Service Allies

GET A LIFE-CYCLE
Karl Meulema's business charter is to ensure that partners continue to become more capable and profitable. His job is twofold: to encourage partners to attach more of Cisco's maintenance services to their solutions and to mentor those interested in advancing their skills.

Last August, for example, Cisco introduced a program to reward about 250 of its top tier-two partners for selling more maintenance services. Also last year, the company began working with select partners on managed services, primarily those related to VoIP solutions.

Michael Fong, CEO of Calence, a Cisco solution provider in Tempe, Ariz., said he is encouraged by the progress being made by the Cisco services organization but is keeping a close eye out for areas of potential conflict. "The thing they need to be cautious about is strategic partners that have spent huge sums of money to build out capabilities that are absolutely critical to our business models," he said.

One of Meulema's favorite topics is life-cycle services, which provide blueprints for end-to-end project management in advanced technologies such as IP telephony, storage area networks or wireless infrastructure. These services, plus its Smartnet offerings, are at the core of a global services alliance forged between Cisco and Dimension Data last year, said John Freres, vice president of sales and director of the Cisco Services Alliance at Dimension Data North America, Schaumburg, Ill. "They're choosing the partner as an extension to Cisco. … This give us an opportunity for us to speak the same language to a particular account," he said.

"Our growth is a natural result of the company growing and us working within our charter," Meulema said. "No one will start cheering if we grow faster [alone]. That is in no one's best interest."