‘At the end of the day, the grade for the Cisco 360 partner program will be: Was it additive to or did it diminish from the trust that we have with our partners? And if it’s anything less than additive, it will not be what we intended it to be,’ says Tim Coogan, Cisco’s senior vice president of Global Partner Sales.
Last year ahead of Cisco Partner Summit 2024, the San Jose, Calif.-based tech giant revealed that its iconic partner program—known for its ability to fund major industry transitions for Cisco partners—would be getting its biggest refresh in the history of the company. The new program, Cisco 360is slated to fully roll out in February 2026.
The massive overhaul to the industry-leading program has triggered concerns among some partners,but Coogan remains steadfast that Cisco 360 is less of a change for partners and more of a “modernization of an incredibly long and deep commitment to the partner community” that will magnify partner capabilities.
“This is not an opportunity to do less with [a partner]. It is an opportunity to reward their investment by doing more. I think that’s really something that’s fundamentally different about the way we have always approached our partner ecosystem,” Coogan said of Cisco 360.
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The path to value for partners within the new program is centered around their level of innovation and expertise, both of which will be rewarded, Coogan added.
“We, of course, recognize that any change presents challenges. There’s certainly new things to learn and new pieces of the program to understand, but fundamentally the message that we’re sending is that a partner’s ability to seek benefit is directly related to their investment in that capability and their ability to deliver it [for] the common good of our customers,” he said.
Coogan, a Cisco veteran of more than 25 years, took on the role of senior vice president overseeing the Global Partner Sales organization in August after the company announced that Rodney Clark, Cisco Systems’ global channel chief of less than two years, would be leaving the company. Since then, Coogan has been busy leveraging his extensive experience at Cisco and background in sales to craft his own go-to-market plans alongside the tech giant’s loyal channel partners.
“I understand that there’s trepidation, and it’s easy to say the right things, but I have lived with [partners] in this environment. I think that part of [Cisco and our partners’] superpowers [is] that we understand each other’s business [and are helping each other] within our common goal of delivering value, delivering outcomes. I think that my background, while not traditional in some ways, will be incredibly beneficial [to the] relationship we have,” he said.
Coogan “understands the partner world” and thanks to his extensive experience with Cisco and its partner ecosystem, Cisco Gold partner World Wide Technology feels good about the direction of Cisco 360 under his leadership, said Neil Anderson, vice president and CTO of cloud, infrastructure and AI solutions for Maryland Heights, Mo.-based WWT.
“With the combination of him and Oliver [Tuszik, former channel chief and current chief sales officer]I think it’s in a good place. For the most part, we’re looking at it as business as usual,” he said.
Cisco 360 Sparks Change
The Cisco 360 program will eliminate separate partner programs and incentives such as VIP, Perform Plus and the Cisco Services Partner Program, or CSPP. These will be folded into a single structure called Cisco Partner Incentive (CPI), which will mirror the overall value index that will measure partners across four areas: foundational, capabilities, performance and engagement. The sought-after Cisco Gold partner designation is also going away in the new program, and in its place will be Cisco Partner and Cisco Preferred Partner, in which partners will be able to earn these designations for each portfolio, such as security or networking.
Cisco 360 is unique in that it will continue to reward large partners that do a lot of business with the company, but it will also shine a light on “boutique partners” that may have a specialization in a particular architecture, Coogan said. These latter partners, he added, will reap the rewards and potential benefits of that expertise in a way that may not have existed in Cisco’s previous partner program.
“I think it really combines the ability for partners that are both large and small, specific and more general, to see [the] benefits of their investment, and I think that is really, really special,” he said.
The company gave partners a long runway by first announcing Cisco 360 last November—15 months to be exact—before its launch to give them time to understand the new requirements, Coogan said.
“We were very purposeful, very mindful of what we were asking this partner ecosystem to do when we announced the creation and the launch of the program almost exactly a year ago. I think that 15-month lead time was our realization that it’s a change, but I think it also speaks to our commitment to give partners the time that they need to embrace the things that we’re asking them to do, [to] understand how those benefits can play out into their own internal business [and] in the market,” he said.
New York-based solution provider giant Presidio has been one of the partners collaborating with the company on the crafting of Cisco 360, Presidio CEO Bob Cagnazzi said in an email to CRN.
“This hasn’t been a top-down rollout; it’s truly been co-developed with partners every step of the way. They’ve made meaningful adjustments to the program based directly on our input and on the feedback of the broader partner community,” he said.
In preparation for the rollout, Cisco Gold partner Presidio has “doubled down” on enablement, expanded its technical certifications, and has been working on strengthening its various Cisco competencies, Cagnazzi said.
“We view Cisco 360 as being built on two foundational pillars: the Partner Value Index (PVI) and the CPI. Both are central to how we’re preparing and positioning ourselves for success under this new model,” he said. “The PVI process has been a great opportunity for us to step back and take a holistic view of our capabilities across every Cisco architecture. It will help customers easily identify the strongest partners to meet their needs, based on demonstrated value and capability. … The new CPI is a welcome simplification. It gives us a clearer road map for aligning our strategies with Cisco’s key priorities.”
Cisco’s Coogan, for his part, wants partners to know that Cisco is still deeply committed to its channel roots.
“At the end of the day, the grade for the Cisco 360 partner program will be: Was it additive to or did it diminish from the trust that we have with our partners? And if it’s anything less than additive, it will not be what we intended it to be,” he said.