2019: The Year for Cisco Partners to “Go Big” in IOT

Tom Peters, the American Business writer, stated “If the Window of opportunity appears, do not pull down the shade!”   In 2019, there is window of opportunity for Cisco partners to “Go Big” in IOT and capture the advantage of “early movers” in this fast-growing market.

Let me briefly share three reasons why you should jump in with both feet into IOT:

1. There are sales opportunities in ALL your customers for solutions from the IOT Architecture

There is $4B market for new business in IOT TODAY!   These are deals that are addressed by Cisco’s IOT portfolio – industrial Ethernet Routing, Switching, and Wireless plus Kinetic.  IoT is Cisco’s fastest-growing architecture! As a Cisco partner, you have access to industry leading end-to-end networking, security and data management.  You now have a window of opportunity to partner with Cisco and profitably build the foundation for your customers’ IoT business – edge to cloud, and we are just getting started.

2. There are three Easy-to-Understand Sales Motions you can leverage to drive new IOT business.

These sales motions will help you identify your customers “care abouts” in IOT.  Then you can sell to their desired business outcomes.  Let me briefly share the three sales motions. They are:

Extended Enterprise is connecting “things.”Your IT buyer’s responsibilities are no longer limited to the carpeted space. With the explosive growth in IoT and industrial devices connecting to the core network, IT must manage and secure extended spaces with the IOT portfolio. This is actually a very simple sales motion that leverages the skills you already have in place.

Remote and Mobile Assets is connectivity for remote monitoring and control. This is usually the second step in a customer IOT journey.  Cisco helps you address your customers common challenges in on-boarding and managing these remote and mobile assets. We help you solve issues of security, visibility and scale for connecting these “hard to access” assets.  Common use cases for Cisco partners are connecting kiosks, remote equipment and many different types of fleets (public and private).

Industry Sales plays provide data-driven business outcomes. These plays are critical to your customers business and extend across Manufacturing, Utilities, Oil & Gas and Transportation.  It is important to match technology and business requirements, and this will unlock LOB budgets and pull through Enterprise Network, Data Center, and Security sales. If you do not have the expertise you believe you need in a particular industry you can partner with a Digital System Integrator who will team with you to identify and deliver on customer business requirements.

3. New training and enablement is available to help you accelerate your IOT business.

There are new resources available to you in 2019 that will help you capture the “Window of Opportunity” for IOT.

We are launching a new IOT Partner Program in a few weeks.Please check back on January 28th to learn more after we launch.

You can get a jump start by signing up for the IOT Essentials training. Please check out the Industry and IOT Partner Guide to find a training near you.

There is also a launch for new Cisco IOT technology coming soon. The IOT launch conference call for partners will be Thursday, January 24th, 2019 at 8:00 AM PST, 11:00 AM EST, 4:00 PM GMT, and 5:00 PM CET.

Finally, Check out Cisco Digital Navigator for IOT. Cisco Digital Navigator is an online tool that helps you quickly assess your capabilities and get to the answers and various resources you need so you can grow faster and profit more from IOT and other Cisco solutions.

I look forward to teaming with you as you build, grow and see great success from your IOT business in 2019.  This clearly is the year to capture the IOT opportunity.  There is a window open so please take a little bit of time to invest and learn by using the new IOT resources.   I guarantee you will reap rewards in sales, profits, and customer relationships for many years to come!

Cheers,

Andres