Cisco's 360 Partner Program

In this episode of the Channel Smart podcast, Janet Schijns speaks with Elizabeth de Dobbeleer and Jason Gallo from Cisco about why the Cisco 360 Partner Program is a channel-smart move for partners. They discuss how Cisco is evolving its partner ecosystem to reflect the realities of today’s market, shifting away from traditional resale models to a value-based approach that rewards capabilities, performance, and engagement. The conversation highlights how Cisco is leading with transparency by involving partners in the program’s development, allowing them time to adapt and optimize their strategies before the full rollout in 2026. With a 15-month phased transition, expanded incentives, and an $80 million investment in partner training, Cisco is ensuring that partners are equipped for success. The episode also emphasizes the importance of AI-driven solutions, managed services, and customer-centric innovation in the evolving IT landscape. Cisco’s commitment to collaboration, enablement, and long-term partner growth makes this program a prime example of what it means to be truly channel smart.

We know you will find this episode enlightening and informative. To delve deeper into the world of channel strategy and gain more valuable insights, we invite you to visit our website.

For additional information, feedback, questions, or comments, don't hesitate to reach out to us at info@jsgnow.com. Tune in to Channel Smart and stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of business partnerships.

Transcript

Janet Schijns (00:24)
Hi everybody, welcome back to another episode of our Channel Smart podcast. We're so excited today to be joined by Elizabeth de Dobbeleer and Jason Gallo from Cisco, who as you all know, we're big fans of because the partners are big fans of Cisco. I can't think of an MSP or a partner I've spoken to recently that isn't talking about what's going on at Cisco, talking about the new Partner 360 program and wanting to understand more. And so because we always strive to bring you the news and the best of the news because it

Again, our mission is to save the channel. We asked Elizabeth and Jason to join us today, talk us through what's happening in the partner program, what's out in the market, what's coming in the market, and who knows, maybe even give you a little insider information about how to think about the program and how you apply it to your business as a partner and your customers and your managed solution stack. So before we get started, I was hoping that you could each introduce yourself to our audience and maybe explain your role at Cisco.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (01:22)
Yeah, absolutely. I'm so happy to be here. It's nice to see you, Janet. And hello to everyone listening to this podcast. So my name is Elisabeth de Dobbeleer As you may hear, I'm from Europe. I am actually based in Belgium. I've been at Cisco a long time, had many different roles, but right now I'm leading the Cisco Partner Program. So with that, really refer to our end-to-end value proposition to the ecosystem. And it's all about why would our ecosystem want to work with us?

and how we can deserve that choice and not trust every single day.

Janet Schijns (01:56)
Thanks for joining, it's always great to see you.

Jason W. Gallo (01:59)
Hi, my name is Jason W. Gallo. I'm Vice President of our Partner Value Acceleration organization within Elizabeth's team. My role is primarily about helping partners to build out capabilities across their Cisco practices, as well as incubating new communities, technologies, and other kind of businesses as we look forward across the entire Cisco partner ecosystem.

Janet Schijns (02:20)
That's amazing. Thanks both for introducing yourselves. I hope the channel knows they've got some champions in you trying to help the partners grow their business. We love that focus, so thank you for that. So I want to jump right in and say, look, the partner community has changed quite a bit in the past several years, especially if you think about their go-to-market. In the past, resellers, VARs, ironworkers, whatever we want to call them today, put the vendor brand in the spotlight.

But then with the advent of managed services and even some non-managed services in the channel, the partner brand has now moved more front and center as they sell their services stack that includes multiple vendor solutions and many of them with Cisco as the primary vendor solution. And that's highly prevalent in areas like security.

networking and managed IT. And that change has really evolved how many high growth vendors in the space are thinking about their go-to-market, right? Because it's no longer just, resell my pound of network. It's now a whole new engagement. And so as I looked at you launching the Cisco 360 Partner Program, I was excited because it felt to me like you had thought about those changes in the channel and that it helped to inspire the new design. But I wanted to hear from you when you think about what's changing in the

channel, what specific changes happened and how did that inspire the new Cisco 360 Partner Program?

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (03:42)
absolutely, Janet. And I could probably list quite a few reasons. And it's not just why, there's also a bit of a why now piece to this. Because in terms of the why, for sure we're responding or aligning with what's happening in the market, right? You already called out some of the changes. What I like most is to talk about that whole notion of ecosystem and how in today's environment and what customers are expecting from technology and how every company is an IT company.

and all these concepts.

The only way to realize what a customer needs and wants and the outcome is by that collaboration between companies, right? And that's ultimately the ecosystem. And I think that as a major trend and the role of the partner, but then partner in the broad sense, right? Because partnering can happen in multiple different ways. It's not just about reselling. It's even not just about managed services, right? There are multiple ways for companies to add value to that customer.

outcome and that that's really, I think the biggest reason why, but then at the same time also inside Cisco, there's lots of things happening. And so we've had analysts say that we are at an inflection point and that in a funny way, we couldn't have chosen a better moment to make this transformation because Cisco itself is transforming. course, our customers are transforming our partners and our ecosystem is transforming and not just transforming, but it's going very fast as well. Right. So there is because of AI, et cetera.

the speed and the agility means that we have to do things differently and it's not just about the program transformation but even the way we go about it and we'll talk about that a bit later also right the transition time agile design and all of those things but those are all the reasons why we have unprecedented innovation in Cisco

We have a very loyal ecosystem. We've always prided ourselves of that and we absolutely want to continue earning that loyalty and that trust, right? But we need to be ready and set up for success for the next decades, right? Because we have a very rich history of more than 20 years of a very rich partner program, but it was very anchored in a resale motion, attaching services and embedding software and all of that as we know for what you just said and what I just said, I'm sure we'll talk about this.

Janet Schijns (05:58)
We will.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (05:58)
has shifted

and changed.

Janet Schijns (06:00)
Yeah, the market's really changed and I think that what I love with you bringing up the ecosystem is we kind of think of it at JSG as the big P and the little P, right? The little P of partnering is transactional, right? And for years, everybody was kind of wrapped up in the transactional channel, right? I sell you this at a discount or I give you a commission and you go out and resell it. And the point you've made about the ecosystem, it's now a big P, right? It's different partnering. It's five partners at the same table. It's somebody being an

influencer, but not a transactor It's somebody being a service provider, but potentially not a seller, right? And so we're really seeing the changes happening pretty rapidly in those models. And it's exciting to see that you were thinking about that as you designed the program, which leads me to think about.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (06:31)
Thank

Janet Schijns (06:43)
you know, something else the audience needs to hear. So when I think about the Cisco 360 Partner Program and the changes that you've embraced, which is amazing, and I know how hard that is for a big company. So partners, if you're listening and thinking, it's going to be hard to understand maybe what they did with the 360 Partner Program, one, we're going to help you understand that. But two, think about how difficult it is in a big company to have got this amazing work done to help your business. Right. And so that's why I'm encouraging our partners, our viewers to really

dig in and understand the program because it was designed for your business. And that I think is really important. And so when I think about the new Cisco 360 Partner Program, I want to talk about, to kind of start diving into some details. So where do you see it offering the most benefit?

to partners and specifically MSPs since that's the model that is most prevalent now. And of course if the value is different for other members of the partner community, we'd love to hear that too. But just really interested in where do see it bringing benefit.

Jason W. Gallo (07:41)
so from a MSP standpoint, I guess I can jump in there and maybe from even the broader partner community, I'll start with that. We have very purposely designed it in a way that it brings together all of those elements of whether you're a reseller, managed service provider, even our distributors and others, developers, there's a place for them within the partner program.

Elizabeth mentioned that ecosystem element is clearly, backed by the focus on the customer because we understand that the customer to get to the ultimate outcome needs all of those types of partnerships to be successful. From a managed service standpoint, and we'll talk about it here in a moment, we have included metrics that are a little more...

near and dear I'd say to how they run their business but that doesn't exclude the other partners. It's kind of ability to pick your own adventure as the partner value index and the way it's set up.

Janet Schijns (08:35)
And I like that pick your own value. I think for the partners, it's really hard when they get shoehorned, right? Now, you've got to do these certifications and you have to do this revenue, you know, the old fashioned way, right? And you have to do this and that's just how it works. And then if you're a partner that has a different business model, particularly a lot of the born in the cloud models, right? The folks who really came into data governance, data management, kind of cloud first, and now are very much SaaS first, they find it difficult to

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (08:41)
Yeah.

Janet Schijns (09:03)
to

fit in the transitional, you know, normal old fashioned programs. So Jason, that's pretty great that it really was designed to be flexible. So.

Dig in a little bit on that because this is where I always hear confusion from the partners. So you guys have the program has the basis of the partner value index or the PBI. I think it has four dimensions of partner value, but I was hoping that you could walk us through them. Share where the partners have to invest the most to qualify in the program. And then maybe you can share some secrets about the benefits they unlock and why they matter to them. What should they be most excited about?

Jason W. Gallo (09:37)
Sure, Elizabeth, you want me to jump in there?

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (09:40)
Yeah, go for it, Jason. You know, he just

said it. His title has partner value acceleration. So he makes up for every day driving value acceleration for our community.

Janet Schijns (09:46)
I know, I love it.

I love that. I love

Jason W. Gallo (09:51)
This has been

Janet Schijns (09:52)
that

Jason W. Gallo (09:52)
an exciting part. Thank you.

Janet Schijns (09:52)
the partners applaud you because we need they need all the work all the help you can give them. So

Jason W. Gallo (09:57)
Well, and I think you know it truly starts with that it's more than just the tagline as you can see as we mentioned it's even in my organization's title Value to the customer has been the anchor point the partner value index has value in the name you know we really wanted to make sure that as we Reimagine this program as Elizabeth mentioned that the value piece of it and the value that we bring to our customers As we're looking you know at the evolution of the program is it's a true

you know, outside in approach. But what I would say is, you know, the detail to your point or to your question is that the partner, the Cisco 360 partner program, it cuts across all of our product portfolios. So whether, you know, that's security, networking, as we have our cloud and AI portfolio, it's broadly applicable. It is a value index or a scoring mechanism that unlocks the branding, profitable benefits. And along that,

it's broader than just the value index. It's truly a strategy that will allow us to put in place some learning journeys and data access to how the partner's results show up in our own partner experience portal that we've been developing.

few years, so making it much easier for the partners to engage with us. But to your question specifically on the value index, there's four categories. There's foundational capability, performance, and engagement. And we again very specifically chose those categories because we think that reflects the best way that we can view the value that the partner brings to customers. But also I think it speaks to the partner's commitment to reinvesting in themselves. And we know that the more that the partner

can then reinvest themselves. That foreshadows a better mutual future growth together. And the way I like to think about is

Janet Schijns (11:38)
Yeah, that's the challenge, right, is that

investment. Yeah, yeah.

Jason W. Gallo (11:42)
And

that's the key. You know, I look at some of the partners that we've been talking to over the last several months. And as they are absorbing the partner value index in those four categories, what we all begin to realize is they have their own metrics and KPIs and balanced scorecards. You know, they run their business every day on a set of metrics. And if we can come up with a set of metrics and measurements in these combined categories, then we can kind of lead together. And so the foundational area

Janet Schijns (12:06)
that, I love that.

Jason W. Gallo (12:08)
has been about Cisco. Help me understand how to measure what the most important foundational elements of a partner practice are. The capabilities area is as I start to gain success off of that foundation, I want to invest in technical and sales and operational personas. How much should I invest and how do I measure that? You get the flywheel going on the capabilities and now I want to measure the performance and have alignment with your sales teams and understand what they are focused on selling.

like enterprise agreements and growth-based goals. But then we bring it all the way back with that fourth category of engagement. It's about the customer and are you engaging with the customer? The adoption, the pieces that you expect to get out of all this investment, is it really ringing true?

Janet Schijns (12:50)
I love that. And it's interesting to me. So the partners are going through this huge transition, right? So I actually feel like to a certain extent Cisco is giving them a roadmap through the four PBIs You're giving them a roadmap on, if I was building my house, right, my high growth house, I could build it here and they can chunk in, damn it term, the rest of their solutions and have the same basic operating model because I think you've laid out a nice way

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (12:56)
Yeah.

Janet Schijns (13:17)
for them to think about, go at your foundations, then you get your capabilities, right? And some of those are Cisco capabilities, so of course we wanna measure those. Some of those are gonna be other capabilities that they need to have in order to make the Cisco solutions work in their stack for their customers, right? Then they really look at, okay, what am I gonna set as my metrics, my performance? We spend a lot of times with partners talking about what are their key metrics and...

Changing the view from a rear view mirror view like I sold this right to a front of them of the you know The rear view mirror is this little tiny piece of glass and your windshield is this massive piece of glass So I always tell the partners like focus on the windshield right? What's the performance factor sure revenue is a great outcome? But but what are the other things you need to do how many customers do you have to touch? How much what do you have to do with? CSAT or you MPS. How do you have to think about performance across multiple layers? Particularly when you have a multi-vendor solution

And then the engagement with the customer obviously, you this is where the channel started, right? This is why every company has a channel because they have the relationship with the customer. They have their the local feed on the street. They're the local trusted advisor. And so I love how the program has come together and really looked at it not from a Cisco point of view, right? Like, hey, how much of this have you sold? But from a partner's point of view of how their building blocks work. And so I think that's really amazing.

Are there any specific benefits that are new to the program that they unlock as they proceed through it that matter to the partner community or that you're even hearing they're excited about? Is there something going on?

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (14:41)
Yep.

Yeah,

I can jump in Janet because of course this whole transformation is multi-dimensional and multifaceted, but we definitely also wanted to build in more of a journey approach because today we have a very loyal ecosystem, know, partners that have been with us for multiple years know us well, know how our systems work, you know, got used to our complexity and know how to deal with it.

Janet Schijns (15:15)
Go ahead.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (15:16)
At the same time, we're not very easy for new partners or onboarding partners or partners who even want to invest in a new practice or in a new technology. And so we're trying to be more of a gradual journey. So the idea is that as and when you join the Cisco ecosystem, there are benefits already at that onboarding level. So we talk about a welcome package where we would be able to give some.

not for resell or some demo gear and things like that. you some free training. So we help you feel welcome, let's say in the program, start to invest in capabilities, right? And practice building and all of that before you even book a dollar with us. And then as you grow your value, literally in that value index, you will unlock more and more. think everybody knows that Cisco has a very rich and well-established backend rebate system, right?

consistently reinvest in the channel a certain percentage of our revenue and we've been doing that forever. We have a commitment to continue doing that at the same level of investment as well and so that back-end rebate incentive portfolio is also evolving into an integrated simplified Cisco partner incentive which as you grow or as you elevate yourself in a partner value index you will be able to access

back-end rebates and then as you get more and more more and more back-end rebates. But not just that, we are also investing in more front-end. So even when you're at a relatively low level, you would be able to unlock deal registration and protection of deals, right? You would be able to possibly access programmatic pricing and things like that, right? So it's a more, it's more of a journey approach than today where the entry bar, you know, and that was never intentional, but it probably just grew over the years because of the perceived

Janet Schijns (16:53)
I love that.

Yeah.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (17:01)
complexity and because of the fact that the program is a more than 20 years old program.

Janet Schijns (17:06)
Well, yeah, you guys

are the de facto standard in the channel, For 20, 25 years? Yeah. Yeah.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (17:10)
Yeah, tweaks and adjustments over the years. So,

so the entry bar was more difficult. So we're trying to make it easier. We're trying to improve the experience overall. And we're trying to also incentivize partners to invest in that practice build and that capability. think one thing, and again, Jason's team is at the heart of all of that. And that's something our partners are very much resonating with as well, is that focus on recognizing investing in technical capability.

That's a cornerstone, like going back to almost the root of the whole Cisco Partner Program with CCIE, etc.

Janet Schijns (17:44)
Yeah, long

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (17:45)
You know, so

Janet Schijns (17:45)
history there, right?

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (17:47)
that's a cornerstone, right? Like the investment in technical capability, which is also why at Partner Summit, we were very fortunate because Frank Katsoudas launched or announced an 80 million worth investment in the Cisco U for partners who do very well. They get free access up to a certain level of licenses, but then all other partners, we have these ladder up trainings every quarter. Of course, they're about AI, they're about security, et cetera, but it's that whole piece around

driving that investment in technical capability.

Janet Schijns (18:16)
And that's great because what we see in the partner community is learning organizations are growing organizations.

and the folks that aren't investing in learning, technical competencies, and by the way, it goes beyond technical, right? It also goes to how do you position your company, how do you position solutions, go to market, training and education. Those learning companies are outperforming their peers by almost 2x right now in the environment. So I'm really glad to hear that we didn't lose that cornerstone, you know, the old fashioned CCIE and me. You know, and we know most of the CIOs in the US at least have that in their background, right? They have that certification. So it's great to see we didn't lose the education.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (18:46)
Yes. Yep.

Janet Schijns (18:50)
Vigor that's always defined Cisco a little bit in the market in my standpoint and also good that the backend rebates stays but have a nice new name because I think backend rebates was kind of limiting you. It's really great to hear because I think as the partners look at their business over the next three or four years

They're unwinding how they're going to grow and who they're going to grow with, right? And Cisco is a huge part of that for a big majority. And for our listeners, so you know, we've been working with Cisco for years. We spent almost a year studying just the MSP market with Cisco. This is how seriously they take the partner community, right? This wasn't that someone in Elizabeth or Jason's team woke up one day and said, let's change the program. There was feedback. We interviewed hundreds and hundreds of partners and what Elizabeth said really resonated because newer partners were saying,

I have a problem journeying through the program. I would have to get so far up in the program to get the benefits that I need and that's not good because a lot of those newer partners are the ones that are bringing cloud forward, bringing security solutions forward. So it's amazing now they have a home right away to get there. And then the bigger partners were saying, hey, we don't want it broken, right? We love our Cisco relationship, but we need more help around enablement. We need more help around, we're having a lot of turnover in technical staff. So we need more consistent training.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (19:43)
Yeah.

Janet Schijns (20:07)
Right, these things now are all coming to life in the program. It's exciting for me to see as a research, as we did our research that you really took that into heart in the program, really amazing. So knowing that, want to just kind of change our lens a little bit and ask how's the feedback in the partner community regarding the new program? And are they seeing it enhance their business? Are they understanding it? Where's the partner feedback so far?

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (20:30)
Yeah, and this is, I love the question. We're trying to, I think...

We are trying to stay as close as possible to the pulse, right? So we have ongoing, almost on a daily basis, we are checking how partners are responding to our webinars, anecdotal feedback, and we keep gathering that because I think we're super committed as we are in the midst of this transition to stay really close to partner sentiment and to keep adjusting as well. And we can talk a bit later about the way we think about the transition to the NO program and why we are taking 15 months in total. I think on the why, we got

them out hello, guess, generally. I don't think any partner is saying, I don't really understand why you decided to change Cisco. I think that's, yeah, I think that's a resonated, of course, we've been some of them would even say we've been expecting it has been hanging in the air and all of that, right. So that's resonating. Yes, I think what I already mentioned that whole, you know, re-energizing around

Janet Schijns (21:11)
Yeah, I haven't heard that either, no.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (21:26)
the importance of technical capability and technology and innovation is generally very welcomed and appreciated. So that's a very good one as well. I think there is a bit of anxiety right now because we decided to push out, you know, we're like open book in terms of co-design, which is unprecedented. We've never done that before. We've always been or try to be at least to be respectful of giving partners time to adjust to any changes, but we've never said, okay, this is what

Janet Schijns (21:51)
Sure, sure.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (21:55)
what

we're planning to do, here's all the data, this is what we would like, what do you think, dear partners? So we're in an agile design thinking mode, and so we're releasing lots of things, and so some partners are like, this is great, give me more, and I want to be with you, and some are saying, my god, my head is aching now, right?

I'm not sure if I wanted to see all these details. So there's a bit of that. And of course, and this is very understandable and very natural, there's like, need to know how much money I'm going to make, my ability to earn in the new program. Of course, right.

Jason W. Gallo (22:16)
group.

Janet Schijns (22:25)
Yeah, because they understood the old program

as complicated as it was. They did at some level your larger partners, right? Understand the program. And when Microsoft moved kind of in a similar direction in their program, right? Where they moved to their points program, their partners struggled at first too, both to understand it, but also to kind of needed a transition plan. Microsoft did it as a buy-in to the program at some level for the first year. How are you thinking about transition? Are you doing something similar for your partners?

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (22:52)
Yeah, well, Jason can chime in, but I think we're doing it the reverse. So we basically announced it at Partner Summit and then we said 15 months. the transition, it's happening before we... So before we flip the switch, we will have tested, adjusted, course corrected. So we are not... Yeah, Jason, don't know if you want to comment because...

Janet Schijns (23:09)
a better approach. With respect to Microsoft, sorry, but that's a better approach.

Jason W. Gallo (23:16)
Yeah, no, I

I said it on stage in Thailand last week. I was speaking to a bunch of partners. I think this should be a Harvard case study at some point. What other vendor believes so much in their channel that 15 months before you go live?

And before everything is buttoned up and perfect, you say, we're going to build this not just for our partners, but by our partners. Like it's with your feedback that, you know, 39,000 of my best friends are giving me input every day on what they want to see in the program. And that has been unique. I think a lot of partners to Elizabeth's point at first maybe felt a little overwhelmed, like, man, we get to see all the detail, like all of it.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (23:42)
Thank

Janet Schijns (23:53)
Right, you don't usually do that. Yeah, like, yeah,

that's not usually what happens, yeah. And Jason, I don't wanna say that I'm devastated, because I thought I was your only best friend, but you know, I can completely accept that the partners are also your best friend, because I love them as well.

Jason W. Gallo (23:57)
But this is our opportunity to build.

Ha ha ha!

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (24:02)
Hahaha!

Jason W. Gallo (24:06)
That's it. It's

a broad ecosystem.

Janet Schijns (24:09)
It's

a broader ecosystem, but I always say the partners are my plus one in everything, right? So I'm always me plus the partner. It's kind of in my head. I love that. And I think that 15 months is very logical, right? Because a lot of times the vendor community, which you're a part of, will throw something at the partners and be like, OK, here it is. Bye. We hope you can make it work for your business, even though we didn't tell you in advance. And all of your systems and everything you do with us in our portal and our PRM, you had down. You had it managed.

Jason W. Gallo (24:14)
you

Janet Schijns (24:39)
and now we're just gonna change the rules. So I think it's fabulous that you're listening to the partners, that you've taken on the recommendations from your partners, from experts like us, from others in the community, from your Cisco teams, and really put together a better transition plan than, we hope you're successful. So that's amazing. So I know we're getting...

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (24:56)
Yeah, and maybe Janet, if I can add

just one thing, I always say our mission here is to land the transformation and to be set up for success for the future. Our mission is not to be all right or to be all perfect or to pretend that we know it all, right? We are absolutely not saying that. I mean, in today's environment, that would be insane. I think in today's environment, the only way to get it as close to right as possible is to admit that you don't know it all and that you will be

adjusting and listening and course correcting. That's why I am very committed to this agile design thinking process and that's why we are... and it's not gonna... I always say that the other piece is that we're not gonna all fall off a cliff on the first of Feb 26 right? That's the moment we will flip but...

For me, this is a multi-year journey and we will be working on this, you know, the first moment key milestone is that first of February 26th, but there's a whole discussion around sales alignment as well where there's a lot of opportunity to do even more and to have it play in the way we look at CRM and the way Cisco Account Manager works with the Partner Account Manager and there's so much opportunity still to do so many things that will go well beyond that first of February 26th date.

Janet Schijns (26:09)
Yeah,

and I think it's important for partners thinking about that. To also think about, for example, we're working with a few of the larger MSPs on this, think about how they change their processes in the next 15 months or how they change their engagement. We're working with some of them, for example, with Cisco's sponsorship on intent-based marketing and then getting partners getting leads and deals in new ways, right? Because they're engaging with their customers in digital and other ways. And so I think this 15 months gives them that time to kind of stress their business process.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (26:12)
Yes, yes.

Yes.

Janet Schijns (26:39)
process and say where do I need help and give you guys feedback and I know you'll launch benefits to meet them there, right? That's one thing I believe Cisco's always done is try to meet the market. So I love that. So as we get ready to wrap up our time for our viewers, I've got two final questions. So the first one is if you had one piece of advice for partners who are looking to grow their Cisco business over that next 15 month period, what would it be?

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (26:46)
Yeah.

Jason W. Gallo (27:06)
So we're well into the 15 months that started back at our partner summit in November and we're making great headway as we talked about here today and I think the ability to leverage the time to pressure test as you talked about their business to make sure that they are ready and that

Janet Schijns (27:06)
Yeah.

Jason W. Gallo (27:24)
readiness factor and to do that with us. You know the teams around the world are doing workshops weekly with our partners and we've really brought on board in a great way to support that scale. Our distributors and other parts of our ecosystem who are getting those readiness discussions out. So I guess the one word would be readiness.

Janet Schijns (27:42)
that. And Elizabeth, thoughts on that? What would the partner do? And then in the speed round, Jason's ahead because he already answered my speed round question, which I love. I love that. No, I love it. You know, what are your thoughts? Any advice for the partner?

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (27:52)
Yeah, well, I think...

I think the other piece is embrace this transformation and in particular the innovation, right? mean, anyone who has heard our chief product officer speak in recent months, he will say, you will see a Cisco you haven't seen before as in the pace of innovation and the way we will bring out more and more innovation. And then of course the buzzword AI, right? I think all of us, have to lean in.

and learn and be agile, right, and keep adapting and keep adjusting. think that whole capability and education and ongoing learning is more than ever crucial topic for all of us.

Janet Schijns (28:31)
Great. Yeah.

And if I had a piece of advice for a partner who wanted to be a great Cisco partner, I would say it's really about being transparent, right? Like let the team know they want to hear. You heard Jason and Elizabeth both say that they want to hear, right? What do you need? Where does it work? Where maybe do you need more or you need less or what do you need? Be transparent. Partners have a very bad trait, I'm talking to all you, where because they like somebody, they feel like they should

shouldn't say anything critical, even though behind closed doors they all are saying, you know, this doesn't work. And I always encourage them to say, why don't you tell them that that doesn't work?

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (29:11)
Yeah, Jason and I can

handle it.

Janet Schijns (29:13)
can handle it. You'll

Jason W. Gallo (29:13)
Yeah.

Janet Schijns (29:14)
still like them. Jason will still be their best friend is what I heard, right? So I'm going to say partners be transparent. Tell them where it's working. Tell them where you need more help. Tell them where you need more education. What do you need? Because what I'm hearing and what I saw in the work that we do and continue to do with Cisco is you care about the partners. You're a partner first company. You've always been a partner first company. And I couldn't be more excited about your roadmap either because that feature in WebEx where if you walk away, say you will actually need

more coffee, which I typically do, and it tells you what happened while you were gone. The best feature I've ever seen in a platform. So I'm now able to get coffee. So I'm forever grateful. I'm going to finish out, as you all know, our tradition on the show, the final speed round. Today's speed round. Please tell me in one word why now is a great time to be a Cisco partner.

Jason W. Gallo (30:02)
For me I don't know if it counts as one word but AI. Alright, AI. It's a new word.

Janet Schijns (30:06)
It counts as one word. It's become like like Kleenex, right? It's become a word. Yeah. I

love it. AI. Good point, Elizabeth. I love that. And I'm gonna say friend.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (30:14)
I'll say growth. It's all about growth.

Janet Schijns (30:21)
So my reason is Cisco has always been your friend, right to the channel, has always had the least channel conflict, they've always been a friend to the channel. Be a friend to Cisco as a partner, give them your transparent feedback, work on how you go forward, and assume the best. And this is gonna be my little soliloquy wrapping up. So when you like somebody, you typically assume that they had the best intention, even when they do something.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (30:22)
Ha ha ha!

Absolutely.

Janet Schijns (30:49)
that maybe you don't agree with or you don't like, right? If you don't like somebody, you assume the worst intention. And so I would say Cisco, particularly Jason apparently is your best friend, and if you're a real friend, you assume the best intention and then you're honest and say, is what I need or this is where I'm struggling or this is where I don't understand or, you know, and I think a lot of it comes down to not understanding when I talk to the partner. So dig in, be a friend and know that Cisco has

is your friend and has your back as well. That's what I'm seeing. I see that we, I know you all trust us, our viewers. We've worked a long time with Cisco. I see what we shared with them about the market, what they shared with us about the market, what you as partners gave us as feedback at the MSP Summit for Cisco in Lexington last year, right? In all these environments where you talked, Cisco listened. And so be a friend, listen back.

and build your practice this year and understand the program. in February 2026, be one of the lucky folks that have really embraced the program and are doing well. So on behalf of the whole JSG team and our mission to save the channel, Jason, Elizabeth, we so appreciate you being part of that and doing this new program that's going to help the channel continue to be not only relevant, but the driving force in our industry. We appreciate you being on.

Elisabeth De Dobbeleer (32:11)
Absolutely, thank you.