Today, I’d like to thank an old friend and welcome back a familiar face.
Jim Sherriff, the leader of the Americas Partner Organization and previously the US and Canada Partner Organization for the past two years, has accepted a new role working with Rob Lloyd on the Worldwide Sales Operations team.
Among other responsibilities, Jim will lead our global efforts to bring greater capabilities and efficiency to our sales process by assuming sales leadership for ACT (Accelerated Cisco Transformation). ACT is Cisco’s multi-year program to fuel growth by enhancing our operating model, ensuring world-class execution, efficiency, and ease of doing business. Jim will report directly to Rob Lloyd.
The Americas Partner Organization has made great strides in driving partner profitability under Jim’s direction through three key areas of focus: enabling partners to capture new markets faster, increasing customer segment impact, and driving improved operational efficiency.
Jim and his team initiated and led the “the 1% solution,” a series of initiatives to improve operational efficiency with early successes including the Audit Certification team that helps partners reduce the cost of re-certification, and introduction of The SELL (Sales Enablement Learning Lifecycle), a valuable resource for our partners to help them on-board and develop their sales professionals.
I’d like to thank him for his exceptional leadership and many contributions. He will be a great advocate for The Americas sales organization in his new role.
With Jim’s move to Worldwide Operations, I’m pleased to announce Wendy Bahr as our new SVP, Americas Partner Organization.
Day Three of Partner Summit kicked off to a bouncing beat: Following a thumping performance by C2C, a group of world champion music DJs, SVP Edison Peres took to the stage to congratulate yesterday’s Olympic trip winners and kick off the day’s theme of Innovation.
He then introduced Padmasree Warrior, CTO and Cisco’s co-leader of Engineering, who opened her presentation with a bold statement: “We are on the verge of the most change this industry has seen in several decades.” She then explained how emerging global economies combined with technology advances are resulting in changing business models, and that the intelligent network is at the heart of innovation.
One such innovation is Cloud Connect, a new software platform the company will soon launch for enhancing cloud deployments, increasing cloud security, and simplifying cloud-based operations. Plus, customers can leverage the software to build applications customized for their own requirements.
But what does all this mean for partners? Why more opportunities, of course. To view Padma’s complete presentation, including a demo of iPad authenticating via Cisco ISE to Cisco Quad, check out the replay on Virtual Partner Summit.
Also check out this video--we spoke with partners today to hear from them what it’s like to be a Cisco partner and what’s standing out for them at this year’s Partner Summit.
And don’t miss today’s other big announcements, including Jabber for Everyone, recaps of several of today’s Business Transformation breakout sessions, how to win an iPad, and more! Read More »
Imagine a world where businesses can increase efficiency, reduce costs, and securely share and store data across multiple networks, regardless of location. Until a few years ago, this concept seemed unattainable to most.
Fast-forward to 2012, and just about every company in the industry is working to make the cloud a part of its business model. Organizations are beginning to see the cloud as a long-term industry transition in the same way that client/server computing was a transition from the mainframe era.
Cloud is the next step in the evolution of the Internet. And that evolution is happening now. The cloud is fundamentally changing the way people and businesses consume services.
Early discussions have focused primarily on the different types of clouds leaving businesses wondering what option is best for them. In reality, it can take several types of clouds to solve a variety of business challenges. We’re moving to an interconnected world of many clouds – where users want to experience cloud services anywhere, anytime, on any device – and businesses want IT as a service.
Clouds offer compelling economics – reducing CapEx and OpEx, sharing of cloud assets, and dynamic, on-demand delivery of services. They enable flexible business models that allow services to be launched more rapidly, with greater efficiency and more scalability, regardless of the geography or size of business.
Curious on what “cloud formation” is right for you? Read More »
It’s no secret that Cisco has been on a journey to simplify and make it easier to work with us.
In May, we took a leap forward in this process and announced a series of changes across our global engineering, sales, and services teams to streamline our organizational structure and speed decision making.
Today I’d like to outline the next step in this process and how it affects partners. I also want you to know that many of the changes you’re seeing at Cisco are a result of what we’ve heard from you, so I encourage you to keep the feedback coming (via Twitter, by talking to your account manager, or by leaving a comment here on this blog).
Let’s take a closer look at the changes to the Worldwide Partner Organization, which fall into three main areas: Partner Led, Partner Marketing, and geographic alignment.
1) Partner Led
Our Partner organization will assume responsibility for building the global capabilities to support Partner-Led – one of two global go-to-market selling models. The Partner Led global sales model will increase Cisco’s reliance on partners to address the needs of customers across all market segments where Cisco will not have a high-touch sales presence.
Andrew Sage will take on the role of Vice President, Partner Led. A 12-year Cisco veteran, Andrew most recently spear-headed our Small Business Sales efforts and was instrumental in shaping our key strategies for the Partner-Led model.
2010, what a year it was. Let’s see, it was the Year of the Tiger, the year of “Write the Rules, Own the Game,” the year of Cisco raps, and the year that Cisco and Tandberg joined forces.
There were so many momentous events that shaped 2010. While it’s impossible to list all of them, we put together a video and a rap to commemorate some of the events that happened over the past 365 days. Our video also includes best wishes for good tidings in 2011 from a number of different WWPO leaders.
Curious about the clips we featured in the video? Check out the following events that made the cut, and let us know your highlights.
