Catching the Wave

Welcome to the first edition of “Channel Surfing with Ken Presti.” I promise not to go nuts with surfing references – mostly because I’ve always been more of a dry-land kinda guy, and the whole notion of baggy shorts runs counter to my belief system. Channels are a different story, however. I’ve been reporting, scrutinizing, building, and consulting on channel strategies in the networking space since 1996; a time when Cisco was a mere $3 billion adolescent.

My esteemed colleagues here at Network World’s Cisco Subnet have the technology piece completely in hand. Our focus here at ChannelSurfing is not on the products being sold. It’s on how those products are being sold, and the programs and issues around the resellers, integrators, and other channel partners who make that happen.

We’ll look at a lot of different things. Here are a few of my ideas. I’m looking forward to hearing yours.

Complexity vs. Profitability: Cisco’s always trying to strike a balance between making the channel program workable, while at the same time delivering the channel’s profit opportunity through discounts and special incentives.

Training Mechanisms: Whether online or in a classroom, getting the necessary knowledge to the right people is always critical to success. What’s working, what’s not, and what’s new?

Professional Services and Complete “Solutions”: Today’s customer is less impressed by the latest whiz-bang product and more interested in how partners can weave technologies together to help build their bottom line. Cisco is always looking for new ways to raise the channel’s game, especially in this area.

Customer Advocacy: Cisco’s business unit tasked with customer service and SmartNet also provides some of the offerings that channel partners provide – sometimes leading to important tradeoffs.

Managed services: This is an interesting opportunity that is moving steadily beyond the carrier space. Cisco and a number of vendors are actively looking for ways they can help channel partners who want to expand into this business model.

Program updates: Channel programs are never permanently carved in stone. They are always evolving based on technologies, market dynamics, and related trends. We’ll be looking at plenty of those.

Online tools: Getting online tools to address all the necessary options and always work as planned is never an easy task. How are they doing?

Specializations: Going wide or going deep is more than a football route these days. Specializations have become an integral component to profitability for Cisco channel partners.

Refurbished Gear: Selling used equipment may not be the first choice of either the partner or the end user, but it does open up some interesting possibilities for getting the deal done. A number of factors around this opportunity are still very much open questions that you can help influence.

Alliances with other vendors: Sometimes this looks really good on the product side without necessarily being straightforward on the channel side.

Integrating Channel Programs of Acquired Companies: Bringing acquired companies into the fold always has its challenges – and the details are always a little different every time.

What have I missed? I’m happy to add other ideas to the mix too, so feel free to speak up! And thanks for all the warm welcomes. We’re looking forward to a fun and useful exchange of ideas!

• Cisco