Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American-based multinational corporation that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Cisco has more than 70,714 employees and annual revenue of US$ 40.0 billion as of 2010. The stock was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average on June 8, 2009, and is also included in the S&P 500 Index, the Russell 1000 Index, NASDAQ 100 Index and the Russell 1000 Growth Stock Index. Cisco is one of the world's biggest technology corporations.
Cisco has announced a shake up in its distribution strategy in EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa) which means many of its disties will no longer deal with product procurement, effectively demoting their status.
After February 2002, Cisco's Western European wholesalers are organised into two tiers: seven Cisco Distribution Partners (CDPs), which have a direct purchasing relationship with the company; and 10 Cisco Authorised Distributors (CADs), which have a relationship with Cisco but procure kit from a CDP.
The seven CDPs are: Acal, Algol, Azlan, Comstor, Ingram Micro, PC Lan and Techdata/C2000 (so all UK disties have become CDPs).
The remaining 40 distributors in EMEA will continue with the current distribution contracts until Cisco implements its new strategy (CDPs and CADs) in those regions. Cisco has 28,000 resellers in EMEA.
In late November, Cisco confirmed three specialty distributors for Cisco TelePresence solutions: St. Charles, Ill.-based Visitec Marketing Associates, Doylestown, Pa.-based KBZ Communications and Fort Worth, Texas-based TMDistributing.
Each is delivering specialized programs and services, as well as specific A/V and TelePresence expertise to VAR partners. That's different, Brown explained, from how Tandberg products will move through Cisco's other distributors, including its major broadline partners like Ingram Micro and Tech Data.
According to Brown, all Tandberg products will be available on Cisco's global price list for ordering by any Cisco distributor ordering for a qualified Cisco partner. Qualified distributors will be able to stock some of the Tandberg products, as yet unconfirmed by Cisco, starting in Cisco's fiscal third quarter.
"At the end of the day, all boats will rise," Brown said. "But we will continue to preserve the specialist video distribution channel that has a whole different set of skills. We can continue to leverage both worlds, and have more partners get video specialized over time, as well as have distributors provide stocking capabilities next to specialist distributors. There's a lot of market share out there to be gained."
Worldwide, Cisco partners with about 170 distributors total. It added several and dropped several others in line with the Tandberg integration, although Cisco declined to provide additional details on all of the additions and drops.
Brown said Cisco had learned a lot from its discussions with specialty distributors and partners with deep backgrounds in A/V and video integration.
"They would start talking to us about the network, and the network, to me, means routers and switches and IP and all the things you and I know very well," he recalled. "But in their world, the network is MCUs and video endpoints and pipes and scheduling software. They have a very different lens with which they view it."
Cisco declined to provide specific sales projections on how much of Cisco's TelePresence Solutions Group business would come from Tandberg products, but a spokesman said that the company's "expectation is that it will be significant and be a major driver for growth for Cisco and the distributor and partner community."
Cisco Systems said it has appointed Paris Arey to the newly created position of vice president of worldwide channels distribution strategy.
Arey will be responsible for implementing a new approach to distribution at Cisco, including consolidation of distributors, logistics management, policy implementation and process automation and systems integration with key global distributors.
While the company will reduce its number of distributors worldwide, it has no plans to eliminate any of the three distributors it works with in the United States, Cisco said.
"Paris' successful seven-year Cisco tenure, his broad channel expertise, and especially his recent [European] channel leadership experience, are vital for building the cross-organizational team required to lead this key and complex global initiative, which will have a positive impact on one-third of our business worldwide," said Paul Mountford, vice president of worldwide channels at Cisco. "I am confident that under Paris' leadership--with his tenacious and results-focused management style and his international perspective--this global distribution strategy will be a pivotal element of our future commercial market success."
Arey spent the past two years as vice president of channels and alliances for Cisco's Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) theater. Under his leadership, Arey's team evolved the region's channel strategy and increased partner collaboration in EMEA, including launching a new distribution strategy.
Cisco will formally introduce Arey to its channel partners at the company's annual partner summit in Las Vegas next week.
Cisco has announced a shake up in its distribution strategy in EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa) which means many of its disties will no longer deal with product procurement, effectively demoting their status.
After February 2002, Cisco's Western European wholesalers are organised into two tiers: seven Cisco Distribution Partners (CDPs), which have a direct purchasing relationship with the company; and 10 Cisco Authorised Distributors (CADs), which have a relationship with Cisco but procure kit from a CDP.
The seven CDPs are: Acal, Algol, Azlan, Comstor, Ingram Micro, PC Lan and Techdata/C2000 (so all UK disties have become CDPs).
The remaining 40 distributors in EMEA will continue with the current distribution contracts until Cisco implements its new strategy (CDPs and CADs) in those regions. Cisco has 28,000 resellers in EMEA.
In late November, Cisco confirmed three specialty distributors for Cisco TelePresence solutions: St. Charles, Ill.-based Visitec Marketing Associates, Doylestown, Pa.-based KBZ Communications and Fort Worth, Texas-based TMDistributing.
Each is delivering specialized programs and services, as well as specific A/V and TelePresence expertise to VAR partners. That's different, Brown explained, from how Tandberg products will move through Cisco's other distributors, including its major broadline partners like Ingram Micro and Tech Data.
According to Brown, all Tandberg products will be available on Cisco's global price list for ordering by any Cisco distributor ordering for a qualified Cisco partner. Qualified distributors will be able to stock some of the Tandberg products, as yet unconfirmed by Cisco, starting in Cisco's fiscal third quarter.
"At the end of the day, all boats will rise," Brown said. "But we will continue to preserve the specialist video distribution channel that has a whole different set of skills. We can continue to leverage both worlds, and have more partners get video specialized over time, as well as have distributors provide stocking capabilities next to specialist distributors. There's a lot of market share out there to be gained."
Worldwide, Cisco partners with about 170 distributors total. It added several and dropped several others in line with the Tandberg integration, although Cisco declined to provide additional details on all of the additions and drops.
Brown said Cisco had learned a lot from its discussions with specialty distributors and partners with deep backgrounds in A/V and video integration.
"They would start talking to us about the network, and the network, to me, means routers and switches and IP and all the things you and I know very well," he recalled. "But in their world, the network is MCUs and video endpoints and pipes and scheduling software. They have a very different lens with which they view it."
Cisco declined to provide specific sales projections on how much of Cisco's TelePresence Solutions Group business would come from Tandberg products, but a spokesman said that the company's "expectation is that it will be significant and be a major driver for growth for Cisco and the distributor and partner community."
Cisco Systems said it has appointed Paris Arey to the newly created position of vice president of worldwide channels distribution strategy.
Arey will be responsible for implementing a new approach to distribution at Cisco, including consolidation of distributors, logistics management, policy implementation and process automation and systems integration with key global distributors.
While the company will reduce its number of distributors worldwide, it has no plans to eliminate any of the three distributors it works with in the United States, Cisco said.
"Paris' successful seven-year Cisco tenure, his broad channel expertise, and especially his recent [European] channel leadership experience, are vital for building the cross-organizational team required to lead this key and complex global initiative, which will have a positive impact on one-third of our business worldwide," said Paul Mountford, vice president of worldwide channels at Cisco. "I am confident that under Paris' leadership--with his tenacious and results-focused management style and his international perspective--this global distribution strategy will be a pivotal element of our future commercial market success."
Arey spent the past two years as vice president of channels and alliances for Cisco's Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) theater. Under his leadership, Arey's team evolved the region's channel strategy and increased partner collaboration in EMEA, including launching a new distribution strategy.
Cisco will formally introduce Arey to its channel partners at the company's annual partner summit in Las Vegas next week.