Cisco 360 represents a complete overhaul of the 30-year-old Partner Program and a significant shift in how Cisco Partners earn today. Here’s what partners need to know.

Unveiled during the Cisco Partner Summit 2024, the all-new Cisco 360 Partner Program is a total refresh of the tech giant’s nearly 30-year-old program. Unlike programs of the past three decades, Cisco 360 was designed to attract more MSPs and MSSPs by emphasizing the value partners deliver rather than the large deals they capture. It was also created to greatly simplify Cisco’s complex program structure which included several different incentive and rebate programs, such as VIP and Perform Plus.

The goals of the new program are for Cisco to generate double-digit growth in the markets it serves while increasing the profitability of partners, through whom Cisco does 90% of its business. The company is now operating in a different area than its heritage business, and partners need to come on board, the company said. Cisco has about 4,000 transaction partners today, but the tech giant also wants to open the door to new partners who may not have done any — or very little — business with Cisco, including MSSP. But because there are so many moving parts and the program represents a significant departure from many Cisco partners’ current revenues, the Cisco 360 Partner Program won’t fully transition until February 2026. The company said the rollout will be progressive, with new elements. introduced and piloted to keep partners and distributors informed and supported.

Rodney ClarkCisco’s senior vice president of Partnerships and Small and Medium Business, spoke with CRN exclusively ahead of the rollout and shared the details and the “why now.” Here are five things Cisco Partners need to know about the Cisco 360 Partner Program.

New incentives

The Cisco 360 program will remove separate partner programs and incentives such as VIP, Perform Plus, and the Cisco Services Partner Program, or CSPP. These will be grouped into a single structure called the Cisco Partner Incentive (CPI), which will reflect the overall value index that will measure partners in four areas: foundation, capabilities, performance and engagement, Clark said.

Cisco 360 will also include the Splunk Partnerverse program, which will be merged into the new program over the next 15 months, Clark said. The integration will also take into account investments made by Splunk partners, as well as Cisco partners who have already started to launch into the Splunk portfolio.

What this means for the Cisco Gold designation

Clark confirmed that the differentiating and sought-after Gold designation, in place for 30 years, will disappear in 2026. In its place will be two designations: Cisco Partner and Cisco Preferred Partner.

“What we make sure to do is protect the investments of all our partners. So if you’re a Gold Partner today, you can continue to leverage the investments you’ve made, and we protect that investment all together. until our program in 2026. The reason we are allowing this much time is so that we can be open and transparent with our partners regarding the requirements of the new value index and, ultimately, what that means in this new Cisco 360 Partner Program,” Clark told CRN. “We will work with all of our partners to ensure that they play as high as possible in this value index, and we will recognize all of the investments that they have made.”

Cisco said current levels, roles and investments in lifecycle practices will be recognized until the program is fully implemented to ensure partner investments are protected.

A focus on AI and security

As partners move up the Value Index, incentives will allow them to dive deeper into networking, security and observability, Clark said. Moving away from a transaction-based partner program allows Cisco to work with more specialized security and networking partners, he added.

“That gives way to these boutique partners who, again, are maybe very niche but important to us from an ecosystem perspective. This also allows us to collaborate with partners who are not traditionally transaction partners, but IS partners (systems integrators), for example, and independent software vendors. The program designed simply through this index allows us to actually go further with those partners that are just networking focused or just security focused or unique collaboration focused and essentially brand them as a preferred observability partner, for example. example, and they can participate in the same way as a partner who is maybe only deep in networking, which has been the main driver of a lot of our ecosystem,” he said .

An investment of 80 million dollars

As part of the new partner program announcement, Cisco also revealed an $80 million investment that the company said would be dedicated to new partner initiatives aimed at building skills and providing the tools needed to be competitive in the market. The majority of this investment ($60 million to be exact) will go towards supporting qualified partners with benefits such as Cisco U. unlimited access subscriptions for skills development and certification. According to Cisco, an additional $20 million will fund Ladder Up, an investment for partners focused on AI, security, observability and networking through self-paced learning, hands-on labs and training credits continues.

“We’re really making an effort to make sure that … all investments are protected and we’re giving partners enough time and room to establish themselves in the new designations,” Clark said.

What this means for specializations

Cisco said it will continue to help its partners differentiate their market position by developing deep expertise in specific areas or across multiple portfolios through specializations. However, the tech giant will continue its strategy of moving away from traditional architecture specializations towards solutions-based specializations. Cisco said it would eventually move to next-generation specializations that would only be available to preferred partners.

Along with the new partner program, Cisco on Monday unveiled its first AI-focused specialization: the Cisco AI-Ready Infrastructure Solution Specialization. The company said the new specialization will position partners as experts in delivering AI-ready infrastructure, security and observability solutions and services to customers throughout their adoption journey of AI.