I was really not looking forward to this when Cisco starting moving engineers and account managers away from the SMB channel and moving in Linksys teams to those positions. First hand I can tell you it has not been a great start, the new Linksys people who are taking over the current SMB roles from Cisco teams are not really up to date and do not really answer emails. This is not just one person but more than a few that I have sent emails to in different areas and never received an email back when asking for help or asking questions.
When sending emails to the old Cisco teams who had those position until this past weekend I got an oh so sorry email no longer my area bye-bye. Rather than helping a customer and partner out you get an email? I was told that they no longer cover the SMB area and could not help me and I should call or email the Linksys team that replaced them as of last week. I hate to say this but this Cisco, they always pass the buck and problems whenever they can. It is so easy for people to say sorry not my areas anymore call someone else.
What really gets me is that rather than just giving me an answer the Cisco reps took more time to write an email as far as to why they could not help me. I have heard of the same problems with some customers calling engineers that used to help them over the year but now they cannot even get an email back or if they do they are told to call someone else who is now from Linksys.
But here is the best one of all; this was a bomb to the SMB partners when this change was made. The account reps never called the partners they work with to inform them that this change was coming and they would have all new people to help them. How hard would it of been for account reps over the last two weeks to call partners to give them an update? It would have taken time yes, but that's what they should do rather than having account reps send emails out over a weekend saying guess what, we are out of here call this person bye-bye.
Cisco dropped the ball on this one and this could be a set back with SMB customers as I have just received an email from another partner on the west coast who just had the same problem. I wonder if this is why Juniper and ProCurve are getting more marketshare from Cisco? Customer Service to partners and customers?
Larry Chaffin Ph.D is the Chief Executive Officer/Chairman and founder of Pluto Networks, a Consulting and VAR partner specializing in WAN Acceleration, VoIP, WLAN, Telepresence and Security and a Riverbed reseller. Pluto Networks specializes in the needs of small, large and enterprise companies by always giving them a great ROI on the products they sell. Pluto Networks has a presence in 23 countries around the world enabling all of its consultants to be virtual. Larry was a Judge at Interop for the Best of Interop Awards for 2009 and is looking forward to the 2010 awards in Las Vegas.
Larry has also co-authored all of the books listed below:
Managing Cisco Secure Networks, Skype Me, Practical VOIP Security, Configuring Check Point NGX VPN-1/Firewall-1,Configuring Juniper Networks NetScreen & SSG Firewalls,Essential Computer Security: Everyone's Guide to Email, Internet, and Wireless Security, How to Cheat at Microsoft Vista Administration, Microsoft Vista for IT Security Professionals, Asterisk Hacking, 2008 VoIP and Video Conferencing, Infosecurity 2008 Threat Analysis and author of Building a VOIP Network with Nortel's MS5100, along with co-authoring/ghost writing eleven other technology books for VIOP, WLAN, security and optical technologies. Larry is currently working on a follow up to Building a VoIP network with Nortel's MCS 5100 Book as well as new books on Cisco Telepresence Networks, Practical VoIP case studies and WAN Acceleration with Riverbed.
Larry also has more than 29 vendor certifications and has been working on many others. Larry has been a principal architect around the world in 22 countries for many Fortune 100 companies designing VoIP, security, wireless and optical networks. He has expanded over time also to include application acceleration. Larry is working with worldwide company now out of Asia as a Special Assistant to the CEO and CIO as they go through organizational and network changes, helping them with strategic advice from his years or experience. Pluto Networks is a channel partner of Cisco, ProCurve, LifeSize, Riverbed, Call Copy, Fastsoft and Symantec.
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Great Blog Larry!!!!
I am very glad your brought this up Larry, I am a Cisco Partner and not really big. I had the same problem down south with my account rep, left high and dry. One area person in my state sent me an email, the other did not even do that and had an out of office reply set up. I guess thats the way to stop emails, you set a rule up in outlook.
As a partner I hope that Cisco takes note and makes changes to keep partners in the know before things like this happen. Keep up the good work, I know us down here really like your blogs.
Tony S.