http://www.itvarnews.net/news.php?j=9926 Created a new partner segment that will focus on selling specific technology solutions... Friday, October 30, 2009 http://www.itvarnews.net/news.php?j=9926 Being one of the biggest IT infrastructure companies can be quite a task. To maintain such a business one needs a strong ecosystem of channel partners, and solution providers. And that is what Cisco Systems, one of the largest IT infrastructure companies in the world, is doing currently. In a bid to push its partners to do better in the post recession market, the company has created some focussed channel strategy.To begin with Cisco is developing what it calls the Advanced Technology Partner segment. A new breed of channel partners, who are really solutions providers, to devise and sell new technology solutions rather than just products. Says B Raghavendran,  Vice President, Channel Operations and Commercial Strategy, Cisco India&SAARC, The advance technology partners are niche players, with focussed technical skill sets, and customer base. We wanted to develop this segment so that we can push technology solutions rather than simple products to the clients. In fact the client demands are changing. And to address that we decided on creating this partner segment. Cisco has two levels of partnerships. The tier one partners are strategic alliance partners like the gold and silver partner. They have better product knowledge and are basically solution providers with high level of technical knowledge and develop solutions for their clients. Then the company has tier 2 partners, which includes the premium partners like national distributors Ingram and Redington. And finally the select partners who are resellers, who mainly push boxes rather than technology.  This time round we are going with a more focussed approach to technology. How different is it? Well traditionally we have have had partners who have done both technology focussed selling and box pushing. But now with tech partners we are looking a driving larger growth for the partners as well as us. This focussed way will help us do larger number of business, he explained.In fact the company will create this focussed segment from its existing gold and silver partners to begin with. With the advanced technology partners, the company now wants to put special focus on three main technology areas. It will be a completely niche focus. The areas of focus will include collaboration architecture based on Unified Communication technologies, Data Centre Virtualisation, Telepresence and Security. We will look at partnering with companies who can focus on developing solutions around the three focus areas based on clients needs. We will work with these partners to create go to market strategy to push the next level of technology, added Mr Raghavendran.To strengthen this partner segment the company will work with them to improve existing skill sets, and provide specific technical knowledge, help with the way to approach the market, and specific clients, and support them in getting the right technology to the clients based on the needs of the customers. We always had this segment of partners, but now we are reviving this and making this the main focus, since we realised through the slowdown months that in the next phase complete technology solutions will drive the growth as customers start demanding more from their infrastructure, and look for higher productivity from their technology investments. Clients are looking at technology for over all operational excellence. While our foundation products like the routers, and switches have been generating steady revenue, but we feel that advance technology partners can get us closer to business, the push the market to next-gen technology, and give us headroom to grow, averred  Mr Raghavendran.