Cisco Systems: Managing the Go-to-Market Evolution

1) How have Cisco’s channels evolved in the last 10-15 years? Why have they evolved that way?

Ans#
In the last five years, there has been a marked shift in Cisco’s channel strategy.
Rather than being purely focused on the volume of business that a channel does with the vendor, it is now paying great attention to the value of the business that the channel does. The focus is therefore no longer pure ly on point product sales but on bringing together multiple technologies and focusing on solutions aimed at solving customers’ business problems.

This value-based strategy is equally beneficial to the customers who then receive more technology and business value from partners, with the partners themselves able to achieve a higher level of profitability.

the organisation only had one sales business model which negotiated deals with customers with the assistance of partners who fulfilled these deals. However, this single business model restricted access to the lower segments of the pyramid. It also signalled a need to establish a sales relationship with all customers.

2) What does the future look like?
Ans#
The challenge was how to communicate thoroughly and effectively to the market when Cisco had developed over 4,800 products. It is clearly not easy for a channel, a customer or even the sales force itself to access all the latest information on, for example, the organisation’s activities and future prospects.

Cisco is increasingly moving away from point product launches and sales, towards a greater focus on solutions. Cisco recently started a marketing advisory board in the UK. This brings together a number of their key partners on a quarterly basis to discuss future marketing strategies which everyone involved found this to be a helpful forum for exchanging ideas and