HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, October 17, 2006 - Cisco® reinforced its commitment to enabling the growth and profitability of its channel partner community with an enhanced program that will provide greater support to its channel partners in Vietnam. 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.

Cisco's channel partners are an important extension of the company and generate 100 percent of the company's sales in Vietnam. Cisco has close to 200 channel partners in the country, including certified partners such as FPT Information System, Datacraft Vietnam, DTS Communication Technologies, ISP, ITC JSC, CMC Computer and Communication, HPT Vietnam, CT-IN, EIS, HP Vietnam and Lac Viet Computing.

Keith Goodwin, senior vice president for Worldwide Channels at Cisco, who is in Ho Chi Minh City to meet with Cisco's top channel partners from around the Asia Pacific region, said that the company places a high value on ensuring its channel partners are equipped with the right skills and business processes to operate profitably.

"The enhancements we made to our channel partner program were designed to ensure that Cisco and our channel partners are prepared for the evolution and growth of the networking market. As the network emerges as the platform for all communications and IT, Cisco and our channel partners must lead, evolve and grow together," Goodwin said.

Driving Technology Breadth, Depth and Services

Cisco is evolving its program to help channel partners meet customer demand for technology skills breadth, advanced technology skills depth, and lifecycle services capabilities.

• Technology Skills Breadth: Cisco certifications at the gold, silver and premier levels are evolving to reflect a partner's breadth of skills across key technologies. Cisco Silver and Premier Certified Partners will be capable of delivering networking solutions with integrated security, wireless local-area networks (LANs), routing, LAN switching and, optionally, Unified Communications. Cisco Gold Certified Partners will represent the highest level of integrated infrastructure capability - with capabilities in routing and switching, security, wireless LAN, and Unified Communications.
• Advanced Technology Skills Depth: Cisco specializations will now reflect a partner's depth of expertise in a technology. Cisco is offering three specialization levels where a partner must demonstrate greater sales, technical and service capabilities for each level: Express, Advanced and Master. A new Master Specialization brand will recognize partners with the highest-qualified practice in a given technology and help partners further differentiate their business.
• Lifecycle Services: Cisco is also incorporating lifecycle services content as a key component of all specialization training. By working with partners to complement their existing services with Cisco's repeatable, proven processes and tools, partners can gain opportunities to increase profitability, improve productivity, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce deployment risk.

"Most of the Cisco channel partners are Vietnamese companies that employ local talent, contributing to economic growth. Our channel partners here have to go through the same certification process and quality control as our partners from more developed economies. They will certainly benefit from the transfer of skills and knowledge and contribute to development of the Vietnamese economy," said James Chia, general director for Cisco Systems Vietnam.