Cisco changes up incentive program

Cisco has revealed new features, enhancements and tools for partners as it embarks on the biggest change to its incentive program. 

The networking giant has initiated a significant evolution of its flagship incentives to reward partners for selling Cisco hardware, software, and as-a-service solutions. It is also adding six new solution specialisations within the next nine months.

The Cisco Partner Incentive will combine elements from several incentives such as VIP 42; CSPP and Lifecycle Incentives into one integrated view.

It will focus on rewarding partners with rebates to drive predictable and profitable growth and will specifically support new logo acquisition, up-sell, and cross-sell opportunities. 

“The Cisco Partner Incentive is the biggest change we’ve made to partner incentives in more than a decade and is the capstone on the Cisco Partner Program evolution started in 2020,” Cisco vice president of partner strategy and programs Marc Surplus said. 

“Our partners will make money in year one, they will also make money in year two and year three…. and that is what is driving their growth in their practices and more recurring revenue.”

Specifically, the new incentive will cover three tracks – non-recurring offers; recurring offers and customer value. 

Partners will earn rebates based on the total contract value of a closed sale, completion of activities to drive customer adoption of the solution, and incremental annual contract value as they increase subscriptions. 

Additionally, partners will have the opportunity to earn bonus rewards-based investments in their Cisco practice or selling solutions. 

The new model will also complement changes made to Cisco seller compensation and will be implemented in a phased approach and is expected to begin in the second half of 2024. 

Greater profitability

With a strong focus on partner profitability, Cisco launched a new Lifecycle Pay with Trade-In incentive where customers can receive up to 10 per cent off the monthly payment when they trade-in legacy Cisco or third-party equipment.

For Partners who are Environmental Sustainability Specialised, they can combine this customer incentive with other benefits such as the Takeback Incentive.

Cisco Enterprise Agreement (EA) Pay has been further optimised by integrating EA financing directly into Cisco’s quoting and ordering systems for rapid approvals. 

Cisco Capital also expanded credit capacity by 21 per cent for partners taking part in the Channel Extended Terms Financing program.

PXP enhancements

The partner relationship management platform, PXP has been augmented with AI/ML-powered predictive insights and a revamped dashboard to provide a holistic view of funds activities and investments, removing the need for third-party tools.

PXP will also include a Sustainability Estimator, exclusively available to Environmental

Sustainability Specialised partners. Launching on 20 November, it will provide insight into the estimated energy savings, emissions reduction, cost reduction and environmental impact.

The tool is also supported by a new Sustainability Partner Journey with resources and collateral to help partners build their sustainability practices.

Capitalising on the MSP space

According to Cisco, managed services represent a total addressable market of US$161 billion for Cisco products as it anticipates 46 per cent of its sales will be sold as a managed service by 2027. 

In order to enable MSPs to deliver a premium support experience, the networking vendor launched Partner Advanced Support for MSPs with guided access to API integrations that build on existing services. 

It enables MSPs to offer faster, multi-product support, predictive insights, and issues resolution to scale an outcomes-based service model.

Furthermore, Cisco has also integrated its Lifecycle Advantage (LCA) into Cisco PX Cloud, streamlining the number of tools partners need to have a comprehensive view of their customer lifecycle data. 

SMB

Cisco’s Small Business Specialisation has been refreshed and renamed the Small and Medium Business (SMB) Specialisation and showcases Cisco’s commitment to SMB customers

through end-to-end solutions from four primary experiences: Smart SMB, Hybrid SMB, Secure SMB, and Remote SMB. 

Plans are also underway to launch two new Internet of Things (IOT) Solution Specialisations in the first half of 2024.

Julia Talevski attended Cisco Partner Summit 2023 as a guest of Cisco.