Cisco Channel Explained: Job Opportunities with Partners

Did you know…

…that Cisco does not operate a policy of direct sales to its end customers? Instead, the company sells its products through intermediary companies called channel partners. These channel partners are also companies -some big, some smaller – that become specialised in Cisco products and sell them to their customers.

Cisco works with a number of channel partners here in Europe, many of whom are experiencing the need to recruit networking specialists across the continent. In this interview with Franck Welter, European Director for the Partner and Sales Organisation here at Cisco,  Aine Doris of NetAcad advantage gets the inside story on what the channel is, why Cisco works with these partners, and what the job opportunities are like within the channel “ecosystem” for Cisco Networking Academy graduates.

 Franck Welter: My role within the European partner organisation is to design the strategies that will help our partners to sell our “architectures” to customers. Cisco has three architectures: data centre, collaboration and borderless network.

Franck Welter

NetAcad advantage: Who are Cisco’s customers?

FW: There are four customer “segments” or groups that we sell to. These are the enterprise customers – 1,000 employees and above. Then there is the commercial segment – small to medium enterprises with 1,000 employees and less.  Then there are the Service Providers – the France Telecom, Telefonica, BTs of the world. And then we address the consumer segment.

NA: So what is Cisco’s sales structure? How do Cisco’s products make it into the market place – how are they sold?

FW: At Cisco we have two sales forces: the direct sales force which is made of Account Managers whose job is to build strong relationships with our enterprise, commercial and Service Provider customers. We do not sell directly to consumers – consumers buy our products through retailers. So that is our direct sales force. Their job is really to create awareness of Cisco’s architectures and build a sense of “intimacy” with our customers. However Cisco does not sell directly to its customers. We sell our products through our Partners.

The second sales force is made of our Partners account managers who are dealing with our Partners.  Cisco’s Partners sell direct to our customers.  Our Partners’ job is to ensure that we have the correct coverage in terms of geography or territory and that they have the right resources to address our customers.

Cisco has the responsibility to educate its Partners on our architectures: to ensure that they understand our products – how to assemble and deploy them – and that they are effectively engaged with the Cisco direct sales force. I should stress again that Cisco does not sell directly to the customer – but we do created a direct relationship with the customer.

NA: So who are Cisco’s Partners?

FW: Well, we have different types of Partners. First there are the Service Providers. Note they are both our Partners AND our customers, because they buy our technology to build their IT infrastructure and provide services to their own customers. They also buy and re-sell our technology to enterprise customers to help them build their own technology infrastructures.

Another group of Cisco Partners are what we call the System Integrators. These Partners buy and re-sell our architectures combined with their own services. These are divided into Gold, Silver, Premier and Select Partners – depending on their capabilities. There are also Registered and Unregistered Partners.

The Gold Partners have the highest capabilities – our Partners are classified according to their levels of expertise within our architectures. 

NA: What kinds of opportunities are there for Cisco Networking Academy students who might be looking for a job within Cisco’s Partner organization?

FW:  The market values Cisco certification. In my previous role I worked alongside the Cisco Networking Academy team to promote certifications to Networking Academy students. What the Networking Academy is providing for students, in terms of expertise, capabilities and certification, is highly valuable to our Partners.  Our Partners and customers are looking for certified Cisco engineers. I think there are a lot of opportunities for certified graduates.

NA: What sorts of skills, qualities and profiles are our Partners looking for in potential employees?

FW: The more certified you are, the more employable you are. What we call “hard skills” are essential: technical skills and knowledge of Cisco’s architectures.  However they are also looking for other qualities. Our Partners want to employ people who are customer-orientated and customer-satisfaction driven. They are looking for students who are passionate about IT and who are willing to learn and evolve.  Soft skills are complementary to the hard skills that are the basic requisite.

NA:  How do we connect our students to job opportunities?

FW: We have created a series of Job Fairs or Talent Connection Events. Our Partners are looking for skills – so we invite students to come and meet our Partners at these events. Our Partners present their company and we connect groups of students to them: they can have interviews and in some instances students leave with a job offer.

NA:  We also have an online Partner Talent Portal – the link is here on this site.

FW: Yes, when we talk to our Partners we always encourage them to post their job offer online on this portal. We would also encourage all of your students to register on this site and publish their CVs.

NA: Ok, one last question. If you had to give one piece of advice to our students who are looking for a job in IT, what would it be?

FW:  I would really suggest that they highlight their ability to collaborate with colleagues, with Partners, with customers. When you are going for a job, demonstrate your ability to collaborate or stress your willingness to do so.  You should also be prepared to learn. The IT industry changes every day and is evolving all the time. You need to be willing and able to learn. Work on your ability to innovate also – customers are always looking for new and innovative solutions.  This is a great sector to work in – the only constant is change. Our sector and our company are always evolving.  We have the opportunity to change the way the world learns, live and plays.