The puzzled looks, the yawns, the distant stares -– these are pretty much your worst nightmare if you’re making a sales presentation to customers. You want customers to get excited about the products and solutions you’re bringing to them, right?
We hear you! Today is the global rollout of our new Architecture Partner Marketing kits. These kits offer everything you need to bring data center/virtualization, borderless networks, and collaboration solutions to your customers, helping you position the architectures and drive demand for your business.
“What’s the big deal buying counterfeit products? They cost less, right? And, I save money!”
It may not seem like a big deal, but counterfeit products do more than hurt the vendor whose products are counterfeited. It cuts into partner profitability and erodes customer trust. We interviewed Dave Walters--Director of Global Business Operations at Cisco’s Worldwide Brand Protection--about the issue and to find out what customers and partners can do…and why counterfeiting doesn’t pay.
Read the extended interview:
Channels blog: Why is counterfeiting such an issue?
Dave Walters: Counterfeiting is big business and can be extremely profitable. Because of the large illicit profits associated with the counterfeit trade, counterfeiters are constantly modifying their techniques and approaches to deceive the public. As such, Cisco continues to adapt to fight this ever-changing illicit economy.
CB: Tell us a little bit about Cisco Brand Protection team, Dave. DW: Cisco’s Brand Protection team of intellectual property experts works in cooperation with law enforcement and government agencies to combat the selling, distributing, and manufacturing of counterfeit products--and to protect our intellectual property rights. Our team also works to educate both partners and customers on the risks associated with purchasing networking equipment on the secondary market.
CB: There has been a lot of press lately about criminal cases involving counterfeit network hardware. Can you tell us a little bit more about the most recent headlines?
Why in the world does everything seem to be the same?
This was a question posed by author and business thinker Scott McKain who took a hard look at many businesses that focus too much on sales transactions and not enough on building mutual relationships with customers.
We dug up this nugget from our Partner Summit 2010 coverage. And, though the event was a couple of months ago, we’re still digging up great footage from the various breakout sessions.
In the session, entitled “Creating Distinction: Stand Out and Move Up in a Challenging Marketplace,” McKain offered ways to differentiate your business from the competition
So what advice did he offer? He pointed out that Cisco partners should focus on four cornerstones of distinction. What are they?
With more than 900 Unified Computing System (UCS) customers to date, it’s clear that demand for data center products and services is growing.
The Channels blog caught up with “Disty” Dave O’Callaghan via TelePresence to learn about the new Unified Compute Authorized Configurator (UCAC) certification and how it fits into Cisco’s overall data center distribution strategy.
During our interview, Disty Dave discussed the new UCAC certification and talked about the vital role distributors and resellers play in the Virtualized Data Center.
Not just another fancy new acronym, UCAC gives distribution partners the ability to configure to order C-Series products, helping to meet end-customer requirements.
For example, a UCAC distributor can build a C-Series server from scratch, adding processors, memory, hard-drives, and adapters. This enables quick turnaround for the C-Series and means resellers can focus completely on the customer, from demand generation to sales calls to closing and installation.
A few months back at Partner Summit, I shared with you, our Partners, the significant opportunities available to us associated with four market transitions, all enabled by the borderless network. To capture the multi-billion dollar opportunities in front of us, we must work together to broaden our focus on architectures, verticals/solutions, emerging countries and new consumption models, such as XaaS.
In January, the Cisco Worldwide Partner Organization (WWPO) embarked on a journey to develop a three-to-five year strategic plan — designing the future direction for all of Cisco’s partnerships. Three key areas of focus have emerged from this planning initiative:
Innovate and invest in our industry-leading channel model
Build new global transformational partnerships
Drive SMB and Small Business growth with innovative partner-led models
Today, I would like to announce WWPO leadership changes which support these key strategies. The changes to my organization include:
