Cisco360: Here’s what APAC partners think about the new program

During the Cisco Partner Summit in San Diego, CRN Asia caught up with several Cisco partners from the region to get their views on the new program.

With the new Cisco360 partner program now in its final weeks before it goes live in 2026, the vendor is now focused on refining and ensuring the program is well understood by its global partner ecosystem. At the recent Cisco Partner Summit in San Diego, the focus was all about getting partners ready to go live with the new program.

One of the strongest components in the planning and delivery of the program is the continuous feedback Cisco has been getting from partners. Even now, partners are still sharing their views on areas which they feel could be refined more and also providing suggestions on what else they would like to see.

In Asia Pacific, Cisco has been on a continuous education and implementation journey with partners on the new program. The channel ecosystem team has been going around the region, speaking to partners, getting their feedback and also breaking down the various components on the program so that everyone is able to make the most out of it and remain profitable once it goes live.

During the Cisco Partner Summit in San Diego, CRN Asia caught up with several Cisco partners from the region to get their views on the new program. While the feedback has generally been positive, there were still some partners who feel they need a bit more time to fully grasp the new program and how it can really be beneficial for them.

The following is the feedback from the partners that CRN Asia spoke to at the summit.

Westcon-Comstor

“Cisco360 is great. I'm a huge supporter of it since it was launched. I think there was initially, when it was launched, there were some partners that were nervous. Although I think there's much more momentum now, a year later, because it was announced at Cisco Partners Summit a year ago. And now, we are basically one quarter away from launch,” Patrick Aronson, CMO and Head of APAC said.

“I think the partners have made a much better understanding of the program and what it means. But I've been a big supporter from the beginning because I saw it really fitting into our wheelhouse as a specialty and value-added distributor,” Aronson added.

Aronson also mentioned that as Cisco360 rewards specialization, it rewards strong technical competency and capability. This means the program rewards partners who really invest in Cisco.

“So, we've made those specialization investments for years. And so, for us, we feel like this program was right up in our wheelhouse. It aligns with how we see the world. We think it's a great opportunity for us and for all our partners. So, we've really been preparing our partners to get ready for Cisco 360 by showing them how they can begin to take advantage of the incentives that come with it. And how to build those specialization skills,” he said.

Logicalis Asia Pacific

For Chong Win Lee, CEO of Logicalis Asia Pacific, the commitment from both sides is very strong. While it's not always a smooth relationship, Chong Win believes that it’s the kind of relationship where both parties (Cisco and Logicalis AP) come together and try to work things out.

“If you look at where the relationship is right now, I will say it's never been stronger. From a few perspectives, first of all, in terms of the global commitment that we have to Cisco, Cisco is a key partner for Logicalis pretty much globally. As an SI we work with many partners, but in every of our entities, Cisco is probably either the number one or the number two partner for us. And in terms of our global certifications, it shows you a very impressive list of global certifications that we have, but not just in terms of engineers that are certified. We have a very comprehensive list of Cisco-powered services,” he said.

“This is very aligned with Cisco's strategy around looking at strategic SIs to basically enhance the products that Cisco has with additional value in the areas of managed services and going to market with managed services. It's a very comprehensive audit test that actually we need to go through for various solutions. We've got four or five Cisco-powered services that we have brought to the market already,” Chong Wing explained.

On the Cisco360 program, Chong Win believes for Logicalis as well as other partners, the goal is to see the program translate into positive outcomes for partners, customers and for Cisco as well, in terms of capabilities, in terms of profitability, and in terms of durable growth over time.

NetOne Systems

As one of the first Cisco partners in Japan, NetOne Systems has been a loyal partner and supporter of Cisco’s products in the country over the years. According to Takuya Tanaka, President & CEO of NetOne Partner and Executive Director of NetOne Systems, the new Cisco360 program promises success but is still a bit confusing for them, especially since he feels they would need to change their service and business model.

He added that in the past, Cisco's partner program is based on booking as in how much partners booked the previous year, the gross value and how many tickets they could observe from the customer.

“Actually, what we learned was that Cisco's overall concept was okay, but what's the details? Because that translates into the rebate amount. Then, based on that, over the last six months, we worked very hard to see that these are a kind of indicative value index. And based on that, we focus on improving the number which area NetOne Systems could contribute to that. So, this kind of communication should be done before. However, because our cycle was slightly different, there was a bit of a timing gap,” said Tanaka.

“We are completely aligned with Cisco’s strategy, because we already have the capability, and the full stack. I hope they continue to support the great work with us. If you look at the Japan market, many of the businesses coming from mid-market and below. So also, we are now trying to avoid concentrating into Tokyo. So, we are doing both high touch, other top accounts and those working with NetOne Systems, as well as on a distribution function on how to enable those other partners in rural areas. So that's what we are currently working on,” added Tanaka.

“They are very good at adapting to Cisco's new program. The challenge for NetOne Systems is how to change the service transformation and we at Cisco are working together with them to solve this,” said Yoshiyuki Hamada, President & Executive Officer Cisco Systems G.K.

PT. MasterSystem Infotama

Having been a Cisco partner since 2004, PT. MasterSystem is now a Cisco Gold partner in Indonesia. Looking at Cisco 360, Lintar Wardana, Director of MasterSystem, said as a system integrator, they are now pursuing all architectures to become a premier partner.

“We are not a distributor but a system integrator and we are selling Cisco solutions as well. Besides that, we are also building our intellectual property on top of Cisco solutions in several architectures,” said Wardana.

For Wardana, Cisco 360 is helping them increase their capabilities by achieving certifications and go to market best practices. He believes Cisco 360 is aligned with what they have invested in and initiated.

“For example, currently we are building our customer success practice and our customer success organizations. And we are encouraging our engineers to get black belt certification, for example. We are revisiting our managed service business. We are building our new NOC, new SOC,” he said.

“Now with this Cisco 360, we got more rewards and got recognized. So, for me, it is aligned with our initiative. That's what we see. And also, I think with this Cisco 360, Cisco is trying to ensure that Cisco customers can get the best technology and services from Cisco partner. Within the several architectures in the program, we got preferred partners in two architectures - security and network architectures. And we are trying to pursue cloud and AI, as well as services and Splunk in the near future,” he added.

As the Cisco 360 has four pillars - foundation, capabilities, performance, as well as engagement and because it is aligned, Wardana believes there is no difficulty for them.

“Basically, it's already aligned that we have invested,” he said.

Inflow Technologies

Inflow Technologies is a value-added distributor based in India. For Cisco, Inflow has a dedicated center of excellence in Bangalore, something which no other distributor has in the country. This has enabled the distributor to have a very strong technical team across the architectures in Cisco.

“Since we're talking about Cisco360, we have a team dedicated to the program. We have a two-man SE team plus 12 local SEs who are helping the partners scale up on Cisco360. We have a very strong post-sale team, which again is a differentiator, and what we call that as a techfluential edge, which is what Inflow brings to the table for Cisco. It's worked really well that over the last 10 years, we have grown faster than Cisco distribution,” said Santosh Sankunny, Senior VP, Cisco BU, Inflow Technologies.

“So, we definitely don't categorize ourselves as a broad liner, value-added distributor, but size-wise, we're number two. It’s not that we're a niche, small distributor. We're a large distributor size-wise, but it's built mostly around the values that we bring to the table, especially around technology,” added Sankunny.

According to Sankunny, Inflow has about 33% to 34% of Cisco's tier 2 business wallet share, with Cisco also being the largest vendor for them, covering about 30% of Inflow’s business.

“Cisco360 will be a great level up. You will see a lot of opportunities coming in from the tier 2 landscape. I think partners will really earn the rebates which Cisco is trying to drive. It's very critical for the partners' profit already. Of course, initially, there could be some amount of turmoil from your quarter, a little here and there. But once it's settled down and partners get a hang of it, I think it's going to be a game-changer for them,” he said.

At the same time. Sankunny is also amazed that Cisco did not just launch the program and said this was it. Instead, they decided to drive up the program by having discussions with partners to co-design it by incorporating feedback and making the necessary changes.

“That’s a great thing. To the best of my knowledge, no other vendor has done it. So, I think Cisco360 is definitely going to be a game-changer for Cisco,” said Sankunny.

Sankunny was also part of the members from a panel from India that was nominated to provide feedback on the program based on conversations with partners in the country. He also believes that if Cisco can showcase the profitability from the new program, it will really start to get partners moving.

“That's going to be the key. As there is a profitability tool being launched as well, the intention is to do all the specializations first, and then after that, we launch the profitability tool. Because it doesn't make sense if you don't have a specialization. But I think that will make a difference when partners see that it's going to be more profitable. I think the number of partners who are going to get on board, I think that pace will start picking up. Right now, they're all waiting to say, What's in it for me? Eventually, that's what they want. They're fundamentally agreeing, it's a good program but they want to see the profitability,” explained Sankunny.