Cisco claims new incentives will cater to smaller SMB-focused partners

Networking vendor commits to 50 per cent increase in incentives for SMBs

Cisco claims its increased investment in SMB-focused resellers will focus on its smaller partners.

The US networking vendor announced several new commitments and incentives for partners at its Partner Summit 2019 in Las Vegas, including that it is doubling its investment in SMB-focused resellers as it launches a new quarterly cash rebate for qualifying partners.

Most importantly, Cisco is introducing a new quarterly cash rebate as part of its new "Perform Plus" incentive.

Perform Plus will give SMB resellers quarterly rebates for growing share of wallet among their customers.

How the incentive works, and how much qualifying resellers can earn, have not been decided, claims Cisco, but more details will be released in Cisco's fiscal Q3.

Established SMB resellers such as Softcat, Bechtle and CDW are not the primary beneficiaries of the new scheme, claims Cisco's global channels director for strategy and business development, Arjun Lahiri.

"CDW and Softcat are very large Cisco partners, and they have very healthy businesses with Cisco both in the enterprise, midsize and small. They are going to benefit most from our traditional incentive programs like a VIP. That's typically driven their behaviour the most and they will continue to be driven by those larger programmes," he said.

Instead, the SMB incentives will cater to smaller resellers that don't qualify for initiatives such as Cisco's Value Incentive Programme (VIP).

"We've had a variety of programmes for SMB [in the past], but this is the first time Cisco has segmented our customers into a tier that we're calling small business customers," he said.

"We're doubling our investment for partners who have a deep focus in midsize and smaller customers."

Speaking on stage on day two of Cisco's Partner Summit 2019, global channel boss Oliver Tuszik said Cisco has committed to a 50 per cent increase in incentives for SMBs.

Cisco has also committed to a streamlined deal registration process for partners working it the SMB space. For smaller deals, Cisco claims it will now register a deal within six hours.

"We definitely want partners to know that we're not holding up deals and inspecting everything for the smaller deal sizes," said Lahiri.

"If it's a $10m deal, for example, that will go to a certain approval process. It was a $50,000 deal, it doesn't need to go through all those approval processes."

Cisco has also curated a new product portfolio specifically designed for smaller customers called Cisco Designed for Business. New additions to its SMB portfolio include Cisco Busines Wireless Access Points, a new Meraki Go full stack and the new Catalyst 1K switch.