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So no, Umi won't have much immediate impact on channel partners, Cisco admitted. Cisco is selling Umi directly, through service providers and through Best Buy, which will also get the installation services business for the systems as needed.
"Initially, Cisco Umi Telepresence will not interoperate with Cisco Telepresence business solutions," McLeod's post read. "However, our vision is to transform life's experiences, connecting people to each other, their ideas and their world."
Be assured, said Cisco's McLeod: "This means it will be business as usual for Cisco channel partners."
But some solution providers echoed comments made by their peers to CRN earlier this week that there's not much to fuss about, especially since Cisco hasn't offered much beyond its "rising tide" implication to suggest how they might benefit. Could partners be useful in selling Umi to small-office or home-office businesses, for example? Does it have to be a consumer-only play?
"Huh?" asked the solution provider. "I look at that, what they said there, and it's attempting to explain what the immediate relevance is for channel partners. And there is none. None at all. I'm sure it's a lovely system, but this is not something I'm going to lose sleep over, especially if it doesn't talk to corporate Telepresence, and it's not something I can sell and service to my small guys."
NEXT: Analysts Offer Mixed View
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