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Cisco Global Channel Chief On Easier Enrollment, More Partner Resources And First-Ever DevNet Certification

Cisco Global Channel Chief Oliver Tuszik tells CRN at Cisco Live that Cisco has delivered on promises made at Cisco’s Partner Summit in November.

Eight months into his role as Cisco’s Global Channel Chief, Oliver Tuszik says Cisco is delivering to partners on all fronts. Easier enrollment, more channel resources and a first-ever DevNet certification are some of the latest partner perks Tuszik referenced in his interview with CRN at Cisco Live 2019.

Below is a glimpse of our interview with Tuszik. Watch more in CRN’s video.

What outcomes have you seen among partners over the last 8 months?

Tuszik: It’s amazing. I’ve been traveling around the world and we keep delivering what we said during Partner Summit. We changed already a lot on the programs. There’s more coming out. We will announce it again at Partner Summit next time. We are investing in the partners that drive the changes that transform. We call it “perform and transform” and a lot of things happening there. We also delivered on perform: We’ve made it easier for our partners to work with us. We’ve made the program easier. The enrollment easier and we added resources to help them in competitive situations.

You recently participated in an “MSP Feedback Campaign.” What are some of the main concerns of Cisco’s MSP community and how are you addressing them?

Tuszik: The most interesting thing is MSP is not really a clear definition anymore. Everyone is becoming a managed service provider and we are trying to understand how we can support them. There are different requests: Some want a different bundling of our offering, so it’s easier to deliver their offerings. On the other side, we are looking for partners that are driving new services as part of their managed service offerings. And, there’s a lot of discussion around pay-per-use: There are some partners who want to pay once a month and we need to come up with some flexible models.

Cisco announced its first-ever DevNet Certification. What does DevNet offer to partners and why should they prioritize a certification like this?

Tuszik: DevNet is my top number one, clearly. It’s about developing solutions on top of the Cisco programmable infrastructure. It’s an incredible chance for big partners and small partners. We have new partners who have never been interested in Cisco, but they recognize there’s an incredible opportunity to develop on top of Cisco’s API.