Amid the presence of 300 of its top channel partners for the commercial market, Cisco reinforced its commitment to the Partner Led strategy in Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China.

The occasion was the Cisco Partner Led Network 2011 conference at Singapore. It is a partner strategy that can easily push the channel partners of Cisco to focus on the SMEs giving them ample opportunity to scale up. The program also offers a lot of empowerment and incentivization of the partners.

Cisco is investing US$75 million globally to accelerate the Partner Led model with US$15 million in the APJC region for new channel programs, pre-sales support, marketing, incentives and rewards to help its partners fuel sales to mid-market and SMB customers.

“We are very excited with the enhancements we are making to the Partner Led model in Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China, where the growth in the commercial segments is extraordinary. Cisco has always been a very partner-centric company with over 80 per cent of our business being done through the channels. This go-to-market model is what our customers have been asking for,” said Stanimira Koleva, managing director of Cisco’s Partner Business Group in Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China.

“Partner Led is an integral part of the ‘Next Cisco’”, said Andrew Sage, vice president,
Worldwide Partner Led, Cisco. “We are laser-focused on opportunities to grow business for our channel partners and ourselves, and we are making the investments needed to accelerate growth in the mid-market and SMB segments.”

Answering about if US$15 million is enough for the growing geography like APAC, Stanimira said that the company has already pumped in huge investment in the region in terms of resources development and this amount is on and above that to develop the though Partner Led programme.