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Cisco pilot seeks to determine UK impact of US-made channel schemes

Born in the USA, grumbled about globally

Cisco is running a pilot with Gold-accredited channel partner Logicalis to ascertain the impact that sales programmes designed in the US have had on the operation in Britain.

Vendors invariably construct schemes for channel players in their homeland and then distribute them globally without making any adjustments for local differences.

With this in mind, Cisco insiders tell us that work is underway to try to better understand channel's "key drivers" including EBIT (operating profit), utilisation of staff such as engineers that are affected by frameworks.

"Cisco is trying to get a handle on the pressures [channel partners] face," said our source.

Likewise, Cisco wants channel partners to understand the areas driving its business and where it wants resellers and integrators to place their bets.

"Past programmes, mostly devised in the US, didn't meet the requirements that [channel partners] had locally or commercially," said a source at a channel business.

Cisco, like many of its peers in enterprise tech, is gradually shifting from hardware-maker to a services-led outfit.

Channel firms are also leaning harder on services to make a living, particularly managed services, and appear to be on a collision course with Cisco which needs to be sorted out, said one partner.

The pilot started in Q1 and runs until the end of July.

Both Cisco and Logicalis refused to comment. ®

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