The age of the partner: A new era of business, a new era of partnering

Last November I introduced the Age of the Partner at Cisco’s annual Partner Summit in Las Vegas. The premise of the Age of the Partner is that decades of accelerating technology advances and innovation, shifts in buying behaviors and purchasing options, and the evolution to digital-first business models are culminating in levels of IT complexity that organizations are unable to manage on their own. The solution: partners – real partners – sometimes unexpected partners, working together to deliver a specific outcome with the right experience for a customer. In a new paper released today, I shared a more in-depth perspective about the Age of the Partner, and what it means for customers, partners, and Cisco. You can read it here.

Over the last six months, I’ve met with hundreds of Cisco Partners around the world and discussed the Age of the Partner. Our partners are confirming they’re seeing and experiencing the same shifts that I lay out in the paper – and having these exact conversations with their customers every day. Reports, studies, and predictions by industry experts – top industry analyst firms and consultants – are also validating our hypothesis. And we’ve also seen companies that did not focus on partners in the past starting to talk about the age of the partner – which is great because partnering with those you may not have in the past in service to customers is a core principle of the Age of the Partner.

At Cisco, we’ve been evolving and building out our programs and offerings to enable and support Cisco Partners in the Age of the Partner. But our journey with partners started nearly 30 years ago. Our strategy is based on a partner-driven go-to-market model. In fact, about 90% of our revenue comes through partners. Over the years, we’ve continued to adapt and evolve and transform, and we’ve always done so together with our partners.

I’m excited about this new era and the opportunity ahead of us.