Cisco Systems Introduces Industry Leading Channel Partner Mentoring and Knowledge Transfer Program.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 21, 2003

Cisco Channel Partner Consultative Support Program Provides

Expert Engineering Knowledge Transfer For New Growth Markets

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) today extended the Cisco(R) Advanced Services portfolio by introducing Partner Consultative Support (PCS), a formalized mentoring and knowledge transfer program. Through PCS, partners have access to Cisco intellectual capital and leading practices, which were validated in the Advanced Services program for end customers. The program will help accelerate time-to-profitability for channel partners by helping them to build engineering practices for rapidly deploying and supporting complex network infrastructure in new growth markets. PCS is available to Cisco partners that have achieved a high level of knowledge on a specific technology, and wish to complement this knowledge with Cisco expertise. The goal of the PCS program is to help enable quality and consistency within channel partner support offerings with respect to delivering Cisco technology. This in turn gives end customers the security in knowing that whatever level of expertise they need from their support provider, Cisco has taken the necessary steps to help enable their channel partner network to deliver the same quality support customers would expect from Cisco.

With flexible program components, Cisco can tailor PCS to specifically complement the channel partner's current skill set. Cisco works with the channel partner to assess their skill level in a specific technology, determine the baseline of knowledge and then recommend the PCS components. Based on the premise that as a channel partner's skills increase over time the level of support required from Cisco will decrease; the PCS program offers various levels of support to help channel partners become independent in their ability to successfully deploy Cisco technologies under their own brand of service.

Initially, the Cisco PCS program will provide service components for the following technologies: Cisco IP Telephony, Cisco IP Contact Center, Cisco Multiprotocol Label Switching Virtual Private Networks and Cisco Network Infrastructure.

"It all boils down to providing a positive experience for our customers," said Karl Meulema, vice president of Cisco Customer Advocacy, worldwide partners sales and marketing. "Cisco Partner Consultative Support helps channel partners fill specific expertise gaps so they can successfully provide their customers with their own branded suite of channel partner services. The program helps to facilitate our channel partner's time-to- profitability while mitigating the risk associated with deploying complex technologies in new growth markets. The result is the enablement of our channel partners to quickly and successfully implement our solutions to accelerate customer success. It's a win/win for both our end customers and our channel partners, as we rely on our channel partners to deploy better than 90 percent of our products and technology to our customer base."

PCS Levels of Assistance

Cisco PCS services can be delivered remotely and/or onsite, depending on the services required and the complexity of the project. The Cisco PCS program offers three support levels designated as review, collaborate and development assistance. The channel partner and Cisco determine the level of assistance required through a skills gap analysis.

"We designed the program to be completely modular so channel partners can choose the intensity level of support they receive from Cisco," said Mike Farabelli, vice president of services marketing, Cisco Customer Advocacy.

The channel partner maintains the contractual relationship with their end customer, independent of the level of Cisco involvement. At the development assistance level, Cisco leads in the development and progression of a specific project or delivery of a specific service component, while providing tools, mentoring, knowledge transfer, consulting and the authoring of project documents which enhance the channel partner's capabilities. With the collaborative level of assistance, the channel partner collaborates with Cisco engineers throughout the development of a specific project or delivery of a specific service component. The collaborative effort includes mentoring, knowledge transfer, tools, workshops and jointly authored project documents. Under the review level of assistance, channel partners take the lead on a project but rely on Cisco to provide feedback and recommendations for channel partner-provided planning, design or implementation deliverables. Review assistance includes a review by Cisco as well as documented recommendations.

"Dimension Data prides itself on its extensive in-house expertise and services portfolio; however, because of these competitive differentiators, we are often called upon to implement the newest Cisco technologies," said Brett Ganey, Dimension Data North America senior vice president of Connectivity Services. "Dimension Data utilized the Cisco Partner Consultative Support program during a complex emerging technology deployment involving a brand new Cisco technology. This formalized consulting program allowed us to scale to the needs of our customer, collaborate with Cisco, and incorporate their leading practices and tools into our own integration methodology, Primer. With immediate access to Cisco intellectual capital and engineers, Dimension Data could improve ROI for the customer and maintain high customer satisfaction levels."

Cisco Systems Services Programs for Customer and Channel Partners

Cisco Partner Consultative Support is a Cisco Advanced Services program for channel partners that provides customized planning, design, implementation and optimization (PDIO) deployment support. PCS takes advantage of Cisco leading practices and methodology, expertise and world-class engineering consulting to help ensure the successful deployment of Cisco technology applications. PCS delivers on the promise of customer value based choice by extending the Cisco Advanced Service program to include a suite of tools, leading practices and engineering support services that channel partners can offer under their own brand of services. Channel partners who have met the appropriate qualifications are eligible to purchase the PCS program. Through PCS, channel partners are able to access assistance with and knowledge of technology revisions when they are first made available in the market. Additionally, PCS provides timely and practical assistance, enabling specialized partners to stay ahead of the technology curve.

Availability of PCS

Cisco Partner Consultative Support is scheduled to be available globally in April 2003. For more information on how your company can benefit from participation in Cisco Advanced Services programs for qualifying channel partners, contact your Cisco representative, or visit: www.cisco.com and view the "Partners and Resellers" section of the website.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com.

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