Respondents to the 2007 VARBusiness Alternatives Study pulled a few punches when it came to describing Cisco's tough tactics when dealing with solution providers. The 281 respondents were allowed to submit comments anonymously regarding each technology segment.
About 10 percent of respondents said they worry about pushback from their primary vendor in the three areas where Cisco plays. The networking giant was picked as the most retaliatory vendor across the voice, data and wireless networking categories. Here's what partners had to say:
1 "Cisco is the 800-pound giant."
2 "Cisco does not like their partners selling competing products, but it is OK for them to have three 'partners' in the same account competing for the Cisco business."
3 "Cisco is already taking our leads/business and feeding it to other, higher-level partners."
4 "Cisco does not take kindly to partners venturing off the reservation."
5 "I have experienced Cisco sending in competition to our customers when finding out we are quoting 3Com, for instance."
6 "Once a Cisco account manager hears you're selling a competing product, he will not bring you in to any of his accounts again."
7 "They want all of your business."
8 "You never want to upset Cisco."
9 "Cisco has given some of our customers to other dealers without our consent."
10 "Cisco field reps can be nasty when competing."
|
Telco Shuffle: AT&T's Executive Reorganization Following its fourth-quarter loss, AT&T makes some major changes to the executive ranks. |
|
Telco Updates: Level 3 Wins DoD Contract; CenturyLink Hooks Up Jeans Maker CRN looks at recent headlines made by telecom carriers, including CenturyLink, China Unicom, Integra and more. |
|
10 Telecom Predictions for 2012 What will next year hold for telco mergers and the mobile device boom? CRN makes its 2012 predictions for the Telecom industry. |
 More
Slide Shows |
