Cisco Partners to Fuel Global Development and Delivery of Managed Services

New Program Combines Partner Incentives with Proven Cisco Powered Framework, Creating the IT industry’s First Global Managed Services Channel Program

SAN JOSE, Calif.- In a continuing effort to extend and accelerate the global development and delivery of innovative managed services based on advanced networking technologies as well as IP Next-Generation Networks, Cisco® today announced the new Cisco Managed Services Channel Program.

The Cisco Managed Services Channel Program is the industry’s first global managed services channel program designed to incentivize partners to deliver a wide spectrum of managed services. This innovative global program integrates the recently enhanced Cisco Powered Program framework, enabling partners to accelerate the global development and delivery of managed services.

“Growth in the managed services market will continue to outpace IT industry growth as customers strive to reduce complexity, decrease risk and improve time to market,” said Edison Peres, vice president of Worldwide Channels at Cisco. “Based on a consistent, global framework, the Cisco Managed Services Channel Program will allow regional channel partners, service providers and systems integrators to more easily meet our customers’ growing demand for managed services in established and emerging markets.”

The Managed Service Partner Program serves to drive global consistency through predictable offerings and in-country product access. The program gives partners tools to offer consistent services to global customers based on the customers’ business requirements. In addition, the Managed Services Channel Program provides financial rewards for partners that build and sell services that utilize the network to address a customer’s business need and offers joint marketing and branding opportunities for managed service providers that deliver premium services. The program currently includes AT&T, CDW Berbee, Bell Canada, BT, Calence, Dimension Data, Getronics, NetStar, Sprint, TELUS, Verizon Business and VSNL.

“Headquartered in South Africa, Dimension Data knows firsthand that there is a huge opportunity in bringing innovative managed services to emerging markets,” said Scott Petty, group executive, services at Dimension Data, a global IT services and solution provider that operates in over 40 countries on six continents. “As network-based technology becomes more complex and mission critical, our customers are increasingly interesting in buying technology as a service. Especially in the small and medium-sized business market, businesses want to be able to focus on their core competencies, while still getting the benefits of an advanced communications solution.”

“VSNL has decided to build a dedicated managed services operation from the ground up to deliver enhanced customer experience and operational excellence,” said Vinod Kumar, president, Global Data Solutions at VSNL, a leading global communications company and member of the Tata Group. “We have seen explosive growth in managed services for small to medium-sized businesses, as well as large enterprises around the world. The Cisco Managed Services Channel Program helps us to support our service and delivery operations in India and provide managed services globally.”
Driving Premium Managed Services

The Cisco Managed Services Channel Program rewards partners for the relative value of services delivered to customers. The program includes three managed service program levels, Cisco Powered Managed Service, Strategic Managed Service, and Legacy Managed Service. The premium Cisco Powered Managed Service level currently includes designations for Connectivity, Unified Communications, Security, Mobility and Data Center Services.

To participate in the program partners must demonstrate the required resources, systems, and procedures to deploy, manage, and support managed network and IT solutions in all locations for which the services are available. The program’s entry criterion is based on the Information Technology Infrastructure Library® (ITIL) framework of best practices. An annual assessment of the partner’s network operation center (NOC) is conducted to review whether the requirements are met. In addition, the managed services sold to customers must include a service-level agreement with a minimum term of one year. Cisco Powered Managed Services are based on industry standards and Cisco validated designs to help deliver a premium end-user experience. Specific program requirements can be found at http://www.cisco.com/go/mscp.
Offer-Based Channel Strategy Evolution

The Cisco Managed Services Channel Program marks an evolution of the Cisco Channel Partner Program and a major step towards the development of the IT industry’s first offer-based channel strategy. To drive partner growth, profitability and differentiation, Cisco is creating channel programs that align to the three distinct offer types in the market today - resale, outsourcing and managed services.