CRN’s Gina Narcisi spoke about how Cisco’s new partner program, Cisco 360, will impact partners and what Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins had to tell her about the big changes – and big opportunities – for the channel at Cisco Partner Summit 2024.

Jennifer Follett: I’m Jennifer Follett with CRN TV and this is CRN In Depth, where we cover a big story happening now with the reporter who covered the news. Joining me is Gina Narcisi. Gina, you just got back from Cisco Partner Summit where Cisco launched a new partner program, Cisco 360. Tell us what this means for partners.

Gina Narcisi: Yeah, Jen, hi, absolutely. This is really big news for partners. This partner program is a major departure from how partners today are earning with Cisco and are being compensated by Cisco. So I think one of the biggest factors to keep in mind is this program was really designed to sort of simplify.

The feedback that Cisco had been getting and the new channel chief, Rodney Clark had been getting in his first year at the job was that it can sometimes be really complicated to partner with Cisco just because there are so many incentives, there are so many different programs. There were four different roles that partners could kind of put themselves in, and so this program kind of does away with a lot of it or brings it into one place. A couple of the major things are they’re getting rid of things like Perform Plus and things like VIP. These incentives, some of these programs have been around for a long time for partners.

It’s also eliminating the really sought after Gold designation, so no longer will you be a Cisco Gold partner. Instead, they’re going to have two different partner types. It’s going to be Cisco Partner and Cisco Preferred Partner. So, big changes for partners and it was on everyone’s mind at the show this week. It was certainly the headliner.

Follett: Yeah, big changes. Like you said, a lot of partners really identify with Cisco Gold as a standard that defines who they are as a business. And of course, the VIP incentives have been a major piece of how Cisco partners have been compensated for many, many years. So, what are partners saying about these changes and when are they going into effect?

Narcisi: Yes, so they’re actually not going into effect until February 2026. Cisco really wanted to give partners a lot of time to, I think, digest it, kind of adjust to the new program. Partners are telling me that they’re overall — I would say the sentiment was pretty positive. Partners, the ones I spoke to, a lot of them are further down this sort of MSP road and a lot of them are selling services, selling software, selling recurring revenue. So, for them, it’s not probably as heavy a lift.

The Gold designation is something that’s of concern to a lot of partners because as you said, a lot of partners have really put resources into becoming a Cisco Gold partner. There’s a lot that goes into it. It’s not just a title that was given out very easily. They put resources behind it. There are people that have been certified.

So, they’re really curious to see the Cisco Preferred status level, how it’s going to shake out, how they’re going to be able to maybe fall into this bucket. But it’s of concern because even end customers know what Cisco Gold means for partners. So, from a branding perspective, it is something that partners are a little bit concerned about, but wanting to see how the program shakes out. And like I said, it’s not going to be live until February 2026, so there’s a lot of time for partners to adjust.

Follett: You also had a chance while you were there to sit down with CEO Chuck Robbins. He’s been pushing the company for many years now — he’s about 10 years into his tenure as CEO and he’s been pushing towards software and pushing towards services. What did he have to tell you about the program and what it’s going to mean for the channel?

Narcisi: Yeah, it’s really interesting. He was saying — and he’s someone who was on the ground floor building that partner program back way back more than two decades ago — he’s talked to his teams internally over the years, and kind of wondered, is there anything we can change? Nothing good stands for 20 years, is what he told me, which was interesting to hear. But he said Rodney came in about 10 months ago at this point and he came in with some fresh eyes. Chuck feels like the changes he made are really, they’re thoughtful and they’re really kind of in line with how Cisco wants its partners to sell. He was talking about how there needs to be greater alignment between Cisco sellers in the field and channel partners.

He also mentioned that he thinks this will really create room for new kinds of Cisco partners to come in, maybe boutique networking and security sellers that haven’t necessarily transacted a lot with Cisco in the past. He thinks it could really give partners a chance to take another look at the security portfolio and as we know, security’s been a big push for Cisco the last few years. They really want to be synonymous with security, just like they are with networking today.

Follett: Right. That security piece tied in with observability and the big Splunk acquisition that they made. What was said at the show about Splunk as far as what partners need to know or what partners should be doing?

Narcisi: Of course. So, from a partner perspective, the Splunk partner program is actually going to stay separate until after February 2026. After that roll out of Cisco 360 is when the partner programs are going to merge, so there’s still time there to sort of figure that out a little bit.

We have Gary Steele, he was on the main stage. He spoke to press and analysts too — he’s their president of go to market. I think it’s good that he’s obviously still a really big part of Splunk, a really big part of Cisco. He’s part of the executive leadership team now and really helping to, I think drive that that sort of new sale that Cisco is interested in driving, which of course AI is a huge piece of this. So, really tying that whole portfolio together and really driving that sort of platform approach that I think Cisco is looking for its partners to work towards if they’re not already.

Follett: Yeah. So, it sounds like Cisco and its partners are going to have some work to do over the next year plus to get ready for that new program and we look forward to seeing your coverage of all those exciting advancements on crn.com.

Gina, thanks for joining me and thank you for joining CRN In Depth.