Cisco Touts “Going Big in the Midmarket,” Presents New Hardware and Collaboration Program

Cisco Systems, Inc. introduces new hardware, the Cisco Business Edition 6000 midmarket collaboration appliance, and rolls out new perks, including an opportunity to specialize within the company’s express collaboration program.

Targeting the $7.1-billion market opportunity that consists of businesses with 100 to 1,000 employees, Cisco, selling by way of its Partner-Led system, moves to address the collaboration needs of the midmarket.

Cisco Business Edition 6000 Midmarket Collaboration

Cisco’s Business Edition 6000 Midmarket Collaboration runs on the same software code and has the same features as the company’s enterprise-grade Communications Manager. Business Edition 6000 runs on Cisco’s UCS C220 M3 Rack Server, supports up to five virtual machines, and accommodates up to 1,000 users.

The virtualized bundle contains “voice, video, mobility, messaging, conferencing, instant messaging and presence, and contact center collaboration services on a single platform.”

Acquiring new video hardware for Business Edition 6000 is not needed because it allows interoperability, such as SIP-based phones with legacy phones, Cisco phones to those made by Polycom, etc.

Also, partners are now entitled to opt for a 25-user starter package that comes with user licensing.

Talking to Channel Partners, Cisco’s senior director of Worldwide Collaboration Channel Sales Richard McLeod points out that Business Edition 6000 is not Communications Manager’s “slimmed-down version” and declares, “This is a killer solution, from our point of view.”

Cisco Express Collaboration Program

Designed to entice potential partners, the Cisco Express Collaboration Program reduces by 50 percent the upfront investment for new Cisco partners. This includes an opportunity to specialize, as well as serve as an initial step to get into the company’s Premier Certification and to receive tech support. Incentives and discounts are also entrenched into the partner specialization program.

The Express Collaboration Architecture Specialization necessitates three roles: account manager, systems engineer, and field engineer. For Advanced Collaboration Architecture Specialization, the required roles include an account manager, an architecture systems engineer, a field engineer, as well as four Cisco Qualified Specialist (CQS) roles.

In a comment to Channelnomics, Cisco’s Richard McLeod says, “Consumerization of IT is affecting midmarket as much – if not more than – the enterprise. That pervasive use of mobility represents an inflection point, showing the midmarket is adopting technology faster than the enterprise.”

And in his statement to The VAR Guy, McLeod declares that Cisco is “going big in the midmarket” sector and that the company also anticipates owning an “unfair share of the market space.” (KOM) Link. Link. Link. Link.