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Coming out of our first-ever Partner Summit Digital, I know our partners must be energized by how much Cisco is doing to help world economies recover from our historic challenges.  The UN General Assembly and the World Health Organization have called the pandemic “the challenge of a lifetime”, but I believe that, embedded within every challenge, is an opportunity, and this is the opportunity of a lifetime for our distributors and partners. Because we have exactly the right solutions, at exactly the right moment, to help customers when they need transformational technology most.

For years, we’ve been trumpeting digital transformation. And suddenly it’s an unavoidable imperative. McKinsey noted that we are seeing “Digital adoption at breathtaking rates.”  I know our distributors and partners have been helping our customers, and I’m grateful for that. Thank you to our partners for helping our customers. Thank you for your courage and your innovation. You have been on the front lines of this challenge, and the need to innovate has not been narrowly focused on technology, but it spans the business spectrum, and I know your customers appreciate how you have helped them rethink their businesses.

Our customers’ employees are no longer in the office. Their data and apps are exploding into the cloud. And they need to secure everything everywhere – on prem, in the cloud, in thousands of home offices, on mobile phones. And they’ll be managing it all from the cloud. The cloud, in fact, is the great equalizer, offering critical, business-transforming technology to every business, not only  large enterprises but small and midsized businesses that don’t have large IT departments and expansive IT expertise. Our partners have been their IT support; you have risen to the occasion, and Cisco has been there with you.

Businesses can benefit dramatically from the democratization and flexibility the cloud offers, but it requires a platform, and Cisco has created that platform and will continue to expand it and make it better. That’s our opportunity of a lifetime – the opportunity to be the key player in implementing turn-key change that is  business-transforming.

A New Offer to Support Secure Remote Workers

Available to order now, Secure Remote Work is designed especially for small and midsized businesses.  Cisco is committed to making our offers easier for our customers to consume and easier for our partners to order. Secure Remote Work underlines that commitment. Our partners can now order collaboration and end-to-end security with one single SKU that includes Duo, Umbrella, Cloud Mailbox Defense, and WebEx Flex 3.0 (Meetings, Messaging and Calling where available), all for US$29.95 per user, per month. In addition to being perfect for small and midsized businesses, this offer gives customers multiple Cisco products integrated in one simple suite, and it gives partners a platform to build upon with their own expertise and additions such as access devices and managed services.

One SKU for Cisco Webex Collaboration, Cisco Umbrella, Cisco Duo MFA, Cisco Cloud <ailbox defense
Secure Remote Work: Collaboration and End-to-End Security in one SKU

At a time when business owners and leaders are rethinking the way their employees collaborate and how their business interfaces with customers and other businesses, Cisco Secure Remote Work offers a plug-in platform to digitize small and midsized businesses smoothly and quickly just when they need it most. For years, we’ve been advocating digital transformation and selling business outcomes, and this offer brings it all together.

I urge our distributors and partners to take advantage of this opportunity of a lifetime right now, because many small and midsized businesses need help right now. This offer might be exactly what helps them turn their operations around.

As our partners help customers transform for necessity, you are setting the stage to help them transform continuously for continuous growth. And that means our partners’ profitable growth … if we do it right. The Cisco team and our distributors will be right beside you, driving that growth with innovation, expertise, and training.

Build business resiliency into your DNA and into your customers’ DNA. Build a lifecycle management practice, because that’s how you discover new solutions and new architectures that give your customers an edge. And if we’re all doing this for all our customers, especially small and midsized businesses – advising them, helping them transform, helping them manage their digitization platform, keeping it secure – that’s how we help world economies recover. Yes, we’re working at that scale.

One more thing I want to say to our partners – we’re here for you. Build a lifecycle management practice. Catch the eCommerce wave. Take your customers safely into the Cloud. Strengthen your managed services. We’re here for you. Cisco and our distributors can help you… every day.

We’re Cisco. We’re the partnering company.

 



Authors

Andrew Sage

Vice President

Global Distribution & SMB Sales