It all starts with security. That is the answer Cisco’s channel chief, Oliver Tuszik, gives when partners, customers, analysts or even media ask him what the biggest technology opportunity is this year between Cisco and our partners. Security can no longer be siloed; the focus should be on an end-to-end security solution. It’s the missing opportunity today, but many of our partners have already found great momentum within the security space.

By starting with security, Cisco’s most profitable partners have found that security changes the level of engagement with the customer and the strategic importance of the discussion. Since security is not just an IT issue, partners are also able to deliver and provide solutions to the line of business by leading with security. By understanding and starting with an end-to-end security solution, there is no question you will see momentum with your deals. Here are just some of the benefits you can capitalize on today:

New consumption models drive sales

We continue to evolve the way our partners can consume our products more as a software-as-a-service so that there’s a not a lot of upfront capital or cost. This provides numerous benefits, such as:

Flexibility for customer choice

Supports transition from point product sales to architecture sales

Software and recurring revenue models help partners provide value around lifecycle services

Delivering IT solutions with built-in security

Software-led selling delivers predictable growth

Partners who have a software-led approach to selling, as well as a focus on customer success throughout the entire customer lifecycle, can see more predictable recurring revenues, services growth, and opportunities for expansion. We have a number of tools available to partners today to help grow their security practice. One in particular is our Cisco’s Security Sales Academy that includes partner-specific enablement framework to best sell security solutions.

Managed Services increase your profitability

According to BCC Research, the global managed IT services market will grow at 11.5% through 2021, producing roughly $256 billion. Customers increasingly look to partners to manage and operate their IT. With the security talent and knowledge gap continuing to increase, there is a huge managed service opportunity. Partners can now play the role of virtual CIO and outsourced IT department environments or provide them with co-managed IT solutions such as SD-WAN or security. Partners can help ease customers security complexity by offering services in security orchestration and automation. This leads to increased customer value and loyalty. Managed Services is also a key vehicle for increasing and accelerating recurring revenue and company valuations.

One example of a partner who is successfully leveraging the Managed Services opportunity is Quest. They have doubled their MSP partnerchannel supporting the Cisco-powered ecosystem through their diverse offerings like vCIO, CyberDefense Suite, DRaaS (Disaster Recovery) and Quest’s technical on-call support service. Through these offers, Quest has been able to provide on-demand expertise across the channel earning them the nickname of the “Swiss Army Knife” services partner.

Our comprehensive, end-to-end security solution helps partners profitably grow their practice while meeting the customer demands required in today’s digital landscape. Here are some additional resources to help boost your security sales.