisation in Cisco®, Allen will drive the strategy and development of the more than 6,000 Cisco channel partners in the Asia Pacific region.
Close to 100 percent of Cisco's solutions and services in the region are sold through Cisco channel partners, and they play a key role in extending the reach of Cisco's sales force. Allen replaces Janice Hulse, who moves to a new role in Cisco's regional operations as senior director for global account management.
"As we continue to enhance our industry-leading Channel Partner Program to help us lead, evolve and grow with our channel partners, we are also looking to build a world-class leadership team capable of driving growth and innovation. Mike has the leadership qualities and the experience to ensure our key objectives of driving partner profitability and increasing partner satisfaction are sustained in Asia Pacific," said Goodwin.
Allen was previously the head of advanced technology and operations for an area that covered 11 states in United States and Canada. He joined Cisco seven years ago when Cisco acquired Fibex Systems. Allen has 16 years of experience in the technology industry and is no stranger to Asia Pacific. He covered the region for a company called Broadband Technologies and also worked in the Asian semiconductor division of NEC. He will be based in Singapore with his wife and two children.
Cisco announced enhancements to its award-winning Channel Partner Program in March of this year, to align with changing customer requirements and market growth opportunities. The enhanced Cisco Channel Partner Program assists and rewards partners who develop the technology breadth to deploy broad, integrated network solutions and the technology depth to deploy advanced security services, Unified Communications applications and other highly specialized solutions.
The program also incorporates the Cisco Lifecycle Services approach to help partners successfully deploy, operate and optimize Cisco solutions, which can influence profitability and strengthen customer relationships.