Cisco to Partners: We’re All Ears
During a Partner Operations Advisory Board (POAB) meeting last week in New Orleans, the folks at Cisco Systems spent considerable time listening to (rather than talking to) channel partners. And when it came time to discuss how Cisco communicates with partners, the networking giant heard two clear messages:
1. Email isn’t the only way to communicate. Let partners choose their preferred communication pipeline (email, newsletters, blogs, Twitter, RSS, etc.) and then communicate with partners only through their preferred pipeline(s).
2. Messages to partners should be clearly written for partners — not end customers. And be blunt: State right up front exactly who the message targets, and why it’s of importance.
The VAR Guy lifted and paraphrased those observations (mostly) from a blog post written by Lang Tibbils, who leads strategic communications for Cisco Worldwide Channels. Tibbils apparently skipped the French Quarter and attended the POAB meeting last week.
Sure, the two tips above can apply to any IT vendor working with channel partners. But the fact that Cisco continues to beat itself up (at least a little…) in public is reassuring.
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As a fellow fan of classic comdies I know the VARGuy will have heard of movie called Cannonball Run .
So with limited time in New Orleans (less than 24 hours) I had to prioritize, with my top priority being a trip over to Café Du Mode for their famous beignets. Upon returning to my hotel I discovered that my hotel was serving as host to the Gumball 3000, a coast to coast race on public streets just like in the movie Cannonball run. And when I passed through the hotel lobby at 4AM to catch my 5:30AM flight who should I run into calling it a night? Yep the VARGuy’s barber and party planner Dennis Rodman.
Lang: You hooked The VAR Guy with your Cannonball Run mention. Then you lost The VAR Guy with your Dennis Rodman mention. It’s the first time The VAR Guy has turned off his own blog and walked away … at least for a few minutes.
Cisco needs to be “all ears” because they are finally feeling competition as us Network Engineers have choices now that are real competitors to Cisco and doing an excellent job might i say myself. I am converting to an all Juniper network and I will publicly say that it’s absolutely refreshing and quite amazing what I’ve been missing……The support is stunning, as is the hardware, JUNOS, and performance……so are the prices 😉
Shane: The VAR Guy welcomes healthy dialog. But he just wants to double-check: Are you an IT manager? VAR? Small biz? Large Business? Juniper Shareholder?
Our resident blogger isn’t asking for your street address or social security #. But The VAR Guy does want to help readers to better understand your own industry connections and give context to your comment.