executive briefing guide


2Introduction | Agenda | Session Abstracts | Speaker Biographies | Directory

Dear Partner Operations Advisory Board Community,

We look forward to welcoming you to Dubai, UAE, for the 12th Cisco Partner Operations Advisory Board (POAB) meeting and 3rd meeting involving our global audience. The Cisco Partner Operations Advisory Board represents an opportunity for alignment as Cisco continues the journey to simplify our operating model, focus on our priorities and better enable success for you and your customers.

It is critical that as we make progress on our journey that we are aligned with our partners regarding the strategy, priorities and operational challenges that determine our ability to accelerate growth together. This is an exciting time for all of us. It is also a time of change and disruption. During times like this, alilgnment is essential.

The Global Partner Operations Advisory Board is chartered with providing a two-way conduit for information and ideas on operational issues with an overall goal of improving our partners' operational experience with Cisco. We have a lot to share with you and want your feedback on several topics to ensure that we are aligned and can execute with precision to support your growth and profitability goals.

We recognize that participating in POAB represents an investment from you and your companies. We would like to thank you for that investment and look forward to your active participation in Dubai.

To help you prepare, this Executive Briefing Guide offers a full view of our agenda, speaker biographies, session overviews with organizing questions, and a directory of registered attendees.

See you in Dubai.

Marc SurplusSenior Director of Strategy and Partner Experience

Gilles LeyratSenior Vice President, Customer and Partner Experience



AgendaMonday, 12 OctoberTuesday, 13 OctoberWednesday, 14 OctoberThursday, 15 October

M O N D AY, 1 2 O C T O B E R

18:00 - 20:00 Welcome ReceptionPresidential Suite

T U E S D AY, 1 3 O C T O B E R

07:00 - 08:00 BreakfastPalm Courtyward

08:00 - 08:30 WelcomeMarc Surplus, Senior Director of Strategy and Partner ExperienceGilles Leyrat, Senior Vice President, Customer and Partner ExperiencePalm Ballroom A

08:30 - 09:30 Aligning to Accelerate Success in a Dynamic Digital WorldOlivier Kohler, Chief Administrative Officer and Senior Vice President, Global Business ServicesPalm Ballroom A

09:30 - 10:30 The New Era of Partnership, Winning in the Digital AgeMilo Schacher, Vice President, EMEAR Partner OrganizationPalm Ballroom A

10:30 - 10:50 BreakPalm Foyer

10:50 - 12:00 Cisco Partner Ecosystem: Channel Partner, Solution Partner, Software and Services Partner Program UpdateSandra Flinders, Senior Director, Global Partner Organization, Partner ProgramsRobb Berger, Director, Global Partner ProgramRaul Pedraja, Senior Program Manager, Global Services Partner OrganizationPalm Ballroom A

12:00 - 13:00 LunchPalm Ballroom B

13:00 - 15:30 Regionional Breakouts (2.5 hours) see Regional Breakout Tabs


Regional BreakoutsTuesday, 13 October:(Americas)(EMEAR)(APJC)

DemosTuesday, 13 October



15:50 - 17:30 Improving the Partner Experience with xRMPat Piwowarczyk, Senior Director, Global G-to-Market Business CapabilitiesJennifer Petty, Director, xRM Partner Experience TransformationPalm Ballroom A

17:30 - 18:30 Free Time

18:30 - 22:00 DinnerAquara

22:00 - 23:30 After Hours ReceptionSeagrill On 25°

W E D N E S D AY, 1 4 O C T O B E R

07:00 - 08:15 Breakfast / Global Connection BreakfastPalm Courtyward

08:15 - 08:30 Day 2 IntroductionMarc Surplus, Senior Director of Strategy and Partner ExperienceGiles Leyrat, Senior Vice President, Customer and Partner ExperiencePalm Ballroom A

08:30 - 09:30 Internet of Everything and Making the Digital Transformation: The Value of the Cisco Partner EcosystemDuncan Mitchell, Senior Vice President, MIddle East, Africa, Russia and CIS (MEAR)Den Sullivan, Head of Architecture and Enterprise, Emerging MarketsPalm Ballroom A


10:00 - 11:30 Software Operations Strategy and Recent Lifecycle ImprovementsDave Chan, Senior Manager, Strategy and Planning, Go-to-Market and Offer Enablement, Global Business ServicesJigna Shah, Director, Incubation ServicesPalm Ballroom A

11:30 - 12:30 LunchPalm Ballroom B






12:30 - 13:45 Transforming to Support Annuity and Recurrent RevenueGilles Leyrat, Senior Vice President, Customer and Partner ExperiencePalm Ballroom A


14:00 - 15:15 Breakouts:

Cisco's B2B Business Model Ravi Sankar, Senior Director IT Brian Clarke, Crescent 2

Emerging Markets: Logistics, Supply Chain and Cisco's Local Entity Model Amy Kwan, Vice President, Global Business Services Jack Allen, Senior Director, Logistics and Manufacturing Solutions, Supply Chain Operations Gulf 4

Managing Your Cisco Service Partner Program and PMC Raul Pedraja, Senior Program Manager, Global Services Partner Organization Rita Dennehy, Senior Director, Customer Partner Experience (CPE) EMEAR, Cisco Systems International IBV Crescent 1


15:45 - 18:30 Networking ActivityPalm Ballroom A

18:30 - 19:00 Free Time

19:00 - 21:30 Reception and Dinner (at hotel)Sea View Garden

21:30 - 23:30 After Hours ReceptionSeagrill On 25°






T H U R S D AY, 1 5 O C T O B E R

07:00 - 08:00 BreakfastPalm Courtyward

APJC BreakfastGulf 4

08:00 - 09:00 Price Categorization Strategy and Launch UpdatePaul Fecteau, Senior Director, Global Business Services, Pricing Transformation EnablementBrenda Dennis, Senior Director, Worldwide Sales and TransformationPalm Ballroom A

09:00 - 10:15 Building Cisco's Unified Commerce SuperhighwayLars Thorsen, Director, Operations AmericasBrian Clarke, Senior Manager, ITPalm Ballroom A

10:15 - 10:45 Break and Hotel Check-OutPalm Foyer

10:45 - 12:00 Cisco (Inter)Cloud: The Platform and Ecosystem for Agile ITDave Roberts, Senior Director, Cloud Application StrategyPalm Ballroom A

12:00 - 12:30 Executive Panel & ClosingCisco ExecutivesPalm Ballroom A

12:30 - 14:00 LunchFlow Kitchen Restaurant






T U E S D AY, 1 3 O C T O B E R | B R E A KO U T S ( A M E R I C A S )

Region Lead: Marc Louderback

13:00 - 13:30 Improving Partner SatisfactionMarc Louderback, Senior Manager, Americas Regional Operations, Strategy and PlanningCrescent 1

13:30 - 14:30 Maximizing Services Install Base to Drive Customer Satisfaction and Program ProfitabilityMark Ebner, Operations DirectorConnie Dimitroff, Director of Strategy, Planning and Programs, Americas Partner OrganizationCrescent 1

14:30 - 15:30 Automation and Analytics with Global Customer SuccessBrian Hackett, Senior Director, Global Customer Success Annuities, EMEARCrescent 1






T U E S D AY, 1 3 O C T O B E R | B R E A KO U T S ( E M E A R )

Region Lead: Michael Roth

13:00 - 13:15 Welcome and IntroductionMichael Roth,Crescent 2

13:15 - 14:00 Automation and Analytics with Global Customer SuccessBrian Hackett, Senior Director, Global Customer Success Annuities, EMEARCrescent 2

14:00 - 14:45 Driving Partner Differentiation & ProfitabilityRob Sills, Business Development Manager, Partner Business Management, EMEAREric Elmaleh, Senior Manager, Business Development and Smart Services Sales, Cisco Partner Business Management, EMEARCrescent 2

14:45 - 15:30 Making the Complex Easy: Customer and Partner Experience EMEARRita Dennehy, Senior Director, Customer Partner Experience (CPE) EMEAR, Cisco Systems International BVCrescent 2






T U E S D AY, 1 3 O C T O B E R | B R E A KO U T S ( A PJ C )

Region Lead: Rehman Mohammed

13:00 - 13:15 Welcome and Update on the Action Items from POAB San FranciscoRehman Mohammed, Senior Director, APJC Regional Operations, Customer and Partner ExperienceGulf 4

13:15 - 14:15 CPE Update: CPE Evolution, Partner QBR, Key Highlights for APJC CPE & Product and Service RoadmapRehman Mohammed, Senior Director, APJC Regional Operations, Customer and Partner Experience Soumya Basu, Director, APJC Regional Operations, Customer and Partner ExperienceGulf 4

14:15 - 15:30 Partner Organization FY16 Priorities and Key Focus Areas: Partner Planning, Partner Programs, PSAT, Q&A and Partner DiscussionSameer Apte, Senior Manager, Partner Strategy, Programs and OperationsGulf 4






T U E S D AY, 1 3 O C T O B E R | D E M O S

16:15 - 17:30 Total Program ViewAndrea Simmonds-Kwakye, Senior Manager, Operations, Business CapabiltiesCrescent 1

Personalized Content & CommsJennifer Petty, Director, xRM Partner Experience TransformationCrescent 2

Simplified OnboardingPat Piwowarczyk, Senior Director, Global Go-to-Market Business CapabilitiesGulf 4

Managing Certifications & SpecializationsVishal Nayak, IT Director, Partner TransformationGulf 5






Session Abstracts

In order to make the most of time we will spend together, we are providing brief summaries of topics that will be discussed. Please review this section to better understand key Cisco strategies and direction.

Aligning to Accelerate Success in a Dynamic Digital WorldOlivier Kohler, Chief Admistrative Officer and Senior Vice President, Global Business Services

Digital businesses are creating the New Digital Economy and disrupting the market on a massive scale. Every person, process, and thing in our customer’s ecosystem is becoming connected, and this digitization transformation is creating new opportunities for profitability for those who lead, align with, and accelerate this movement. Cisco is making bold moves as it leads our customers, our company and partners, and the market in this rapidly shifting environment. In this session, Olivier Kohler, Chief Administrative Officer and SVP, Global Business Services, will share Cisco’s vision and strategy for fueling this acceleration, and the alignment and clarity required to be the strategic partner for our global customers to attain success.

The New Era of Partnership, Winning in the Digital AgeMilo Schacher, Vice President, EMEAR Partner Organization

Are you ready to accept and implement change? Are you ready to lead conversations on digitization, big data, workforce experience and vertical solutions?

Milo Schacher, VP Partner Organization EMEAR will discuss the important market transitions impacting the industry and our customers, and how Partners can grow and remain profitable.

During this interactive session, Milo will address the following:

• How the Partner Ecosystem evolving

• How Partners successfully help our customers to become digital

• How Cisco is enabling Partners to embrace change, build new capabilities, transform, and win

Are you ready? We are ready to win in the Digital Age with you.

Cisco Partner Ecosystem: Channel Partner, Solution Partner, Software and Services Partner Program UpdateSandra Flinders, Senior Director, Global Partner Organization, Partner Programs Robb Berger, Director, Global Partner Program Raul Pedraja, Senior Program Manager, Global Services Partner Organization

In this session Sandra will share recent changes to the Program team and how these changes will make Cisco more effective in supporting our partners. Next, we’ll look at areas of focus and progress for the Cisco Partner Program and Cisco Services Partner Program. We’ll discuss changes underway, and others being considered, while soliciting input from the group on further ways we can enhance and simplify our programs. Included will be an update on the Cisco Software Partner Program announced at Partner Summit.

Improving the Partner Experience with xRMPat Piwowarczyk, Senior Director, Global Go-to-Market Business Capabilities Jennifer Petty, Director, xRM Partner Experience Transformation

Cisco xRM Partner Experience Transformation will simplify, streamline and ultimately transform our partners’ experience working with Cisco. We’ve heard you say that our tools are too complex and disconnected. You’ve told us you want a seamless experience that helps you drive your business faster and better. To that end, we’re rolling out process, policy and system improvements, taking into account your specific feedback and needs. Let our experts show you what we’ve been working on and how we’re streamlining the maintenance of your data and the management of your program information, including certification and specialization requirements and status.

Discussion Questions:• How can Partners benefit from the capabilities enabled?

• How do the improvements in Partner Experience translate into productivity and, ultimately, growth?

• What do Partners need to do differently because of the new capabilities



The Internet of Everything and Making the Digital Transformation: The Value of the Cisco Partner EcosystemDuncan Mitchell, Senior Vice President, MIddle East, Africa, Russia and CIS (MEAR) Den Sullivan, Head of Architecture and Enterprise, Emerging Markets

To be ready for the wave of digital transformation that is taking hold across the world, customers need to transform their business strategy and IT, connect everything, embrace analytics, and secure their technology and operations. Cisco’s Digital Platform provides our partners with an open, scalable, secure, and manageable environment for integrating their capabilities into our solutions and creates a foundation for global and local partners to meet specific customer needs. The critical value provided by Cisco’s partners is integrated throughout the IoE Digital Platform and in all of the vertical solutions we offer.

Software Operations Strategy and Recent Lifecycle ImprovementsDave Chan, Senior Manager, Strategy and Planning, Go-to-Market and offer Enablement, Global Business Services Jigna Shah, Director, Operations, Incubation Services

In this session, we will spend time walking through the roadmap, informing you of our current plans for simplifying Cisco’s software portfolio and managing the customer lifecycle. We will move on to share where we are headed with the pilot release for our consistent renewal process. Finally we will demonstrate and review the programs about Smart Accounts and the opportunities they present. Each of the last two portions is to be interactive where we will encourage dialogue and feedback from you, our partners. At the end we will open up for questions.

Discussion Questions• How does our roadmap influence your selling strategy?

• Are we missing anything significant?

• In either of these areas, what resonates with your business the most? What resonates the least?

Session Abstracts

Transforming to Support Annuity and Recurrent RevenueGilles Leyrat, Senior Vice President, Customer and Partner Services

In this session, we will showcase how we are building our operational platform to support the shift towards a much more substantial portfolio of annuity and subscription based offerings. We will start with an update on what annuity revenue we are collectively operating for, both in our services and software businesses and the key differences between annuity operations across Cisco. You will then be shown the steps and processes we are currently using and the improvement areas and plans we have identified to make it easier for you to do business with your customers and with Cisco. This includes helping to drive Greater Adoption and improving your ability to expand and renew your subscriptions across your entire portfolio of Ciscos offers including the illustration of annuity opportunities to revenue generation. We will illustrate this through practical tool demonstrations and road maps. You will then have an opportunity to share areas we should consider for process improvements through table discussions and share best practices.

We will also provide you with actions we are planning to take to you can share back with your teams.

Discussion Questions: • How can we improve our annuity operations from a policy,

process and tools

• What best practices can we adopt between us to make our joint operations more effective?



Session Abstracts

Cisco's B2B Business ModelRavi Sankar, Senior Director, IT Brian Clarke, Senior Manager, IT

Do you want to accelerate and optimize your interactions with Cisco via automation? Do you already have automation solutions in place and want to know what’s coming to extend? In this session, Brian Clarke, Senior Manager, IT will provide an overview of Cisco’s B2B approach for those new to the B2B space. He will also do deeper dives into several key strategic areas where partners have expressed interest in the past:

• Parity between our portal offerings (CCW & CSCC) and our B2B suite

• Our approach to enable new Software models through automation

• Our vision for the future of renewals management

We will also have opportunities for dialog and will be seeking partners to help us define solutions in the upcoming years roadmap.

Emerging Markets: Logistics, Supply Chain and Cisco's Local Entity ModelAmy Kwan, Vice President, Global Business Services Jack Allen, Senior Director, Logistics and Manufacturing Solutions, Supply Chain Operations

Cisco’s legal entity structure and the way we export, import, and deliver products can have major impacts on our partners. The two areas must work together seamlessly to complete our partner’s commercial transactions. How Cisco executes in these areas will help drive our partners’ time to market and ease of doing business.

Cisco has been investing and is continuing to make major investments in these areas. Amy Kwan and Jack Allen will discuss changes in our country enablement, local legal entity structure, our means to deliver, and how we are working to

improve the partner experience in these areas. Amy is over the Country Enablement initiative, a major, multi-year Cisco program to retool and expand our legal entity presence worldwide. Jack Allen leads Logistics and Export Operations for Cisco and will discuss the Logistics(3.0) program, a major upgrade of our global logistics capabilities worldwide and Emerging Markets & Logistics, how “unique” emerging markets are and the impacts to our legal entity structure and logistics processes.

You will hear about how we are aligning our commercial structure and our delivery structure to better match the partner needs and desires. Cisco will also explain new capabilities and offerings in the commercial entity and logistics delivery spaces. More than that, though, is your ability to influence key Cisco leaders and policy makers in areas that you, the partners, want to see from us. Amy and Jack are here to listen to your needs, concerns, and operational imperatives in the area of how our local corporations are structured, and how our products are delivered.

Please attend this session if you have an interest in Logistics, Export, Legal entity structure, or how we manage the delivery end of our order/delivery experience.

Managing Your Cisco Service Partner Program and PMCRita Dennehy, Senior Director, Customer Partner Experience (CPE) EMEAR, Cisco Systems International BV Raul Pedraja, Senior Program Manager, Global Services Partner Organization

In this breakout session, you’ll learn about the changes we’ve implemented over the last year to improve your overall experience in managing your PMC metrics and CSPP performance. Leveraging the POAB community and forums, we’ve heard you clearly that first and foremost your priority is publication of accurate metrics. We’ll share the changes we’ve made to publish accurate data and the focus areas moving forward. We’ve continued to listen and respond with new capabilities that enhance your experience managing



CSPP with Total Program View. This new capability launched on August 30th and was designed with our partners, and provides an easy to use, comprehensive view of your partner programs ….from enrollment, eligibility and compliance, and performance and rebates. Additionally, we’ll review a number of open concerns raised directly by POAB partners and review program governance.

Price Categorization Strategy and Launch UpdatePaul Fecteau, Senior Director, Global Business Services, Pricing Transformation Enablement Brenda Dennis, Senior Director, Worldwide Sales and Transformation

In this 1 hour session we will update you on our Price Categorization strategy presented at the last POAB. We will also provide you details on our initial and upcoming Market and Net offer launches and share our current roll out, change management and operational plans.

Discussion Questions• Are you operationally ready for Price Categorization?

• Given our slow roll out strategy, what is the preferred change management process you would like to see?

• Are we missing anything significant?

Building Cisco's Unified Commerce SuperhighwayLars Thorsen, Director, Operations Americas Brian Clarke, Senior Manager, IT

In this session, we will update you on the roadmaps that have been created to bring together Cisco’s product and service ordering platforms into ONE Unified Commerce “Superhighway” Platform. We will start with an update on SOAR that has focused on solidifying the foundation through business rule simplification and eliminating impediments that have slowed down the sales cycle and impacted your productivity. You will be shown the progress, results and metrics illustrating how Phase 1 and 2 have established a simplified foundation towards automation and digitization that are foundational to our Cisco Operations

strategy of the future. We will then showcase our new 4 lane superhighway for Unified Commerce focusing on accelerating business in the Quote to Order Experience for Software, TS Renewals, Advanced Services and B2B. This Superhighway has been built upon a world class Cisco-on-Cisco and open stack infrastructure that enables resiliency, digitization, analytics and insights that will help us continue to make continuous improvements to support the experience of our customers and your business.

We will also provide you with solid messaging and actions we plan to take that you can share back with your teams.

Discussion Questions:• What are the top three opportunities for improvement we

could deliver in our strategy that would enable a better experience? What gaps do you foresee causing delays?

• What should be Cisco’s priorities as we continue to evolve the commerce experience? What attributes would you like to see on the journey that will help you achieve a better experience?

• What would enable you to accelerate your sales and achieve the maximum benefit from your Cisco Commerce experience?

Cisco (Inter)Cloud: The Platform and Ecosystem for Agile ITDavid Roberts, Senior Director, Cloud Application Strategy

Did you feel it? The IT landscape experienced a tectonic shift over the last few years away from slow traditional IT products and processes and toward agile products and processes. IT budgets are being distributed among enterprise lines of business. Developers are now being hailed as the new “kingmakers” and being given power over IT buying decisions. This is the largest change in the IT landscape since the development of the original Internet and is both a threat and an opportunity. Cisco has addressed this challenge with Intercloud, a global network of clouds providing enterprises with an agile

Session Abstracts



Session Abstracts

foundation on which to build agile, cloud-native applications. This session will describe how Intercloud works for both IT and developers, the various ecosystem roles, and specific Intercloud offers hitting the market. Finally, we’ll conclude with specific next steps that partners should undertake to ensure a smooth engagement with these offers and effective sales motions.

Improving Partner Satisfaction Marc Louderback, Senior Manager, Americas Regional Operations, Strategy and Planning

Welcme to POAB. As we kick off our Americas Breakout, we would like to hear from you regarding two topics, 1. POAB expectations and 2. improving your experience with Cisco operations.

1. As a member of the Cisco Partner Operations Advisory Board, Cisco is committed to delivering relevant content and discussion regarding key topics that shape our portfolio, programs and support model. In exchange, Cisco expects your active participation in our face-to-face event and regular checkpoints throughout the year. We expect you to take the messages and plans that you hear about at POAB back to your companies and the teams that engage with Cisco.

Discussion Questions:• What can Cisco do to better equip you after the event to

inform your teams?

• What would you like to see Cisco incorporate into our POAB framework?

2. One of the goals of the Cisco Customer & Partner Experience organization is to simplify the operational engagement and make it easier for your company to conduct business with Cisco. Our journey to this goal is ongoing, and we try to demonstrate progress through each engagement, case and communication. As we kick off our Americas breakout, we would like to engage you in a conversation about improving your experience with Cisco.

Discussion Questions:• What are the 2 or 3 areas that if improved could significant

move the needle with respect to your teams productivity with Cisco?

• Where are the opportunities to drive efficiencies in how we engage?

Maximizing Services Install Base to Drive Customer Satisfaction & Program ProfitabilityMark Ebner, Operations Director Connie Dimitroff, Director of Strategy, Planning and Programs, Americas Partner Organization

Install base is a hugely important asset for Cisco and partners. In our traditional businesses it drives services attach and renew annuities as well as upsell/cross sell opportunities. In a cloud and consumption-based world, the stakes are even higher as customer success and adoption requires knowing not only what the customers have, but what are they using, how are they using it, and what can be done to help them be more successful and thus buy more.

A strong practice in this area can significantly increase customer satisfaction as you and your customer are aligned with respect to the equipment in their network. This alignment also improves the confidence between our account teams throughout the renewal lifecycle. In addition to these benefits, the Cisco Partner Program rewards our partners for investing in an install base practice through rebates that are driven by service attach and renewal performance.

In this session, we will review Cisco’s install base toolkit and offers that drive data quality and enable a systemic approach to install base management. As a Cisco partner, you can leverage these offers and tools to augment your own capabilities. We will also review the programmatic benefits that you are eligible to receive and enhance the profitability of your Cisco business. This will be an interactive session designed to solicit feedback,



identify current pain points and prioritize what is needed to better support the needs of our customers.

Discussion Questions:• What are your top pain points with install base management?

• What are you biggest challenges with respect to optimizing the Cisco Partner Program incentives?

• What would help you the most to accelerate growth and improve productivity?

• What are your top questions about Cisco’s install base and entitlements strategy?

Automation and Analytics with Global Customer SuccessBrian Hackett, Senior Director, Global Customer Success Annuities, EMEAR

In this session we will share how the newly formed Global Customer Success organization will benefit our Partners annuity business. Global Customer Success utilizes adopt, expand and renew motions to drive the annuities sales across Software and Services identifying sales opportunities to expand Cisco’s and our Partner’s footprint using automation platforms and analytics capabilities.

Specifically we will share the benefits that our Partners are receiving from our existing automation and analytics capabilities in our annuities business. We will discuss how our recently released Annuity Coverage Workspace platform is transforming annuities lifecycle management with our Partners. We will explore how Global Customer Success is applying automation techniques to quoting based on our recent acquisition of MaintenanceNet and share how this platform is being developed, seeking your feedback.

Driving Partner Differentiation & ProfitabilityRob Sills, Business Development Manager, Partner Business Management, EMEAR Eric Elmaleh, Senior Manager, Business Development and Smart Services Sales, Cisco Partner Business Management, EMEAR

Supporting your profitability by recognizing value add investments by rewarding and differentiating through our incentives is key to Cisco’s Partner strategy. During this breakout session we will provide an update on Guided Deal Registration (GDR) and our new incentive framework launched in March. We will share plans on future enhancements and adoption activities.

We will also provide you with an update on One Partner View and how it fits with the various tools you have access to. What we heard from you during our FY15 engagements, key lessons learned and where we are heading to.

Discussion Questions:• How was GDR and benefits like stacking & combining

incentives on single deal; BoM adjustments without re-approval; streamlined & visible Cisco approvers … received within your organization?

• How could we further improve your Partner quoting experience through CCW?

• As we continue to enhance and rationalize our incentive framework, how should we balance our incentives? Support Partners selling into market segment (PSPP) and architecture (Collaborate Now) with competitive pricing or recognizing single partners with value add differentiation on individual opportunities (New Account Breakaway)?

Session Abstracts



Session Abstracts

Making the Complex Easy: Customer and Partner Experience EMEARRita Dennehy, Senior Manager, Customer Partner Experience (CPE) EMEAR, Cisco Systems International BV

As Cisco Operations continues to drive for simplification and ease of doing business, Rita Dennehy will walk you through the key priorities from Customer and Partner Experience (CPE), what's coming in terms of ops digitization and the main impacts to Cisco Partners' experience. The benefits of a true business partnership between Cisco Operations and our Partners will also be highlighted through real examples of critical CPE offerings. This session will provide you a brief overview of CPE's value proposition and how it can be leveraged as a differentiator.

Welcome and Update on the Action Itms from POAB San FranciscoRehman Mohammed, Senior Director, APJC Regional Operations, Customer and Partner Experience

Cisco team will welcome APJC POAB partners and open the session with short introduction of POAB for the new members. Rehman will also provide status update on the actions taken for the questions from APJC partners in the POAB San Francisco.

CPE Update: CPE Evolution, Partner QBR, Key Highlights for APJC CPE & Product and Service RoadmapRehman Mohammed, Senior Director, APJC Regional Operations, Customer and Partner Experience Soumya Basu, Director, APJC Regional Operations, Customer and Partner Experience

Operational Excellence:

Readout on operational performance delivered for POAB partners using a combination of operational metrics and key performance measures around QBRs delivered, long term fixes implemented.

CPE Evolution:

How is CPE evolving as an organization and building capabilities to support our partners strategic/tactical operational needs better. A view of tomorrow.

Key capabilities update across product/services:

A readout on key commerce / operational capabilities to drive partner productivity /PSAT. This will connect to some of the careabouts that were shared by APJC POAB partners on operational pain points/areas they would want us to focus in the regional breakout.

Partner Organization FY16 Priorities and Key Focus Areas: Partner Planning, Partner Programs, PSAT, Q&A and Partner DiscussionSameer Apte, Senior Manager, Partner Strategy, Programs and Operations

We will cover the FY16 Partner Organization priorities which will tie up to some of the key focus areas that will build up to our 3 year strategy for Cisco.

Partner Planning: We will look at the Modality of planning for FY16 and also look at what is being done differently from the previous years

Partner Program: We will provide an update on the Partner Programs and evolution of programs in the region.

PSAT: We will look at the modality on PSAT and the approach we are taking in FY16.



Executive BiographiesJack Allen Sameer ApteSoumya BasuRobb BergerDave ChanBrian ClarkeYolanda DavisRita DennehyBrenda DennisConnie DimitroffMark EbnerEric ElmalehPaul FecteauSandra FlindersBrian HackettOlivier KohlerAmy KwanGilles LeyratMarc LouderbackDuncan MitchelRehman MohammedVishal NayakRaul PedrajaJennifer PettyPat PiwowarczykDavid RobertsRenee SandersonRavi SankarMilo SchacherJigna ShahRob SillsAndrea Simmonds-KwakyeDen SullivanMarc SurplusLars Thorsen

Jack AllenSenior Director, Logistics and Manufacturing Solutions, Supply Chain Operations

Jack Allen is the Senior Director of Logistics and Manufacturing Solutions for Cisco’s Supply Chain Operations group. In this role, Mr. Allen manages the forward and reverse logistics,

transport, warehousing, packaging engineering, and customer logistics for a worldwide logistics network, as well as strategic sourcing and partner/supplier management for ODM/OEM products and outsourced supply chain service providers, that supports Cisco’s annual revenue stream of over $40B.

Over the last five years under his leadership, his organization has both increased its scope while generating significant cost savings, and implemented organizational and systems changes to align with industry best practices while improving its focus on true customer needs. Mr. Allen came to Cisco from Scientific Atlanta, Inc. when it was acquired by Cisco in 2006, bringing over 20 years’ experience in manufacturing, supply chain, sales and general management.

Mr. Allen’s current passion and focus is creating a better-than-world-class Logistics and Manufacturing Solutions organization for Cisco and developing the leadership talent to move that forward.

Sameer ApteSenior Manager, Partner Strategy, Programs and Operations

Sameer leads the Partner Strategy, Programs and Operations as part of the APJ Partner Organisation. Based out of Mumbai, India, he leads a team working closely with the Theater Partner teams in the areas

of Partner Planning, Contra Management, Program Adoption, PSAT Governance, Promo council governance, Partner Business Intelligence to name a few.

Sameer has around 20 years of solid industry work experience in India and Asia Pacific Markets in the areas of Channel management , Sales and Marketing ,Strategy & Planning. He joined Cisco in 2004 and has worked in various positions in the India and the Asia Pacific teams in Cisco across these 10 years.

Sameer has an Engineering degree and an MBA post graduation from the Mumbai University, India.



Soumya BasuDirector, APJC Regional Operations, Customer and Partner Experience

Soumya Basu is the APJC director of Customer and Partner Experience, part of Cisco’s Global Business Services organization. He runs the India & SAARC CPE regional operations organization responsible

for operational engagement with Cisco’s customers and partners in the region and also plays the operational advisory role to the country GM as a country operations leader.

Prior to his current role, Soumya was in the Supply Chain Operations function at Cisco and has fulfilled multiple responsibilities including leading the Lean Forward program focused on distributor profitability in India and managing the supply planning capability for key supply sites in cisco’s supply chain footprint.

Soumya has worked in business and supply chain consulting domain prior to Cisco for 15 years spanning the spectrum of supply chain improvement service areas including process reengineering, value discovery diagnostics and network/inventory planning/optimization engagements.

Soumya is based in Bangalore, India with his wife and a son. He is an alumni of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

Robb BergerDirector, Global Partner Program

Robb Berger is the Director, Global Partner Program in Cisco’s Global Partner Organization. In this role, Robb and his team are responsible for leading Cisco’s Certification, Specialization and Incentive programs. In prior roles, Robb led

the Worldwide Partner Go-to-Market strategy for Cisco Small Business; as well as the Partner GTM strategy for Commercial Collaboration and WebEx.

Robb has over 20 years of experience working with Software as a Service, Managed & Hosted Services as well as Hardware resale. Prior to Cisco, Robb had leadership roles in Sales, New Product Introduction, and Channel Development. Companies that Robb has worked for include Nortel Networks, Natural Convergence & Verizon/GTE.

Robb holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Colgate University and a MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He resides with his family in Dallas, Texas, USA.




Dave ChanSenior Manager, Strategy and Planning, Go-to-Market and Offer Enablement, Global Business Services

Dave Chan is a Senior Manager of Strategy and Planning for Cisco’s Software Operation Transformation. Dave works across the organization

to launch new software capabilities, software offers, and buying programs. Dave works with product management, the partner organization, IT, finance, and the Customer Partner experience teams. His major focus areas include launching new software buying programs, program managing the delivery of new Software platforms, and Enterprise Architecture.

Dave joined Cisco via the acquisition of IronPort Systems in 2007. Prior to IronPort Dave has held positions at Alcatel-Lucent and Ensim Corporation in Sales Operations, Product Management, and Channel & Account Management.

As a native of Iowa, Dave received his Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two daughters, and in his spare time he enjoys running and participating in triathlons.

Brian ClarkeSenior Manager, IT

Brian Clarke leads our partner facing engagement team within Cisco Commerce IT. In this role, he is accountable for all B2B engagements between Cisco and our customers, partners, and distributors. Brian also leads our change management team,

accountable for preparing change management materials in support of Cisco Commerce Workspace (CCW). Brian has been driving B2B engagement at increasing levels of accountability at Cisco for 8 years. He has over 20 years of experience in system to system and business to business integration in the high tech industry. Brian holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. He was born in Canada and now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.




Yolanda DavisSenior Manager, Operations

Yolanda Davis is a Sr. Manager of Operations in Cisco’s Customer Partner Experience organization. She has global operations responsibility for Partner Programs Services supporting our direct, indirect and services partners.

Yolanda’s organization designs and delivers operational support for partner programs such as partner registered deal qualification and approval, partner on-boarding and off-boarding and profile updates, Certification and Specialization inquiries, program enrollment, and rebate related inquires. She partners with our business capabilities teams applying an outside-in perspective to the end to end process, in driving process simplification. She is relentlessly passionate about delivering the highest levels of partner satisfaction.

Yolanda’s role encompasses strategy development, program management, and operations. Yolanda has led large-scale strategic programs focused on Shared Services, CRM, and vendor strategy and execution. She also has prior experience in sales operations, business capability optimization, operationalizing new service programs and managing support teams. Prior to joining Cisco, Yolanda implemented Customer Service Center toll account management software, and managed the day to day call center operations.

Yolanda holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering, from Cornell University and a Masters in Civil Engineering, focused on Transportation Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.

Rita DennehySenior Director, Customer Partner Experience (CPE) EMEAR, Cisco Systems International BV

Rita Dennehy is Senior Director for the Customer & Partner Experience Organization for the EMEAR region, within the Global Business Services Organization. She leads

the company's operations initiatives in this region, enabling solutions and services opportunities to optimize deal readiness and sales productivity. Rita and her team provide high-quality, consistent services to make it easier for customers, partners and sales teams to do business with Cisco.

Since joining Cisco in 1998, Rita has served in Customer Service and Operations leadership positions, building a solid track record of leading teams and working with customers, partners and key stakeholders, providing a relentless focus on returning productivity to the field and driving ease of doing business for our customers and partners. Prior to her current role, she was responsible for managing the Worldwide Customer Operations Field Solutions team. Additionally, she led a large-scale change management program to oversee design and implementation of this important endeavor.

As a native New Yorker, Rita began her career working in the commercial insurance industry in risk management. To pursue an international career she relocated from New York City to Denmark in 1996. In 1998 Rita joined Cisco in Amsterdam, The Netherlands before relocating to Portugal in 2013. Her team is based in several key locations throughout the EMEAR region.

Rita holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Economics from Ithaca College. She resides in Cascais, Portugal with her husband Andrew and in her free time Rita enjoys traveling the world and cooking.




Brenda DennisSenior Director, Worldwide Sales and Transformation

With over 18 years in the $46B Cisco Sales organization, Brenda Dennis is currently Senior Director of WW Sales Strategy and Transformation where she is responsible for sales growth and acceleration strategies,

to include Cloud, IoE, Pricing, SP, and more. She helps to set strategy and marshal the collective resources of the company to deliver a transformational customer experience. In her previous role as Global Sr. Sales Director, she led a 130+ person sales and engineering organization, with revenue responsibility in excess of $.8B. Before joining Cisco, Brenda spent eight years at Sprint Communications in Sales Leadership and was Sprint’s nomination for Fortune Magazine’s “Hot Shots Under 30 in Telecom”. With a passion around developing people, creating inclusive work environments and giving back to the community, Brenda is an Executive Sponsor for the Cisco Empowered Women’s Network (CEWN) and a sought after speaker. She actively gives back to the community, serves on the Boards of the Alice Paul Institute and is a three year Board Chair of Big Brothers Big Sisters NJ. Brenda earned a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Marymount University, a Business Administration (BA) degree in International Business from Oregon State University, and studied at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.

Connie DimitroffDirector of Strategy, Planning and Programs, Americas Partner Organization

Connie Dimitroff serves as Director of Strategy, Planning and Programs for the Americas Partner Organization. In this role, Connie is responsible for developing and implementing

channel strategy and building a partner program portfolio that enables our partners to profitably grow their product and services sales.

While at Cisco, Connie has held sales and sales strategy roles within the Americas. She and her team have implemented sales acceleration strategies to capture market transitions and launched partner programs focused on driving partner profitability, growth and simplification.

Connie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from North Carolina State University. Connie lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband and four children.




Mark EbnerOperations Director

Mark Ebner has been with Cisco more than 14 years holding various positions throughout the Supply Chain and CPE organization. Mark first joined Cisco as a New Product Program Manager coordinating New Product Introductions for the Mid Range

Routing platforms. He held positions in Central Planning, Demand Planning, Supply Planning, and was a core team member of the transformation projects of Cisco Lean and Demand Planning Excellence. His last position within Supply Chain was a Planning lead under the Customer Value Team supporting our Latam Cisco 3.0 customers Telmex and America Movil. In this role, Mark and his family spent one year in Mexico City where he was able to more deeply understand and influence the customer’s needs on both the product planning and service contract maintenance areas. In his last years in Supply Chain, he also led the Inclusion and Diversity team for that organization.

In 2011, Mark joined CPE as the Operations Manager leading the Latin Americas Services Regional Ops team. Mark’s role expanded to run both the product and services teams supporting Canada and US Enterprise in January 2013, expanding again in October of that same year to include the US Public sector Regional Ops teams. Mark continues to help influence the results and direction of the America regional ops team in FY15 by leading the regions Install Base strategy and partnership with the Technical Services Entitlement organization. In January 2015 CPE was selected to deliver the new offer of Asset Management to our customers. Along with continuing to sponsor Asset Management as a Service delivery, Mark leads our Americas Regional Ops teams for Canada, US Public Sector, and Latin America.

Mark lives in San Jose with his wife and three young kids. Outside of work, Mark has been a math tutor for high school students, a diversity awareness trainer for a summer youth camp and raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society while training for 5 marathons and 2 triathlons. Mark received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California/Davis.




Eric ElmalehSenior Manager, Business Development and Smart Services Sales, Cisco Partner Business Management, EMEAR

Eric Elmaleh manages Smart Services Sales, Business Development and Services Partner Programs across Europe, Middle East, Africa and

Russia (EMEAR). Eric has successfully led the roll out of the Cisco Services Partner Program (CSPP) to more than 20,000 Partners in the EMEAR Region. His responsibility includes the adoption of Smart Services and Partner value realization across our key Partners in EMEAR. Recently he delivered more than 1000 Smart deployments through EMEAR Partners, leading to double-digit growth in their product and services business with smart enabled end-customers.

Together with his Team Eric is also developing One Partner View, a framework that will enable Cisco PAMs and PSDMs to lead a strategic business conversation during Partner QBRs, providing benchmarking capabilities, key insights and recommendations on how Partner can grow their business and profitability.

Eric has been with Cisco since 2000, working in various roles, including Services Partner Sales management for France, Iberia and Benelux; managing Services Sales for Global Partners in EMEA, such as Telindus; NCR; Unisys; EDS and IBM for 2 years and 4 years managing 1-Tier Services Partner business across the former Emerging Markets.

Prior to joining Cisco, Eric held various channel and sales position in Ascend Communication and Timeplex and CS Telecom Group.

Eric holds a Bachelor ‘s in Electronics and a Master’s Degree in Marketing and Sales, both from Paris XI.

Eric lives near Paris with his wife and 2 children, does Karate and enjoys playing Tennis with his son.




Paul FecteauSenior Director, Global Business Services, Pricing Transformation Enablement

Paul Fecteau holds the lead global role and responsibility for the operational enablement of Cisco’s Pricing Transformation initiatives. Paul and his team are focused on refining

and enabling existing operational models and enabling new offer types and new consumption models.

Since joining Cisco in 1997, Paul has held roles as; Senior Director New GTM Program Evolution, Chief of Staff and Senior Director of Americas Partner Organization, Director of Americas Programs and Business Operations, Director US Field Channels Operations, Senior Manager WW Channels Business Operations, Manager of Channel Operations, and Channel Account Manager.

Prior to Cisco, Paul spent 10 years in various Networking Channel sales and distribution roles with Anixter, GTE Supply, Allied Telesis and N-Base Communications. Paul earned a B.S. degree in Marketing and Industrial Sales from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He lives in Denver Colorado with his wife Pam and two teenage children. When not working, he enjoys bike rides & fly fishing.




Sandra FlindersSenior Director, Global Partner Organization, Partner Programs

As Senior Director of Programs for the Global Partner Organization, Sandra Flinders leads the partner programs and channel strategy and execution globally for Cisco. Sandra was the central architect and

business leader of the Cisco Services Partner Program which extends Cisco’s value-based channel model and provides partners with access to new smart services to help drive their differentiation and strengthen customer relationships. With the merger of the product, software and services organizations, Sandra is now leading a combined global program team that will drive the evolution of Cisco’s Architectures, Software, Managed Services, Cloud, and traditional services with a focus on partner profitability and simplifying our partner’s business relationships with Cisco. Building industry leading programs and infrastructure taught Sandra important lessons about how to streamline and deliver an optimal partner experience worldwide.

As a sought after thought-leader in the industry, Sandra capitalizes on her more than 25 years of executive leadership experience in product and service channel strategy development, management and sales, and has a history for building and launching industry-envied partner programs. Prior to joining Cisco, she was the Director of Channel Service Sales at Avaya where she led the development and execution of their global services strategy and channel program design. While with Lucent Technologies, Sandra led their SMB Channel Sales team for products and services. Sandra has also held director-level positions with AT&T in sales, sales management and operations, and marketing.

Sandra holds a bachelor’s degree from Radford University and an MBA from the Mason School of Business at the College of William and Mary. She resides in Virginia with her husband and four beautiful German shepherds.




Brian HackettSenior Director, Global Customer Success Annuities, EMEAR

In August 2015 Brian became the Senior Director for Global Customer Success Annuities (EMEAR). Brian’s Global Customer Success team utilizes adopt, expand and renew motions to drive the annuities sales

across Software and Services identifying sales opportunities to expand Cisco’s and our Partners footprint. Global Customer Success applies standardization, centralization and automation to scale and grow the business utilizing data-driven analytics from customer usage and installed base metrics.

Brian joined Cisco in August 2010 as Director of Services Sales for the UK and Ireland and in August 2013 changed role to lead the Cisco Partner Services and Commercial Services Sales for EMEAR . Prior to Cisco Brian was with Oracle/Sun for 20 years where he held a number of Director positions including Service Sales Director for Northern Europe, Systems Practice Director and Director of Financial Services Sales.

Brian graduated from the University of Westminster in Computer Engineering followed by postgraduate MA in Marketing.

Brian is married with two children and enjoys running, cycling, and snowboarding in his spare time.




Olivier KohlerChief Administrative Officer and Senior Vice President, Global Business Services

Olivier Kohler is Cisco’s Chief Administrative Officer and Senior Vice President of Cisco Global Business Services, which leads the transformation of Cisco’s operating

model and manages the execution of globally consistent and integrated enterprise shared services to enable Cisco’s growth. The organization’s focus on operational excellence is essential to providing an improved experience for Cisco customers, partners, suppliers, employees, and shareholders while reducing the overall cost-to-serve for the company. A focus on continuous innovation also is vital to developing a comprehensive transformational roadmap for Cisco. The organization accomplishes this by engaging early and deeply with the business and by establishing end-to-end policies, processes, and systems that provide scalability and agility to accelerate positive business outcomes.

In addition to his role in Global Business Services, Kohler co-chairs Cisco’s Business Architecture Steering Committee with CIO Rebecca Jacoby to align systems and technology projects with business needs and operations.

Prior to joining Cisco in 2010, Kohler spent 28 years with Hewlett-Packard, where he gained experience across diverse business units and functions. His most recent positions include Senior Vice President of Enterprise Strategic Alliances and Senior Vice President of Sales Operations. Other post roles include Senior Vice President of eBusiness and Customer Operations, Vice President of Information Technology, General Manager of the North America consumer business, Director of the Internet business unit, and Controller of the product-

support division. He also served in various services and support functions in the U.K. and Switzerland. During his tenure at HP, Kohler was part of the executive team responsible for planning and integration for the HP-Compaq merger.

Kohler holds business and information technology degrees from the Geneva Business School.




Amy KwanVice President, Global Business Services

Amy has been with Cisco for almost 16 years, and is currently a Vice President in Global Business Services. From her leadership in the past, the Finance Shared Services area is well recognized with a keen

focus on operational excellence, compliance, and innovation to enable both business growth and people development. In the transformation area, her team enabled the Oracle 12 ERP platform upgrade, providing speed and agility across the entities which directly contribute to growth for Cisco. Her team's engagement and collaboration across many functions has led to high-impact results and industry recognitions.

Amy has recently taken on a role to help accelerate Cisco’s digitization around the offer life cycle. The charter is to bring capability delivery to a new level with a sharp focus on developing connected capability and enhancing user experiences.

In her journey at Cisco, Amy has had exciting opportunities in Corporate Accounting, Financial Planning and Analysis, and Sales Finance. She was the first leader who guided Cisco to a successful Sarbanes-Oxley certification back in 2005.

Prior to Cisco, Amy worked at SGI, Teradyne, and Coopers and Lybrand. She has a BS from the University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from Boston University, and a CPA.

Gilles LeyratSenior Vice President Customer and Partner Experience

Gilles Leyrat is Senior Vice President of Customer and Partner Experience, part of Cisco’s Global Business Services group. With operational responsibility for engagement with Cisco’s customers, partners, and

sales his goal is to be the execution hub for all Cisco solutions while delivering the appropriate balance of optimization, high quality, and consistent services and make it easier for customers and partners to do business with Cisco.

During his time at Cisco, Leyrat has played an integral role in the transformation of Cisco’s operations into a balanced direct and shared service model with improved productivity and efficiency for customers, partners, and sales in their procurement of Cisco products and services while operationalizing new business models. Prior to his current role, he served as Vice President of Cisco’s Data Center/Virtualization Segment Operations group, working with people inside and outside the company to strategize and build an end-to-end operations model. He was responsible for the creation of policies, processes, systems, and tools needed to support operational capabilities in partnership with cross-functional teams.

Leyrat has extensive IT industry experience. Before joining Cisco, he served in a variety of global leadership roles with Hewlett-Packard, introducing a holistic approach to the company’s operations. He also served as general manager of a software start-up company, developing computer-aided simulations for major manufacturers in the defense, automotive, and aerospace industries.

Leyrat holds a doctorate in ocean engineering from Florida Atlantic University as well as several advanced degrees in applied mechanical and materials engineering.




Marc LouderbackSenior Manager, Americas Regional Operations, Strategy and Planning

Marc Louderback leads the Americas and GET Operations Strategy and Planning Team. The key areas of delivery for Marc’s team include the management of the organization’s portfolio of services, project SOAR,

Partner Training and Communications. He is also the co-lead for the Global POAB event and the region lead for the Americas Breakout at POAB.

Prior to this position, Marc led the Partner Operations organization for the Americas Region. The Americas Partner Operations team delivers consultative support to Cisco Partners in order to optimize our operational engagement. They provide high-quality, consistent service to make it easier for Cisco Partners to conduct business with Cisco.

Before moving into Operations, Marc was a member of the Americas Partner Services Sales Organization where he held a number of different positions focused on growing the Cisco Services business through and with Partners. Over the course of Marc’s 15 year Cisco career, he has worked with many of Cisco’s Partner Segments including Service Provider, Global & National Partners, Distribution, etc.

Prior to joining Cisco in 1999, Marc served as a Services Sales Manager at Oracle Corporation where he managed a team responsible for developing the services business supporting

Oracle software solutions.

Marc lives in Pleasanton, CA, with his wife and 2 sons.

Duncan MitchelSenior Vice President, Middle East, Africa, Russia and CIS (MEAR)

Duncan Mitchell is responsible for Cisco’s business in 84 countries throughout the Middle East, Africa, Russia & CIS, a multi-billion dollar operation. He is also a member of Cisco’s Emerging Countries Council.

Cisco’s vision for MEAR is to lead emerging country innovation, prosperity, sustainability and social inclusion through life-changing, intelligent networks.

Duncan has lived in the Middle East for the last six years and spends the majority of his time travelling and connecting with Cisco’s customers, partners and employees. He engages at the highest levels to contribute to the delivery of the national agendas across our major markets. In addition to these responsibilities, Duncan’s leadership priorities focus on strategy plus talent acquisition and development.

Duncan also has a strong personal interest in Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility programs, including the Networking Academy Program, which delivers ICT training to help improve career and educational outcomes for individuals in communities around the world.

Previously at Cisco, over a four year period, Duncan ran Cisco’s business across the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe. Before that, he served as the UK & Ireland Managing Director for seven years, at that time the largest country operation outside North America, having previously been responsible for Cisco's Service Provider business across a number of European markets. He joined Cisco in 1996.

In 2008, Duncan was awarded a CBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for services to business in the United Kingdom.




Rehman MohammedSenior Director, APJC Regional Operations, Customer and Partner Experience

Rehman Mohammed is the APJC senior director of Customer and Partner Experience, part of Cisco’s Global Business Services organization. He runs the company’s

APJC organization responsible for operational engagement with Cisco’s customers and partners. Rehman’s team focuses on ensuring the appropriate balance of optimization, high quality, and consistent service to make it easier for customers and partners to do business with Cisco.

Prior to his current role, Rehman worked in supply chain at Cisco and led the global program “Lean Forward” which aligned the supply chain from Cisco closer with the supply chain of key distributors to remove activity duplication, drive out cost, free up working capital and create opportunities for re-investment into growth initiatives. In the first 12 months of the program, $95m of working capital was released back into the distribution channel.

Rehman has worked in the IT industry for 25 years, 14 years of those at Cisco. Prior to Cisco, Rehman worked as a managing consultant for VIA International, a global channel consultancy which helps companies configure their offers (Channels + products + services) to deliver the experiences that customers want. Clients included IBM, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Tech Data and a number of major channel partners.

Rehman is based in Singapore with his wife and 2 daughters, he is a qualified chartered accountant (Price Waterhouse, London) and graduated with an Honours degree in Accounting and Economics from Birmingham University.

Vishal NayakIT Director, Partner Transformation

Vishal Nayak is an IT Director in Cisco’s Customer and Partner Experience organization. Vishal has global IT responsibilities for Partner’s On-Boarding, Distribution management, Certifications & Specialization management,

Compliance, Service Metrics and Incentive Rebates. Vishal’s team is part of Cisco’s xRM Program specifically focused on Partner Experience Transformation from an IT standpoint.

Vishal’s responsibilities encompass supporting business continuity, building Experience Transformation strategies / roadmap with Stakeholders (including Partners) and executing on Systems and Technology aspects of the program. His team is very passionate in driving simplicity, business outcomes (profitability, growth) with data driven insights and creating a world-class Experience for our Partners and Cisco.

Vishal has a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from University of Mumbai. Vishal brings perspectives from his global experience working in Asia, Europe and America across various IT, Regional and Operational roles.




Raul PedrajaSenior Program Manager, Global Services Partner Organization

Raul is a Senior Manager who was responsible for defining, designing and driving the execution of the Cisco Services Partner Program since its inception. His roles have included the development of the services global

compensation strategy, defining the framework for services eligibility and representing services in key strategic initiatives like Software Support Service (SWSS) and Cisco One.

Raul comes to Cisco with almost 30 years in various strategic and business planning roles in addition to his director role in developing services offers and go-to-market strategies for channel partners including VARs, DVARs and System Integrators. Raul has been with Cisco supporting the Cisco Services Partner program and other key initiatives since 2008.

Raul has a BS BA degree in Finance/Economics from Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts. Raul currently lives in sunny Florida with his wife Leonora.

Jennifer PettyDirector, xRM Partner Experience Transformation

As a Director of Operations in the Global Business Services organization, Jennifer is responsible for bringing cross functional teams together to transform Cisco’s Partner Experience working closely with the

Global Partner Organization, the Customer Partner Experience team and other groups within Cisco who care deeply about making Cisco easier to do business with. The xRM Partner Experience Transformation team aims to deliver an integrated relationship management strategy driving consistent enterprise-wide policies, processes, systems and data; implementing a platform for innovation and collaboration; and working cross-funcationally to deliver a seamless partner experience.

Over her 15 years at Cisco, Jennifer has held various roles. Immediately prior to her xRM role, Jennifer was responsible for driving the evolution of Cisco’s International Expansion strategy, managing the 3 year portfolio prioritization process and ensuring strong decision making and execution through multiple layers of governance. Jennifer has also worked as a Senior Finance Controller, Global Supply Chain Management (Manufacturing) Manager and Program Manager at Cisco.

Jennifer earned an MBA in Organizational Leadership and Financial Management at JFK University, and a BS in Economics from Saint Mary's College of California. She is the mother of a 5 year old boy, who is the light of her life. Jennifer also enjoys traveling, cooking, gardening, photography and various outdoor activities.




Pat PiwowarczykSenior Director, Global Go-to-Market Business Capabilities

As Senior Director, Global Go-to-Market Capabilities at Cisco, Pat Piwowarczyk is the lead for Sales, Channels, Services and Compensation Capabilities. Pat drives and delivers the Business Capabilities

that advances Cisco’s go to market strategies. He believes in true client engagement, enablement and developing a strong relationship with his stakeholders. Pat believes in the importance of understanding the business priorities and needs of your stakeholders in order to effectively solve their challenges and assist in accelerating their success.

Prior to joining to Cisco, Pat served as Vice President of US Enterprise and Channel Sales at D-Link Systems where he was responsible for upwards of $40M in annual sales business as well as successfully driving the expansion of the D-Link solutions in the enterprise market. Pat has had an excellent track record of growing sales 22% year-over-year. Previously, Pat spent nine years at 3Com Corporation, where he held positions of Regional VP of Sales, Director Channel Sales for North America, and Business Development Manager.

With over 19 years of sales experience in the Technology industry, Pat has a proven track record of exceeding sales quotas and delivering exceptional results and was recognized as a “Top 10 Up & Comer of 2011” by CRN.

Pat resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and son where they enjoy music, biking, and the beach as well as constantly eating their way through the LA cuisine.

David RobertsSenior Director, Cloud Application Strategy

Dave Roberts brings 26 years of technology experience to his role of Sr. Director, Cloud Application Strategy, at Cisco Systems. Prior to Cisco, Dave was Executive Advisor at BMC Software. A thought leader

in cloud computing, agile IT, and digital transformation, Dave routinely speaks on cloud and DevOps strategy at conferences around the world. He holds nine patents and has written three books on computer programming and data communications technology. Dave graduated with highest honors in computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.




Renee SandersonDirector, M&A Partner Integration Strategy, Global Partner Organization

Renee Sanderson leads the team that defines and drives Cisco’s global mergers & acquisitions partner integration strategy. She and her team are responsible and accountable not only for the end-to-end

integration of indirect sales, but also for the smooth transition of the acquired companies' channel inventory, programs, contracts, and all manner of partner and indirect sales engagement. Renee and her team also lead indirect sales strategy planning for Cisco Corporate Development divestitures, joint ventures, and investment-backed alliances. In addition, Renee is a leader within Cisco Connected Women and was a multi-year co-chair of the group’s Professional Development pillar. Renee is a recognized leader in the channel at large and was named a 2015 CRN Woman of the Channel.

Renee joined Cisco in February 2011 to scale Cisco’s indirect sales acquisition integration practice, a role she had formed and developed at Hewlett-Packard. In her 16-year career at HP, in addition to M&A work, Renee held leadership roles in the networking and storage business units, always focused on building and growing HP’s channel.

Prior to joining HP, Renee was a business development manager at Maritz Inc., managing sales and marketing initiatives for twenty-one Fortune 500 companies.

Renee holds a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University. She and her husband and their yellow Labrador retriever live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the whole family enjoys chasing tennis balls for sport.

Ravi SankarSenior Director, IT

Ravi Sankar, Sr. Director IT, delivers the tool capabilities supporting Cisco’s Quote to Cash business process. He owns Cisco’s world-class e-commerce portal and B2B systems as well as Cisco’s back-office ERP systems for Order to

Cash, including cutting-edge revenue recognition and attribution systems. Ravi has been with Cisco for almost 15 years. During this period, he has held a number of key leadership roles including Financial & Corporate Systems and the Enterprise Data Warehouse at Cisco. Prior to Cisco, Ravi held leadership positions at Bell & Howell and Perot Systems. Ravi holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Madras and MBA from the University of Iowa.




Milo SchacherVice President, EMEAR Partner Organization

Milo Schacher provides strategic direction for Cisco’s Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia (EMEAR) Partner Organization. Named Vice President in 2006, Schacher held various senior positions including

leading the commercial, marketing, operations, and channels teams. Building loyalty with Cisco’s partners has allowed Schacher to focus on long term profitable growth. This strategy enabled him to go main stream across 123 countries, achieving a 4.5% monetary increase for Emerging Markets CAGR over the past six years.

Schacher introduced Cisco’s Partner Strategy around Partner Satisfaction, Partner Profitability, Partner Differentiation and Partner Led and is responsible for driving close to 90% of the business in EMEAR through the 33,500 Cisco EMEAR Partners. Coupled with key functional expertise, he has specific responsibilities of leading the Partner Led Go to Market for EMEAR.

Schacher joined Cisco, Switzerland in 1997, beginning as an Account Manager in charge of Public Sector and later taking on the role of Director Service Provider (EMEAR). Since that time, Milo has received a number of awards. He was the recipient of the Service Provider Sales award each year from 2000 to 2004. In 2005, he received the One Channel Innovation award and in 2007, he was recognized with the Emerging Leadership award.

Schacher is based in Zürich. He holds a degree in business and engineering from the Oekreal School of Business and Institut für Technische Ausbildung, Zürich and attended the Stanford Executive Program in 2013.

Jigna ShahDirector, Operations, Incubation Services

Jigna Shah is the Director for Incubation Services for Cisco. Her group is responsible for integrating and incubating new business models into Cisco’s main stream operations including internal and acquired

Software Offers and New Business Models.

Jigna believes in “making the complex easy” by driving assessments and process design for simplification, operational scalability and out-side in customer and partner experience. She leads the Software Ops Help Desk for World Wide Sales which is helping accelerate Cisco’s revenue growth in new Software Offers like Cisco ONE, Software Enabled Services, Software ELA and XaaS.

Jigna’s team also drives optimization and internal adoption of key processes, policy and tools in Cisco’s Commerce landscape that enable Cisco’s Revenue stream.

Jigna is based in the Silicon Valley/ SF Bay area.




Rob SillsBusiness Development Manager, Partner Business Management, EMEAR

Rob has been with Cisco for over 9 years as part of the Partner Programs & Incentives team. During that time Rob has developed and managed many of Cisco’s successful partner

incentive programs. This includes creating Public Sector Partnering Program (PSPP), our most successful Program in EMEAR.

As well as his day to day Partner Incentives responsibilities, he has been involved in several global partner initiatives and leads the strategy for EMEAR on Pricing Transformation and Guided Deal Registration.

Prior to Cisco, Rob worked for Unilever and several retail organisations in areas of CRM, Loyalty Programs, Marketing and Project Management.

Rob holds a BSc in Industrial Management, from Nottingham University. He lives near Reading and is married with 2 young daughters. He enjoys rugby, football, golf and wine!

Andrea Simmonds-KwakyeSenior Manager, Operations, Business Capabilities

Andrea Simmonds-Kwakye is a Sr. Manager of Operations in Cisco’s Route-to-Market Capability Enablement organization. She

has responsibility for providing end to end capabilities and processed to support Product and Services Channel Programs.

Andrea’s organization works closely with her IT Solutions team to deliver capabilities to support all aspects of partner programs including Certification and Specialization, program enrollment, payment calculation, reporting, and payment management. She partners very closely with our Channel Program Management team to ensure the capabilities being delivered provide the best experience for Cisco Channel Partners. Additionally she works closely with the Partner Program Support team to address partner satisfaction inquiries.

Andrea’s responsibilities also include program management, payment policy and compliance, vendor management and operations. Prior to joining Cisco Andrea has experience in new product introduction and development, customer escalation management, and portfolio management.

Andrea holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, from Brooklyn Polytechnic University and a Master’s of Science in Engineering Management, from Santa Clara University. Andrea is also certified as a Project Management Professional.




Den SullivanHead of Architecture and Enterprise Emerging Markets

Den is responsible for helping customers in 84 countries align their business priorities with their IT strategies. His role is to demonstrate how an architectural approach to IT can help businesses thrive in a world

where people want to share rich media with anyone, anywhere, on any device, at any time –securely, reliably, and seamlessly.

Prior to his role as Head of Architectures and Enterprise for Emerging Markets, he was CIO for a sales region that spanned Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Under his leadership, the IT Group made significant investment to support tremendous growth in the region. This meant transforming the organisation’s foundational infrastructure while providing a portfolio of new capabilities such as Telepresence, and additional video and collaboration technologies.

Den joined Cisco, and the IT Architecture Group, in 2000. He was responsible for several large-scale advanced technology programmes including the initial portfolio of Virtual Private Networks, Wireless and IP Telephony services. In 2003 he managed the transition of the European, Middle East and Africa WAN to a Multicast MPLS network, the first of its kind globally.

Prior to joining Cisco, Den held a number of management positions in utilities, public sector and consulting.

Den lives in Dubai with his young family and has run the London Marathon on ten occcasions.




Marc SurplusSenior Director of Strategy and Partner Experience

Marc Surplus is Senior Director of Strategy & Partner Experience for Cisco’s Global Partner Organization. In this role, Marc is responsible for developing and implementing strategic initiatives and go-to-market

innovations that leverage Cisco’s connected partner ecosystem, which accounts for more than 80% of Cisco’s revenue, to create profitable growth and capacity for Cisco and its partners.

Most recently, Marc led Strategy & Partner Programs for Cisco’s Americas Partner Organization, which represents the company’s largest geographical region (United States, Canada, and Latin America) with annual revenues of over $18 billion. In this role, Marc was responsible for designing strategies and partner programs that enabled the region’s 23,000 partners to increase profitability and grow sales across all routes to market.

Throughout the remainder of his tenure at Cisco, Marc has led various sales strategy, planning and operations teams at the US, Americas and Worldwide levels. Marc was a Senior Director in Cisco’s Worldwide Strategy & Planning Organization, where he was responsible for developing and implementing both go-to-market and sales acceleration strategies across Cisco’s global field operations. Marc has also served as Director of Operations for Cisco’s US Enterprise business. Prior to that, Marc led the strategic planning processes for the US & Canada Theatre.

Marc has spent more than twenty years in leadership positions across technology, sales, and consulting. Before joining Cisco, Marc was CEO of ForwardVue Technologies, a financial risk management software company. Marc also served as Vice President & General Manager for Trilogy Software, one of the largest privately held enterprise software companies. Earlier in his career, Marc was an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company.

Marc received a Masters in Business Administration from the Wharton Business School. In addition, he holds a Master of Arts in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Miami University of Ohio.




Lars ThorsenDirector, Operations Americas

Lars and his teams today are responsible for improving operational rigor, operational readiness across the business portfolio and supporting the commit process. In addition to these responsibilities, Lars also leads project SOAR (Simplifying and Optimizing

Annuity Revenue) which is focused on commerce business rule simplification in CSCC (Cisco Service Contract Center).

Lars is an eighteen year Cisco veteran leading Sales and Operations teams. Lars has held various Service Sales leadership positions for fourteen years within the Americas, delivering sales growth and operational excellence before making the career transition to Operations. For the past four years he has lead various operations across all sales segments in Americas leading with the “outside in” perspective.

Lars holds two Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Environmental Science from The University of California, Riverside. Lars lives in Woodacre, Ca with his wife Theresa and 2.5 year old twins Finn and Olina. Lars enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding and gardening in his spare time.




PARTNERS

Mohamad Abou-ZakiCOOEmircom [email protected]

Jorn AndersskogPartner [email protected]

Atul BansalCEOVelocis [email protected]

Dennis BehrensSr Engineering DirectorBlack Box Network [email protected]

Damian BoltServiceNet [email protected]

Sue BonarSr Vice President of Sales Operations & ProgramsSirius Computer [email protected]

Henry BoutryAlliance ManagerProximus / [email protected]

Vittorio BriniSenior Manager Strategy & Business DevelopmentGulf Business [email protected]

Susan CanlasHead - Supply Chain ManagementTrends & Technologies, [email protected]

Thanakorn CharleeChief Operating OfficerMFEC Public Company [email protected]

Audrey CheahAlliance ManagerUXC [email protected]

Elson ChiaCountry Head, Infrastructure Services and SolutionsFujitsu [email protected]

John ColemanDirector, Product & Partner [email protected]

Samuel CorderyHead of Sales [email protected]

Hector [email protected]

Paul CrillyChief Financial OfficerLogicalis Australia Pty [email protected]

Pam DamerCisco Practice [email protected]

Sanjin EterovicChief Sales and Marketing OfficerMrezne tehnologije [email protected]

Bruce FlitcroftCEOAlliant [email protected]

Juan GuerraExecutive Director Partner OperationseLoyalty [email protected]

Jan HartmannAlliance [email protected]

Angie HillerCisco Alliance ManagerWorld Wide [email protected]

Martin HoyerService [email protected]

Robert HudsonCategory Manager - Networking, Security & [email protected]

Renae JohnsonVP Cisco [email protected]

Matthew JonsonVP, Product Development & StrategyAlliant [email protected]

DirectoryPartner AttendeesCisco Attendees



Dirk KieferSenior Vice PresidentCancom Didas [email protected]

Rajiv KumarCEOProactive Data Systems Pvt. [email protected]

Jenny LarssonBusiness [email protected]

Chris LeemingEVP Operations & GDSWestcon [email protected]

Jianhua LiExecutive DirectorDigital China Advanced Systems [email protected]

Jean-Jacques LognonGlobal Cisco Business [email protected]

Vincent LohDirector NCS Pte [email protected]

Marcel LuijkDirector Partner & Vendor [email protected]

Inigo [email protected]

Kent MacDonaldVice PresidentLong [email protected]

Bryan MainNational Operations Support [email protected]

Matthieu MatthieuVice-President PartnershipsOrange Business [email protected]

Scott McNairPre-sales Engineering ManagerCVE [email protected]

Hans MoserHead of Supply Chain Management B2BSwisscom Schweiz [email protected]

Anil NejhawanHead Business and Allinaces - NetworkingWipro [email protected]

Uzo ObiExecutive DirectorResourcery [email protected]

Renato PattaroPartner ManagerNEC Latin [email protected]

Beau PernaManager, Cisco [email protected]

Axel PetersCategory Manager NetworkingComputacenter AG & Co [email protected]

Paula PetersCisco Business [email protected]

Xavier PiekarzAlliance [email protected]

Moises PozorroCisco Global Operations ManagerIngram [email protected]

Pascal RijsAlliance [email protected]

Nicholas RoussosDirectorTech [email protected]

Simon [email protected]

Reto [email protected]

Ravi ShankarGeneral Manager Product Operations GISWipro [email protected]




Ethan SimmonsVP, Operations & [email protected]

Ricardo SofiattiLatam Alliances [email protected]

Debbie-Jayne StevensCisco Alliance [email protected]

Michael SussmanSales [email protected]

Angela SwensonCisco Program [email protected]

Gustavo [email protected]

Maarten van GelovenAlliance ManagerVosko [email protected]

Pamela VastolaSr. Partner Operations ManagerIngram [email protected]

Robert VennerAlliance Team LeaderDimension [email protected]

Charles Voon South ShiongRegional Director - Asean3D Networks Singapore Pte [email protected]

Christine WolffGroup Vice PresidentDimension [email protected]

John ZimmerCOOAxcess A/[email protected]




CISCO

Jack AllenSenior Director, Logistics and Manufacturing Solutions, Supply Chain [email protected]

Sameer ApteSenior Manager, Partner Strategy, Programs and [email protected]

Soumya BasuDirector, APJC Regional Operations, Customer and Partner [email protected]

Robb BergerDirector, Global Partner [email protected]

Anne BoltonSenior Director GBS, xRM and [email protected]

Dave ChanSenior Manager, Software Strategy and Planning, Go-to-Market and Offer Enablement, Global Business [email protected]

Brian ClarkeSenior Manager, [email protected]

Jason CohenAmericas Enablement And [email protected]

Yolanda DavisSenior Manager, [email protected]

Rita DennehySenior Director, Customer Partner Experience (CPE) EMEAR, Cisco Systems International [email protected]

Brenda DennisSenior Director, Worldwide Strategy Sales and [email protected]

Ismael DiazDirector of SC [email protected]

Connie DimitroffDirector of Strategy, Planning and Programs, Americas Partner [email protected]

Mark EbnerOperations [email protected]

Eric ElmalehSenior Manager, Business Development and Smart Services Sales, Cisco Partner Business Management, [email protected]

Paul FecteauSenior Director, Global Business Services, Pricing Transformation [email protected]

Sandra FlindersSenior Director, Global Partner Organization, Partner [email protected]

Brian HackettSenior Director, Global Customer Success Annuities, [email protected]

Afif HamdamSenior Operations [email protected]

Olivier KohlerChief Administrative Officer and Senior Vice President, Global Business [email protected]

Lejla KuhinjaProgram [email protected]

Amy KwanVice President, Global Business [email protected]

Gustavo LarachLatAm Strategy and Planning [email protected]

Wonah LeeManager, Partner and Distribution [email protected]

Gilles LeyratSenior Vice President, Customer and Partner [email protected]

Marc LouderbackSenior Manager, Americas Regional Operations, Strategy and [email protected]

Sujit MenonManager, Partner [email protected]

Duncan MitchellSenior Vice President, MIddle East, Africa, Russia and CIS (MEAR)[email protected]




Rehman MohammedSenior Director, APJC Regional Operations, Customer and Partner [email protected]

Scott MoreySenior [email protected]

Vishal NayakIT Director, Partner [email protected]

Raul PedrajaSenior Program Manager, Global Services Partner [email protected]

Jennifer PettyDirector, xRM Partner Experience [email protected]

Patrick PiwowarczykSenior Director, Global Go-to-Market Business [email protected]

David RobertsSenior Director, Cloud Application [email protected]

Michael [email protected]

Shadi SalamaCommercial Sales Leader, Emerging [email protected]

Renee SandersonDirector, M&A Partner Itegration Strategy, Global Partner [email protected]

Ravi SankarSenior Director, [email protected]

Swati SaranVice President [email protected]

Milo SchacherVice President, EMEAR Partner [email protected]

Jigna ShahDirector, Operations, Incubation [email protected]

Robert SillsBusiness Development Manager, Partner Business Management, [email protected]

Andrea Simmonds-KwakyeSenior Manager, Operations, Business [email protected]

Mark StancombePartner Business [email protected]

Den SullivanHead of Architecture and Enterprise, Emerging [email protected]

Marc SurplusSenior Director of Strategy and Partner [email protected]

Lars ThorsenDirector, Operations [email protected]

Beat UmbrichtDirector, EMEAR Strategic Partner [email protected]

Suzanne VereschaginSenior Director, Global Partner [email protected]

Zhen ZhouProgram [email protected]


executive briefing guide

Documents