Is Juniper’s Services Strategy Aimed At Cisco Partners?

In conjunction with Interop-Las Vegas, Juniper networks held its annual partner summit, accommodating a few hundred of their closest VARs, integrators and other partners.

Worldwide channel vice president Frank Vitagliano outlined several key priorities for the coming year, including growth and mutual revenue and profitability, investments in programs/infrastructure, a commitment to making Juniper easier to do business with, plus a commitment to enhance the ways that channel partners can work more closely together with the Juniper sales team.

But one theme kept recurring throughout the presentation: Juniper is actively promoting a hands-off approach to professional services as a differentiator in their channel strategy. A few weeks prior to the Juniper summit, Cisco Systems held a summit of their own, in which they mapped out plans for a collaborative services model through which partners can deliver services in conjunction with the large, San Jose-based vendor. The downside from the channel perspective is that the revenue would need to be shared. Numbers are Cisco’s expectations and the channel’s uplift opportunity, however, are not yet available.

At various points in the Juniper presentation, company executives repeatedly stressed that the channel was instrumental in their approach to services at all customer levels. "Our services element is built around the channel from the largest accounts down to the bottom of the period," said Blaine Raddon, vice president, U.S. channels.

Furthermore, Juniper vowed to help partners establish and strengthen their own brands in the minds of customers.

"Some of our competitors talk about helping their partners build the brand, but at the end of the day that's not what they're doing at all," said Donna Grothjan, vice president, worldwide channel strategy and operations. “We think this will be a strong differentiator for us. Let the partner put their brand first in a services perspective.”

• Cisco