Partner Competencies, Credentials Valued as Key Success Metrics by Customers

At Cisco, we pride ourselves on our world-class partner ecosystem, and we go to great lengths to recognize how our partners provide value to customers and support digital transformation. I encourage you to read this new report from IDC:

Credentials, Proof of Competency Among Key Success Metrics for Customers

While each customer was looking to solve a unique business need, all three weighed partners’ credentials and proof of competency as key success metrics. Partners’ global reach, time to value for solutions, and their ability to be an objective advisor to assist in decision-making were all important factors for customers.

Other key success metrics included:

• Skills/capabilities validated by Cisco: Cisco specializations and certifications—like CCNA or CCIE—aren’t just important, they also provide customers with a sense of trust and competency in the partner’s staff.
• Streamlined supply chain/procurement for Cisco products: Specializations are important to customers, but so is the ability of their partner of choice to advocate for themselves and their customers to ensure quicker speed of delivery.
• IT staff augmentation/extension: For customers in smaller markets, where recruiting and retaining top IT talent is a challenge, having a trusted partner that understands their business and who can make recommendations based upon that knowledge is invaluable.
• Broad and deep industry and technical knowledge: Partners gain experience with a solution across many customers, giving them invaluable insights.

“Gold status and certifications are identifiable. Those partners know what they’re talking about, and it shows the partner’s commitment to Cisco. Choosing a Cisco partner is also about the intangibles of what that partner can do for me.”
– Cisco Customer

Holding Cisco Partners to High Standards

We hold our partners to high standards with our rigorous specializations, and customers consistently tell us that credentials are a critical consideration when choosing a partner. In fact, all three customers interviewed by IDC cited a partner’s certification and program status as one of the top reasons why they chose to work with that partner.

These customers also found that the partners’ close relationship with Cisco accelerated time to value throughout the solution lifecycle and streamlined supply chain and procurement of Cisco products. The partners in this report, by working so closely with both Cisco and the customer, demonstrated how we truly are greater together

I know our partner ecosystem is best in class, but don’t take my word for it. Read the report to hear all of the reasons these customers choose to work with Cisco partners.

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