Cisco adds Global Gold tier

6210139794_5b40305ba4_bNetworking gear maker Cisco has added a Global Gold tier to the top of its partner programme.

Cisco said that its Global Gold tier allows partners with different regional certifications to get the  same benefits and incentives of the Gold tier across all these areas – provided they meet certain Global Gold criteria, including £272.2 million annual revenue with Cisco.

Partners must already have in place a certain amount of Gold and Premium accreditations in each of Cisco’s territories globally  – the Americas, EMEAR, APJ and Greater China. The joint figure needed is 12 Gold accreditations globally.

Partners must also hold a Global Commercial Specialisation and hit an 80 percent services attach rate and a 70 percent renewal rate quarter to quarter.

The new tier currently has five partners: BT, Dimension Data, Ericsson, IBM, and Orange Business Services.

Cisco’s global channel vice president Marc Surplus wrote in his bog: “We’ve bridged the pieces of our existing Gold certification with today’s global business needs to provide a simpler, scalable, and profitable global experience for our partners. Global Gold partners can now showcase their ability to deliver and support solutions as a Cisco Gold certified partner from any of their worldwide locations. Global Gold increases the value exchange with our resellers by helping them expand their customer bases.

“Their sales and technical teams can now reach across borders and support their global customers more effectively than ever before, and, while this new certification is important to our global business strategy, we absolutely remain fully committed to the partners who do the equally important work of caring for customers in their local and regional markets,” Surplus said.