Cisco To Unveil SMB Solution Program For Partners

To be launched at the Cisco Partner Summit here, the networking hardware vendor's Growing with Technology Solutions program provides a series of blueprints for SMB routing and switching, security, IP telephony and mobility solutions, said Peter Alexander, vice president of marketing for Cisco's commercial business.

The program also includes training for partners, design tools and design guides as well as marketing collateral to which Cisco partners can add their branding, Alexander said.

Cisco's channel partners are key in the vendor's efforts to bring new technologies to the SMB market, Alexander said. The solution blueprints are all designed to be scalable to grow with a business, he added.

"If a company chooses our LAN switching solution today, it has a built-in migration path to add IP telephony later," he offered as an example. The solutions also are compatible with Cisco's Architecture for Voice Video and Integrated Data, or AVVID.

John Cosgrove, vice president of marketing for Expanets, an Englewood, Colo.-based Cisco Gold partner, said he's glad to see Cisco focus on the SMB market. "The SMB market is our primary market," Cosgrove said. Creating a series of solutions targeted at the market is "something we've been encouraging them to do for a while," he said.

SMB customers want clearly defined solutions that will allow them to grow without having to replace everything, Cosgrove said. These Cisco solutions provide that path, he added.