Cisco to slash special bid clearance time

Majority of special bid requests will be turned around in hours, not days, pledges vendor

Cisco used telepresence to communicate its latest channel updates to partners

Cisco partners have welcomed the vendor’s pledge to slash the time it takes to turn around special bids.

Improving ease of doing business emerged as a major theme during the networking giant’s Virtual Executive Partner Event yesterday.

The summit was the first time Cisco has used telepresence to connect up the majority of attendees. Partners that couldn't make it to its headquarters in Bedfont Lakes joined remotely from Manchester, Glasgow and Dublin.

Cisco told partners that it has set itself the goal of clearing the vast majority of special bid pricing requests in hours and not days or weeks – as partners have become accustomed to.

Tom Kelly, UK managing director of Cisco Gold partner Logicalis, welcomed the move.

“Cisco has promised to clear an exceptionally high amount in hours, not days, to ensure it and its partners are seen to be more agile, active and flexible than the competition,” he said.

"This is a very positive response."

Cliff Fox, managing director of Cisco partner SICL, agreed. “This is great news as when you are up against it, if a special bid takes hours to come though and not days, it makes a huge difference,” he said.

Fox said he understood Cisco was looking to make improvements imminently.

Andrew Shepperd, managing director of Cisco distributor Azlan, said: "Speed of execution is crtical to all of us and if that process can be simplified and deal closures can be accelerated that is always a good thing."

Cisco channel heads Keith Goodwin and Thierry Drilhon also joined the event via telepresence from San Jose and Paris, respectively.

Bernadette Wightman, director of channels, Cisco UK and Ireland, confirmed in a statement: "We're reviewing a number of our business processes to ensure our partners can be more flexible and agile in the marketplace."