Cisco UK hails Dragons' Den-style partner scheme

Partners pitch to Cisco Dragons for 50 per cent investment in initiative

Cisco's UK partner chief Angela Whitty has said a Dragons' Den-style partner investment scheme is a key example of the firm's commitment to the channel.

Speaking to CRN, Whitty (pictured) explained that partners can take advantage of two investment schemes from the vendor's Cisco Capital arm, which are each designed to encourage innovation in the channel.

The Cisco Big Bets benefit sees Whitty take on the role of "chief dragon", and has already been successful, said Whitty.

"The way we encourage partners to stay loyal is to continue to invest, which is a core priority for us," she explained. "So we've got lots of different Cisco Capital offers which are extremely relevant to our partners. We have Big Bets where we do joint investments with partners. So if a partner wanted to develop a security practice [for example], they come with a proposal and in the UK we do a Dragons' Den-type thing.

"A partner comes in and puts forward what they want to do and the market opportunity and the return they think they can get. If they're asking us to put in $100,000, they put in $100,000 themselves. We've had some really, really successful ones. It allows us to have a really good discussion around what we're trying to achieve and how we engage."

Partners and Cisco each put up a 50 per cent stake into the idea, and quarterly milestone meetings are held to review progress. Typically, such projects can last between 12 and 18 months.

Cisco also offers a similar scheme called Quick Bets, which is for "short bursts of activity", for example, for a six-month scheme.

"We wouldn't do a Dragons' Den for that - they send in a proposal and myself and a few others in the UK look at it and give it the go ahead," she said. "It has to go through corporate approval, but because we're so rigid about how we do it in the UK, we very rarely have any [issues] - it is just a formality. From a team perspective, we're investing in coverage."

Keith Humphreys, managing consultant at analyst EuroLan, said the scheme is different from other vendor offerings.

"They talked about it [at Partner Summit] and it sounded pretty impressive - it is a joined-up solution for partners, rather than just a lease offering, so I was quite impressed," he said. "I think if I were a partner trying to get into an IoT solution, for example - and Cisco is pushing this - if Cisco has skin in the game and will help finance it, it would be a great help."

Cisco held its Partner Summit in San Francisco last month - the second event of its kind this year. The first was held in San Diego in March. Cisco decided the partner gathering would be moved to the autumn to better align with its internal sales kick-off, and as such, held two events this year, rather than wait 18 months between partner events.

Whitty, who has been at Cisco for 23 years, and in her current role for 18 months, said that the feedback from San Francisco has been pleasing.

"The major thing was, because we had two summits in one year, their feeling was that what was spoken about in San Diego, we were starting to deliver on - around collaboration and security," she said.

"A lot of them were reassured by the consistency from the messaging from Wendy Bahr [Cisco's global channel chief]. The thing I love about the guiding principles is that it is really simple and it plays into our channel strategy [well]. At the end of the day, partners have choices."