LAS VEGAS, Nov. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Cisco Partner Summit -- Today, at Cisco Partner Summit, Cisco announced a renewed commitment to Small Business by offering customers and partners a simple, secure and flexible portfolio, dedicated Cisco support, a multi-year awareness campaign and increased partner investments to capitalize on the small business opportunity.

Today, small business is big business! It represents millions of individual companies representing two-thirds of the global GDP.  Now more than ever, small businesses are facing a pace of change unlike ever before. Small businesses must address an increasingly savvy customer base who expect digital experiences, amazing customer service and simple user interfaces.  With the increased utilization of cloud and web-based applications, a strong and secure network is the essential life blood of any small business.

Collected under the Cisco Designed for Business brand, the newly launched portfolio delivers the right products at the right price for small businesses to thrive. To accelerate growth, Cisco is doubling partner investments for this market and creating an easy and frictionless experience for both partners and smaller customers with faster response times and immediate access to expertise….all things asked for by small businesses.

"The pace of change and transformation is phenomenal. Businesses of all sizes are struggling to stay relevant, compete for customers, and manage efficiencies," said Marc Monday, Global Head of Small Business at Cisco. "Cisco's goal is to give small businesses access to the same best in class technology capabilities as our enterprise customers, but also balancing with simplicity and usability so the customer can focus on what matters most, growing their business." 

While small businesses are savvy, they are also struggling with complexity. Cisco is now responding and supporting small businesses faster with the new Virtual Demand Center (VDC). VDC generates and satisfies the demand generated by Cisco marketing activities with a low or no-touch sales motion. For partners, the VDC provides actionable opportunities that are ready to engage and, for customers it delivers faster response times and immediate access to expertise.

Cisco is also getting behind partners who understand the small business market by significantly increasing its partner investments to scale and improve partner profitability. By initiating new programs, incenting partners on growth, streamlining the deal approval process as well as enabling partners to seek out new small business customers, there has never been a better time for partners to double down on small.  

New offerings and key changes to the partner programs include:

• New 'Perform Plus' incentive: A new global performance incentive that rewards partners who focus on Mid-size and Small business customers, with a quarterly cash rebate. Cisco is also increasing the investment in partners who demonstrate targeted growth behaviors, but may not be able to capitalize on other incentives. This incentive launches in Cisco Q3 FY20.
• 'CMSP Express' Program : A redesigned Cloud and Managed Service Program to address Managed Services Providers (MSPs) selling to Small Business customers.
• X-Sell available globally: A sales community created via co-investment with partners that includes Cisco-led training and joint selling to scale to the Small business opportunity.
• Streamlined Deal Registration: Significantly accelerated approval time for deals under certain sizes allowing partners to act quickly in the fast-paced market.

Lastly, Cisco has a curated portfolio of products – including some new product developments - specifically designed for small business. Cisco Designed for Business will offer solutions that enable small businesses to connect, compute & collaborate, securely.  New additions to the portfolio include Cisco Business Wireless Access Points, a new Meraki Go full stack and the new Catalyst 1K switch, an affordable entry point to the world-class Catalyst range of switches for small business.

Partner and Customer Quotes:

"CDW's dedicated Small Business team has seen great value in providing Small Business customers with the dedicated resources and solutions that meet their specific needs. Today we are thrilled to see Cisco making a similar investment in this space. Cisco's engagement with our Small Business team has improved our customer experience and yielded strong results, and we are excited to move our partnership forward with an even sharper focus on the market."
-  Norm Lillis, vice president, Small Business, CDW

"Choosing Cisco was imperative because of our growth inspirations. To grow like we envisioned, we needed a solid foundation. Cisco has enabled us to become a reliable service provider, keep pace with our growth and remain secure. Because of the breadth of product offerings Cisco has we know any product will work correctly and play well with all other systems we have."
-  Wouter Hindriks, IT Network Manager, Missing Piece.

Additional Resources:

• Marc Monday Executive Blog: Going BIG with Small. Cisco and Small Business: 3 Things Partners Should Know
• Cisco Small Business IT Solutions

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