Owning the Experience

While traveling to Vegas for Partner Summit 2022, I had a few thoughts of what I thought I might hear in keynotes and breakout sessions based on conversations with senior leadership.  At that point I didn’t know one single line could so perfectly wrap up what I feel this year is all about.

“Together, we own our customer’s experience.”
Thimaya Subaiya, Cisco Chief Customer Experience Officer

Our theme in Americas Distribution, Fueling Partner Success, hasn’t changed. It hasn’t and won’t change because that’s why we are here. But in order to truly fuel partner success, we must be customer experience focused. Everything that was so flawlessly shared at Partner Summit pivots around this central message.

I know you have probably seen many excellent blogs, articles, social posts, and even reviewed what was shared by going to the partner launch experience, so I won’t reinvent the wheel there, but I’d like to highlight a few things that match up with our Americas Distribution pillars for fiscal year 2023.

Pillar: People and Culture

Chuck Robbins in his keynote address shared, “Simplify everything, offer choice, deliver amazing experiences.” In this hyper-speed, multi-device, hybrid world we live in, to give customers the best experience we need to continue investing in Managed Services, Cisco+, and other programs like Partner Lifecycle Services. By providing our partners with solutions and choices, we are helping to simplify not only their buying experience but the user experience too.

Pillar: Alignment

We know the future is hybrid. We have been working toward a hybrid working, living, and community experience for years before the pandemic required it of us. In the business world, we know our customers are rethinking how they work and the primary areas for this evolution are: IT, human resources, and facilities. Jeetu Patel, EVP and GM, Security and Applications shared with the audience, “98 percent of meetings in the future will have at least one participant who won’t be in the same physical space as everyone else.”  How our customers want to experience life has changed and we are here to make those changes a reality.

Pillar: Enhanced Distributor and Partner Experience

Jeff Sharritts, the new EVP, Chief Customer and Partner Officer, shared his focus on you and your partners. He wants us to have bold ambition, commitment, and responsiveness. That means we are meeting our customers where they are in their digital transformation by offering them more choice and flexibility, redefining what winning means through realizing when customers win, we all win, and improving our selling and partner experience by reducing complexity and working to make it easier to do business with Cisco.

2T Growth and Sales

I saved the best for last, and I don’t think anyone could’ve said it better than Fran Katsoudas, EVP and Chief People, Policy, and Purpose Officer. “As a business, our choice is not between pursuing profits or positively impacting communities. Purposeful partnership is good for the world and for business.” We want our partners to see increased growth and sales, but we also want them to see all the incredible things they are doing for the communities, people, and cultures around them.

I hope you enjoyed Partner Summit this year and look forward to seeing you next year, in person, in Miami on November 7-9, 2023. Our commitment to owning the customer experience, together, will not only strengthen our goal of Fueling Partner Success, but will also help you, our distributors, see a greater level of achievement as well.

See what was shared in the keynotes and breakout sessions here on the
Cisco Partner Launch Experience! 

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