Be bold, was the message running through the Cisco Partner Summit 2015 that was kicked off on Monday in Montreal, as John Chambers, CEO and Chairman of Cisco, highlighted the momentum around Cisco Partner Ecosystem and talked of new opportunities for partners around software and cloud.
The summit is seeking to highlight the company’s strategy on partner ecosystems and how to drive the $19-trillion ‘Internet of Everything’ opportunity. The Internet of Everything (IoE) — the networked connection of people, process, data and things — is opening up new opportunities in both public and private sector. Cisco estimates that the public sector will account for $4.9 trillion.
Many of Cisco’s partners don’t perceive Cisco as a software company. The new Cisco Software Partner Program announced on Tuesday, is looking to change that perception. It is aimed at helping existing and new partners capture profitable revenue streams and build competencies around software.
The Cisco Software Partner Program talks of three new roles — Software Lifecycle Advisor, Software Consultant and Software Integrator. According to Cisco, about a third of the software that is licensed is actually used by customers. Once the software is sold it is important that the features are adopted and that it gets renewed. Cisco is looking at filling that gap by creating specialisation around software lifecycle.
The lifecycle advisor will help customers use and manage their software and services. The partners offering lifecycle management services will drive customer software adoption and recurring revenue. Consultants will offer domain expertise to identify customers' area of improvement and review their business and operations. System integrator will use integration services to implement custom made solutions to customers.
Network of cloudsAfter introducing its inter-cloud strategy a year ago, Cisco’s strategy now is to build the largest global network of clouds, with their partners. To do this, the company is looking at creating an ecosystem spanning cloud builders, cloud providers, cloud reseller and application developers.
After laying the ground, in last year’s summit, on how Cisco is partnering with independent software vendors , cloud providers, IOE and IOT (internet of things) partners, this year’s summit talked about Cisco’s strategy to capture opportunities created by digitization and internet of everything.
(The writer was in Montreal at the company’s invitation)