CRN Interview: Edison Peres, Cisco Systems

Earlier this month, Edison Peres, a former channel vice president at Avaya, joined Cisco Systems as vice president of emerging technologies for the worldwide channels group. In his new role, Peres will focus on building an ecosystem of partners to effectively sell and implement new technologies available from Cisco. His first efforts will be in IP telephony, storage and wireless. Peres spoke with Infrastructure Editor Larry Hooper about his new role and the challenges of bring emerging technologies to market.

CRN: What do you see as your function in this new position and what do you hope to accomplish?

Peres: I'm going to be focusing on a few different emerging technologies opportunities for Cisco: IP telephony, wireless and storage, to name a few. The objective is simple: Work with our worldwide channel partners, creating an ecosystem. I love that term because it really does describe working on an approach with our business partners and ISVs to create a new opportunity in the marketplace for them and for Cisco. The vision is to create the next billion-dollar opportunity for Cisco and our business partners. [The term "business partners" I use generically to [describe our channel partners and ISVs and those that add value along the way.

CRN: So the goal is to create an ecosystem of channel partners and ISVs to sell emerging technologies. What would that look like?

Peres: Think about it this way. If you think about these new technology areas there are still value propositions that need to be put in place, both by Cisco as well as by our channel partners to capitalize on those. So the objective here is to develop some strategies that allow for focus in those areas and to develop programs that allow us to exploit those opportunities in those marketplaces. If you think about the traditional marketplaces around switches and routers but now bounce into the voice world or the storage world, what we need to put in place to ensure success for us and our channel partners is different. Part of what we're going to be working on is identifying those opportunities and then exploiting them, through strategies, offers and programs.

CRN: What kinds of programs can we expect?

Peres: It's too early to tell, having been here 10 days or less. I'm actually looking at specifically what Cisco has as far as an offering in these different technology areas, and I'm talking to a number of our channel partners to see what they see as the limiting factors, as well as the issues in being successful in those markets. From there, we'll come up with what we believe are the right ways to focus on those areas.

CRN: Some channel partners have told me they like the specializations, but the investment in staff and training is making them less competitive against non-specialized partners.

Peres: We'll definitely look at that. I have not heard from anybody that the concept of specialization is not a good one; that in the long term, specialization develops value as well as sustainability for business partners. So, theoretically everybody is happy with the concept. I think that there are some comments coming back that in certain technology areas there are some issues. I don't know what those issues are yet. I definitely will be looking at those and making recommendations here if there needs to be some modifications or changes.

CRN: Some of these technologies, IP telephony for example, are turning out to be more than some solution providers can handle. Is the current training in place enough, or will some of these technologies require a different class of solution provider?

Peres: We'll probably take a three-pronged approach to that. I think there is a certain segment of your traditional data reseller or channel partner that has the capability to get into that new market. It does require a different learning, a different technology base and a different application-selling approach. I think that there's going to be an opportunity for Cisco to appeal to the traditional voice reseller and offer them a value proposition to not only sell the Cisco voice products but also get into opportunities they may not have been involved in before--maybe traditional data, for example.

Then I think the ISVs, those that add value with new applications, are another area. So I see that there will be a certain segment of the data resellers that will not be able to make the conversion and be successful. They don't want to or they don't have the capacity to or they're just comfortable in the traditional space they have been in. My view is that the creation of the channel for IP, for example, will be a combination of those three: some traditional data, some traditional voice-only [resellers that make the conversion and ISVs taking advantage of the new application opportunities.

CRN: What about in storage? Is it different?

Peres: I really can't say right now, because if we look at storage, Cisco is going to be coming up with new products in storage, and if we look at those new products, it will require different capabilities. So when we make those announcements, we'll have more information. Today it's a relatively small market for Cisco. I think some of the new products that we envision introducing in the future will give us an opportunity to compete more aggressively.

CRN: What products will you be introducing?

Peres: I can't say right now.

CRN: In wireless, there seem to be two camps out there. Some solution providers say the technology is very simple and others say there are a lot of solution providers out there who are slapping up wireless LANs and not getting it right.

Peres: That's all the [more reason for specialization. When you get people who are not properly specialized and don't have the proper capability, they're going to mess up. One of the objectives that we have is the capability of our business partners in these different segments is on the top of the list. Ultimately if you don't have a channel that has the proper capability to be able to support these products and manage the customer satisfaction, then over time they won't be successful and we won't be as well. So, part of the goal here is to develop a channel and the foundation through which we try to do that is the specialization process.

Looking underneath the specialization in each one of these technology areas to see if it's sufficient is something I'll also be doing.

CRN: Cisco and other vendors are pushing the concept of a converged network running data, voice and video. But you're also pushing specializing in technologies that are only part of a network. How will that play out in the market?

Peres: I think you will find that there will be solution providers with multiple specializations. They're going to find that these specializations will be complementary to each other, and therefore that the value of these specializations will allow for an end-to-end solution. Solution providers will either focus on just one specialization, because that's going to allow them to accomplish their business objectives. Or they're going to have multiple specializations that are complementary in nature that will allow them to manage the end-to-end solution to that end-user customer. It all depends on how much of the value chain they want to take on.

CRN: Your initial focus will be on IP telephony, wireless and storage. What's the next likely technology that you'll focus on?

Peres: I think security and VPN will probably be the next area.

CRN: Can you explain what types of programs you'll be working on?

Peres: One program is taking a look at the specialization underpinnings and making sure they're adequate. I'm going to focus on three different areas of priorities. One area is coverage. In these technologies, do we have the proper coverage? Do we have too much? Do we have too little? Do we have the right partners?

The second area is capability. Are the partners that are choosing to play with us in those areas capable of offering the proper value proposition to the customer and dealing with the customer satisfaction issues?

The third area is productivity/profitability. Does the value proposition that Cisco is offering to the channel partner offer them the opportunity to make money and be healthy? It's very important to us to have a healthy channel that is sustainable over time.