Linksys VARs have four weeks to sign with Cisco

Cisco’s decision to merge Linksys resellers and small business products into its own SME operation has met with mixed reactions from the networking giant’s partners.

The vendor announced last week it was to merge the Linksys Small Business Channel Partner Programme and Business Series product line into its own channel infrastructure. Linksys partners have a month to sign up to be Cisco Registered Channel Partners. Linksys consumer operations remain unaffected.

Linksys UK country manager Tunji Akintokun revealed the move had been piloted in The Netherlands to ensure the process was as painless as possible.

“The key thing is to make the process simple and quick,” he said. “Just tick a few boxes and the rest is done in the background.”

Akintokun also claimed the merger would be a boon for his company’s VARs. “We are getting some real focus and commitment from Cisco and Linksys resellers will now feel part of a larger family,” he said. “There will be benefits to being part of the Cisco programme.”

Bernadette Wightman, managing director of Cisco’s UK and Ireland channel, said: “Bringing everything together is a natural decision. We are building the broadest portfolio from transactional small deals right the way up to sophisticated unified communications deployments.”

Andrew Sheppard, managing director of Cisco distributor Azlan, claimed the merger would allow Cisco VARs to corner the SME space.

“It adds breadth and allows resellers to address the growing SME opportunity very easily,” he said. “The additional revenue opportunities run into multiple millions.”

However, Peter Titmus, managing director of Cisco Silver Partner Networks First, which has the vendor’s SMB Specialisation, claimed VARs could face a steep learning curve.

“Traditional SME partners could end up being overwhelmed with the technology. It is quite a broad portfolio and it might require Cisco to make some investment in education,” he said.