'They picked me because I have been a partner' - How Cisco's new channel boss is reshaping the vendor's partner team

Oliver Tuszik tells CRN that his spell running Computacenter's Germany business was a key factor in his getting the international role

Cisco's global partner boss Oliver Tuszik says his experience working at Computacenter was a key factor in his appointment to the networking giant's top channel job.

Tuszik (pictured) took on the role at the end of September, having previously spent five years running the vendor's German operation.

Prior to this he headed up Computacenter's Germany business - the largest of the IT provider's regions at the time.

Tuszik told CRN that he has already started to reshape Cisco's channel team based on his experience running a channel business.

"Being a partner, you always know that it is not just about the future but how you make your weekly and monthly numbers," he explained.

"It is about performing and transforming together, so I am changing my team right now.

"I am having part of the team focused only on the daily performance, supporting our partners to secure the profits that will enable us to invest in the future.

"Then a separate team has a target only on the future programmes and on how we can serve our partners to enable them to gain new market share."

Tuszik claimed that while Cisco has long been a channel-focused vendor, it has, at times, not been the best at articulating its strategy to the channel.

"Cisco has always been 100 per cent partner focused, but the way we communicate and orchestrate it perhaps wasn't as good in the past, but is becoming now much better," he said.

"Over the last year we have been even more outspoken there and clearer in certain areas. Don't forget Cisco has gone through a massive transformation, driven by Chuck, and it is about being more flexible and agile.

"We have changed the way we build our products and the way we incentivise our people [to help the channel] and this will continue."

From a personal perspective, Tuszik said that meeting partners from different parts of the globe has been the main positive of the new role.

"It is great fun because you execute faster and you have the direct links [into other parts of Cisco] so you see all the dynamics," he said.

"And the other thing is the complete opposite. It's great to see what is happening in Brazil, then Korea… you get down to all these different countries and you can see how much creativity and intelligence is in the partner community.

"If I take the learnings that we have in New Zealand, for example, and help partners in the world utilise it, we will become much more productive and profitable. The most fun for me has come from acting global and executing on this. It's the best experience for me."

Brexit

Tuszik stressed that Cisco has put plans in place in the event that Brexit causes disruption, revealing that it has protocols to boost stock levels if needed.

"We have plans [to increase stock], especially around SLAs that we are jointly keeping for customers with partners," he said.

"It depends on the scenario and I'm hoping that the EU and UK find a meaningful solution to think about the people and businesses.

"Our commitment to the UK has not changed. It is the same as before. The UK is one of biggest, strongest, fastest-moving and mature markets. Being European, I believe that things won't radically change.

"We see some are building up alternatives, especially on the logistics sides, which might cause us some challenges, but we are prepared. The most important thing is getting clarification on how it looks, but the message is clear. We will not let UK partners down."