Cisco Partner Summit, Las Vegas, Nevada, November 5 – With CIOs increasingly focused on digital transformation, technology providers must evolve from selling products and features to delivering business outcomes. Software is at the core of this transformation, requiring new skills and competencies for partners. At its annual Partner Summit, Cisco today announced partner program innovations that give Cisco partners a competitive advantage, while enabling them to expand into profitable, new areas.

Cisco is evolving its partner program to help its partners access new buying centers, deliver platform-based outcomes, and grow recurring revenues. Program innovation includes a new partner specialization recognizing software development capabilities and partner incentives rewarding partners for lifecycle adoption.

“We believe differentiation and growth are intrinsically linked,” said Marc Surplus, Vice President, Partner Strategy and Programs, Global Partner Organization. “Everything we are announcing is designed to allow our partners to build unique capabilities and establish their competitive edge.”

New partner program elements announced at Cisco Partner Summit include:

DevNet Goes Mainstream for Partners

As the network evolves beyond connectivity, it’s opening up new opportunities for partners to solve their customers’ business problems and automate their infrastructure. And Cisco partners are stepping up to the challenge. They're embracing new skills and building new practices around software, DevOps, IoT and automation. Today, move than 50,000 network engineers from across 9,000 partners are already members of Cisco’s developer community, DevNet. 

• DevNet Specialization: Now, Cisco is mainstreaming DevNet with the introduction of a new DevNet Specialization for partners. The new DevNet specialization will recognize Cisco partners with proven software development capabilities and business practices around network automation, DevOps, and digital transformation.  
• Towards Gold Certification:  DevNet Career Certifications will count towards eligibility for a partner Gold Certification and the DevNet Specialization. The new Cisco DevNet training and certifications provide software skills for network engineers and software developers who work with Cisco technologies and APIs.

“Our customers are asking us different questions. They’re asking us to automate their infrastructure and leverage new network capabilities to solve their business problems,” said Susie Wee, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Cisco DevNet. “This is creating opportunities for Cisco partners with software skills to build unique offers and accelerate business innovation for their customers. The new DevNet Specialization will reward and differentiate the partners who are embracing the new era of networking and can help customers succeed in their digital transformation journeys.”

Rewarding Across the Lifecyle 

As partners shift to a recurring, subscription, or annuity-based model they must adopt a lifecycle approach to customer engagement to continuously demonstrate value. Cisco is helping drive this transition with three innovative programs:

Solution Starter: included in the Cisco DNA Enterprise Agreements, this new program offers a customer entitlement for a partner that has delivered Onboarding and Implementation services. This enables partners to start the lifecycle journey with their customers. Solution Starter positions partners to sell their value-added services to help their customers through the Lifecycle and realize the value of the software. 

Lifecycle Incentives: rewards partners for performing Lifecycle activities that ensure their customers are using the software in their network, taking advantage of the features and realizing business outcomes.

Use Accelerator Bonus is an incremental bonus for partners further rewarding activation and building out customer use cases in our DNA technologies, available now until the end of Cisco's Q3FY20.

Cisco is committed to evolving its partner programs to empower partners to create unique partner value for customers and hone their competitive edge.  

About Partner Summit
Cisco Partner Summit will take place at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas and runs from November 4 through 6. It is the annual opportunity for Cisco to bring its partners together in one place to network and learn about new technologies and services. This year will bring together over 2,100 partner companies from 80 countries around the world. 

Additional Resources: 

Marc Surplus Executive Blog: Have You Found Your Edge?

Susie Wee Executive Blog: Accelerating Partner Success with the new Cisco DevNet Specialization

Marc Surplus Executive Blog: If You Hate Spoilers, Don’t Read This Blog

Sandra Flinders Executive Blog: Tying it Together Across the Lifecycle

About Cisco 

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that has been making the Internet work since 1984. Our people, products and partners help society securely connect and seize tomorrow's digital opportunity today. Discover more at thenetwork.cisco.com and follow us on Twitter at @Cisco.

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