Dive Brief:
- Cisco has introduced new incentive bonuses that reward partners for selling a wider variety of tech products and for selling more deeply within each product line as part of its upcoming Cisco 360 program. The company will add financial incentives for secure AI infrastructure, secure networking and an additional incentive for cross-selling.
- Cisco said at its annual partner summit that its new partner program, set to launch January 25, 2026, will be its biggest program change in 25 years. The program's financial incentives and rebates aim to motivate channel partners to address the infrastructure challenges AI is expected to drive across the enterprise.
- Partners are waiting to learn where they stack up in Cisco’s new measurement system, which will designate an elite group of “preferred” partners.
Dive Insight:
Cisco said it wants to ensure profitability for the partners that “build deep expertise” in an AI-driven world. The company wants to financially reward partners who address the downstream infrastructure demands that AI is causing for enterprises.
The company has new incentives for partners in security and networking. It will also reward partners that can bundle various parts of its technology stack together in integrated solutions.
Cisco, which earns nearly 90% of its revenue indirectly, will transform “one of the most enduring incentive and rebate programs in the industry,” Tim Coogan, Cisco's SVP of global partner sales, told press and analysts in a briefing.
Coogan said Cisco intends for its partner rebates and incentives as a whole to be “flat-to-growing.”
Cisco has signaled that partners must make a significant effort in education, training, and certification if they want to achieve preferred partner status in its upcoming program. Cisco’s partner program previously consisted of three tiers but will now have just two: Cisco partners and a new preferred status for its top-tier partners.
Coogan said Cisco does not yet know how many of its partners will make the preferred category. However, the company will notify partners of their standing in the weeks following the partner summit.
“While we recognize there could be a shift between which partners, based on their investment, see rewards and benefits of the new program, the intent of the program is not to diminish the amount that we invest in our partners through their investments, but to at least level set or increase,” Coogan said.
