Cisco Sets Services Standards

At its 2006 Partner Summit in San Diego last week, the networking vendor unveiled its life-cycle services initiative, which lays out best practices—and minimum standards—of services required to sell and deploy a solution.

Under Cisco’s new partner program, certifications for its Express, Advanced and Master levels will be based on both technological competence and an assessment of services offered, said Karl Meulema, vice president of services and channels at Cisco.

The San Jose, Calif-based vendor has mapped out a general list of the services that need to be provided in the process of delivering a technology solution and will share that with partners, added Liz Lawson, senior director of Cisco services channels. E-learning training modules on the life-cycle services initiative are available now, Lawson said.

Partners seeking the Express designation are assessed automatically with registration. The Advanced designation requires documentation of services provided, while the Master level requires an on-site assessment.

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Some smaller partners said the additional services criteria will make harder to do business with Cisco.

“It’s a tough program to begin with, but that is where the value comes from,” said Brad Butler, CTO of Acropolis Technology Group, a Wood River, Ill.-based solution provider and Cisco Premier partner. “This will make the relationship tougher to manage,” he added.

Cisco also is rolling out a Partner Lifecycle Services E-Consulting Tool, with which partners can assess their own services metrics and business processes and prepare a gap analysis of what they are not yet providing. The tool also provides recommendations on improving services metrics, Lawson said.

In addition, Cisco plans later this year to unveil an engagement planning tool on its partner Web site that will chart specific projects, map out which services should be provided and point out new opportunities.