RE: Benefits of choosing a Cisco gold partner company.

I have worked for several Gold partners and one Premier. The biggest thing
I had to deal with at a non-Gold partner was the disparity in discount
levels, as it made it hard to be competitive.

That being said, not all Gold partners are created equal. An example that I
often use in the Seattle area is when you do a search on Gold partners in
the area, that 26 separate entries come up. Without naming names, here is a
breakdown of the differences:

1. Service Providers. These fine folks sell carrier services with a
recurring revenue model that includes circuits and managed services. Many
of them supply hardware and installation services as an augment to what they
already offer and usually have massive volumes which allow for aggressive
discounting.
2. Fulfillment Partners. This business model usually has a sophisticated
back office system that may include web-based/Internet ordering portals.
Also offering large volumes, they tend to also offer large discounts and
have a well-developed delivery system. Most are weaker on offering managed
services or installation/project work.
3. Consulting Services Partners. Many of the companies in this category are
well-recognized names that offer consulting and/or professional services,
with hardware being secondary.
4. Distributors. There are a handful of these that offer fulfillment for
the smaller Cisco resellers, they do business on handling large volumes for
them as well as some business on their own.
5. Value Added Resellers/Systems Integrators. The size of these companies
are much smaller than any of the above, some are regional, many are
national/International. These resellers have a roughly equal linkage
between hardware and services and do a good job integrating technologies.

I am basing this on observation and also years of experience, in which I
have worked for service providers and VAR's...

Reactions? Thoughts?

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: nobody_at_groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
Anthony Faria
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 1:45 PM
To: darth router
Cc: Mahmoud Nossair; ccielab_at_groupstudy.com
Subject: Re: Benefits of choosing a Cisco gold partner company.

I have to disagree with your statements. Normally i see the real CCIE at
Gold partners because they do the work lol an dyou see the paper CCIE at a
large company because they do not know any better. Maybe it is different
where you live but that is what I see. I am not trying to argue just my
experiences. Maybe they got there gold because the rented a cert but they
don't send those guys out. They would lose business quick.

Tony

On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 11:34 AM, darth router
<darklordrouter_at_gmail.com>wrote:

> I'd really go for pricing only. Worked for a big one. Most of the gold
> partner folks doing the work are kids off the street who have no freaking
> idea what they are doing. The CCIEs are more often than not excell
> spreadsheet engineers and only god knows how they passed their IEs. :D
> Personally, I'd go with a smaller company, or target a partner with an
> employee you know is great, and ensure he works on your project. CDW is a
> gold parnter, you can buy equip from them, and skip the prof services. Buy
> CDW and hire Scott Morris instead. :D
>
> On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 4:05 AM, Mahmoud Nossair <nossair_at_mcs.gov.sa>
> wrote:
>
> > Dear Experts
> >
> >
> >
> > I am a consultant at a government site ( I am a CCNP engineer), while
> > evaluating a network proposals, one of the government employee asked me
> > why should we choose a company with Cisco Gold partner????
> >
> > I explained him about the support and other benefits, but I think my
> > answer in not enough to him.
> >
> >
> >
> > So anybody have a document about the benefits of Cisco Gold Partner to
> > the customers???
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> >
> >
> >
> > Mahmoud Nossair, CCNP, CCDP
> >
> >
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> >
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Received on Thu Apr 15 2010 - 09:25:42 ART