D&H Distributing Co., of Harrisburg, Pa., has added a new membership tier to its Cisco PRO partner enablement program specifically targeted at resellers that sell to SMBs.
Introduced in June 2015, the Cisco PRO program is designed to help channel partners research, market, and sell Cisco solutions. Benefits of the new Small Business tier—which joins existing Registered, Select, and Premier membership levels—include automated marketing tools; free access to the D&H Selling Business Outcomes for Cisco course and other training resources; product configuration and reference guides; and multiple credit options.
“Cisco PRO offers a powerful menu of services, which D&H has developed to bring more value to the table as a distribution partner offering these sophisticated Cisco SMB solutions. These services are in alignment with our overall cloud solutions and SMB Blueprints offerings,” said Peter DiMarco, vice president of VAR sales at D&H, in a press statement. “Our new Cisco PRO small business resources are more tailored to compliment the type of services that the typical D&H reseller is offering, giving them more appropriate tools with which to gain a competitive edge.”
Those resources include Cisco’s FindIT Network Discovery Utility, a web browser add-on that automatically collects IP addresses, serial numbers, and other identifying information from Cisco small business products on end user networks, displays support and maintenance information for those devices, and provides one-click firmware updates to them.
“This D&H campaign comes at a terrific time for SMB partners, given the release of our Cisco FindIT Network Discovery Utility,” said Marty Wachi, senior director of product management in Cisco’s Small Business group, in the press release. “FindIT is specifically designed to help partners identify and manage Cisco SMB products, and can help these same partners make an entrance into a managed services offering.”
Going forward, D&H will offer members at all Cisco PRO membership levels additional benefits, such as bill of materials support, marketing collateral, no-cost certification, and other resources.
D&H also plans to host a two-day partner summit for top performing resellers in each of Cisco PRO’s four tiers. The invitation-only event, which will include reseller recognition activities and strategic planning sessions with D&H and Cisco executives, will be open to Cisco PRO members that achieve the highest percentage growth beyond their tier’s assigned baseline goals between October 1, 2016 and April 30, 2017. One qualifying partner will win a three-year lease on a 2017 Buick Envision Premium SUV as well.
The expansion of D&H’s Cisco enablement program comes days after fellow distributor Tech Data Corp., of Clearwater, Fla., introduced a new 4-hour Cisco security education class for U.S. resellers offering guidance on how to position Cisco security solutions with customers and execute proof-of-value assessments.
