Cisco has unveiled a «Managed Services Channel Program» in a move to encourage its channel partners to continue using Cisco infrastructure as they move into the managed- services business.
Cisco describes its new marketing effort as «the industry’s first global managed-services channel program designed to incentivize partners to deliver a wide spectrum of managed services.» Cisco managed services covered by the program include Unified Communications (UC), managed connectivity, managed data center, managed security and managed mobility.
The new channels program, which becomes part of the «Cisco Powered Program,» offers what Cisco says are «financial rewards» to the channel partners «that build and sell services that utilize the network to address a customer’s business need.» Cisco did not detail the financial incentive, which is thought to include product discounts and/or rebates. In addition, Cisco is holding out «joint marketing and branding opportunities» for managed-service providers that deliver «premium» services.
There will be three levels to the program, Cisco adds: Cisco Powered Managed Service, Strategic Managed Service and Legacy Managed Service. Certification for those levels is based on the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework.
«Growth in the managed-services market will continue to outpace IT industry growth as customers strive to reduce complexity, decrease risk and improve time to market,» says Edison Peres, vice president/Worldwide Channels at Cisco. «Based on a consistent, global framework, the Cisco Managed Services Channel Program will allow regional channel partners, service providers and systems integrators to more easily meet our customers’ growing demand for managed services in established and emerging markets.»
The Cisco channel partner program currently includes AT&T, CDW Berbee, Bell Canada, BT, Calence, Dimension Data, Getronics, NetStar, Sprint, TELUS, Verizon Business and VSNL.
Fuente: TelecomWeb
