Las Vegas is just starting to get really hot this time of the year. Cisco wants to find the same kind of heat in the bottom portion of the SMB/commercial space.
Now, they are doing well in that space at $1.5 billion (all figures U.S. dollars), but the addressable market is worth $10 billion that means is there are many more players involved doing well in this area.
Doing well for a company like Cisco is just not good enough. The company has much higher standards and you can sense it from its executives. They all worry about quotas, expectations and goals.
So while $1.5 billion is good for most companies it is not great for Cisco.Now having said all that, the challenge as I see it is one of perception, especially in Canada. The question is can Cisco resonate in small business the same way Microsoft does?
I really do not know, and I get the sense from talking to Cisco executives and partners that they don’t either. Let me make something clear: no one at Cisco has told me this straight up. It is just a gut feel I have and nothing more. I think the channel team at Cisco Canada is optimistic. I also believe the strategy with SMB Select and Smart Business, for example, is a sound one.
The number of SMB businesses in Canada that Cisco stated to the press was 990,000. Sure, that is a big pool of potential customers. And yes, a lot of SMB businesses are acting like an enterprise. To go one step further Cisco’s Smart Business portfolio is priced right at $699 per seat.
But here are the challenges: Are the smaller businesses in SMB interested enough in something that is still complex technology for them? Are there enough channel partners ready, willing an able to fulfill this need in the market place in Canada? And can Cisco engage with them?
I also want to bring this topic up: Is any of this profitable for the channel? I can easily see the Smart technology helping out these smaller businesses and in turn Cisco sells more products. But can the channel make money and enough of it to sustain this practice? I am not sure.
One reseller told me it would be adequate. As for the many gold, silver and premier partners in Canada will they really be interested in this affordable play? Maybe; maybe not.
So that means for Cisco to be successful they need to transition its registered partner base into SMB Select partners fast. I am sure these types of partners want to do this, but will they find the talent, the investment dollars to ramp up properly for this effort?
It is one thing to engage with smart resellers and quite another to successfully engage with the bottom end of the channel food chain.
One thing in Cisco Canada’s favour is its strong relationships with broadline distributors Tech Data and Ingram Micro. I really believe distribution can build this SMB bridge for Cisco. The distributors know the channel players better than anyone and they can tell them about this opportunity not just in the major centres, but in Saskatchewan and in the Atlantic Provinces.
One quick hit before I go: PR practitioner Laila Kaiser will be leaving the Cisco channel family to live in Singapore. She is not doing this as a career move, but for a higher purpose: love. I wish her the best and she will be undoubtedly missed.
– Posted by Paolo Del Nibletto, 4/04/07, 6 PM, [email protected]
My so-called butler
OK, some readers of Monday’s blog decided to comment to each other on my so-called butler.
For the record, I do not have one nor am I planning to hire one any time soon.
For those readers who decided not to comment, Paolo’s ‘butler’ is a reference to my boss’s son, who was asked by his dad to scan in all my business cards so that I can have access to them electronically.
Now, he is a good kid who was at the office for take-your-kid-to-work day. I really appreciated him doing and again I did not ask him to do this thankless task.
So now that you know, I can move on to other things more important, such Toronto’s Terminal 1 airport.
As I write this on Tuesday, finally, after a long delay, the U.S. departure gates have been opened for my first time using this facility. I hated Terminal 2. It was a ghost town and was one of the worst airports in the world for its size in my opinion and in the opinion of others.
This new place is very spacious and has many more amenities, such as a Tim Horton’s and few restaurants and bars. It also has NEC Display Systems’ cinema-style flat panel LCDs informing us on flight times. Some even showed TV.
I will be blogging and reporting from Las Vegas on the Cisco Partner Summit, which started yesterday.
As a matter of fact, Terminal 1 uses predominantly Cisco equipment for communications. Even a lot of the commercials in the airport are about Cisco’s human network. Well shall see.
I will be staying at the Venetian Hotel, which by the way, has butler service.
– Posted by Paolo Del Nibletto, 4/04/07, 11 AM, [email protected]
One quick hit before I go. Vancouver-based Cisco media spokesperson Gareth Pettigrew will be running the media portion of the Cisco Partner Summit for the first time since replacing Lang Tibbels. I wish him luck.
My handheld device is my wallet
Nancy Maloney of Alcatel-Lucent has been e-mailing me recently. She and I used to work together a long time ago.
She asked me about my business card file back in the day. She assumed that I had converted it all to a BlackBerry.
I used to have trays of business cards but I gave them all away to a young man –- it must have been 10 years or so ago -– who was dying of cancer and wanted to break the Guinness Book of World Records mark for the most business cards collected.
My total was around 15,000 so I hope he achieved his goal.
Even though I gave away all my business cards I still kept collecting them. Every time I interviewed someone famous I would get his or her card.
My boss, Joe Tersigni, has begged me to transfer all of my valuable contacts electronically, but I simply do not have the time or the inclination. So he had his son come in and do it for me. It took him more than half a day.
I refuse to use a BlackBerry or any other handheld device not because they are lousy products. I believe they are fantastic products, but they are not for me. I do not enjoy being second best to an electronic device. I do carry my cell phone and that is my de facto handheld device. I only store a few personal contacts on this phone and I do not use it for business at all.
The handheld device, in my opinion, has disrupted the flow of human communication. Two people can be talking about something interesting or vital and then someone gets pinged. What does that person immediately do? He or she stops talking and responds to the call or text message or e-mail or whatever, while the other one waits. When the two re-engage the original topic of conversation has been forgotten. It has been disposed of like yesterday’s garbage.
I know that I am rare in this world. I know that one day the handheld device will carry my ID, my driver’s license, my photos of the my family and friends, my banking card, my credit card, my Starbuck’s debit card, my Costco membership card, my Starwoods Resorts affinity card, my Aeroplan travel card and I would not be surprised if it carried my SIN number, health card, and birth certificate.
The leather wallet may go the same way as the buggy whip. But I can tell you I will fight it all the way.
One quick hit before I go. Former Tech Data Canada and 3Soft vice-president Marc Steiman is now with the Toronto Chapter of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals.
– Posted by Paolo Del Nibletto, 3/30/07, 11 AM, <a href=mai
