Unveiled at Cisco’s partner summit in Hawaii this month, the online tool is designed to help Cisco resellers collaborate with the right people at the right partner (CRN, 14 April).

John Donovan, managing director of Cisco UK and Ireland channels, said the CPE had received very positive channel feedback.

“The skills and knowledge in putting together a solution are becoming more complex and it is difficult to find a single partner that can provide every aspect,” he said. “Cisco resellers have to think about working together.

“Even in some of our larger partners there are pockets of expertise they do not have that could be made available to them through the CPE.”

Donovan said he hoped partners would eventually use the platform to transact business.

Tom Kelly, UK managing director at Logicalis, which won Cisco EMEA Gold partner of the year at the event, told CRN: “I agree that this is the way forward for partners as we move into Web 3.0 over the next two to four years.

“Although we have a broad range of skills, to move forward we will be finding where we have to collabo-rate with competition. Once ground rules have been established on what each firm takes to market, it should not be a problem.”

John Pepper, managing director at Cisco Gold partner Minx, said: “We are now able to advertise our skills globally. We might have skills sets in Europe that a US company lacks, which will enable us both to compete on global deals against larger partners.”

Donovan added that the CPE would be open to non-Cisco partners.