Cisco pledges to give VARs $1bn in mid-market leads

Vendor to double investment as part of plan to increase market share

Cisco is to double its investment in the mid-market as it commits to generating $1bn worth of qualified leads in this segment for partners this year.

At the vendor's global partner conference in Boston, Worldwide Partner Organisation head Bruce Klein outlined that Cisco is intent on growing its share of the market for businesses with between 100 and 1,000 employees. To that end, the networking giant is to double its investment in this space during its 2014 fiscal year, from $75m to $150m.

"In some segments we have 40 per cent-plus market share; here we are in the 20s. There are 1.4 million customers out there," said Klein.

As part of its plan to increase its share of the market, Cisco has pledged to work with resellers to generate $1bn in qualified mid-market sales leads in the coming year. The vendor will also endeavour to cultivate a product and services set that is tailored to the needs of customers in this sector.

"We are going to build out a made-for-mid-market portfolio, [recent acquisition] Meraki is a perfect solution for that," added Klein.

Other measures unveiled by the channel leader included the launch of the Partner Sales Academy, a graduate recruitment programme for the channel that will run alongside Cisco's in-house scheme. Sales and technical recruits will spend three months being trained at Cisco with the vendor's own graduate intake. They will then begin working life at a partner, while continuing to train remotely for the next nine months.

"We are going to double down on training," concluded Klein.