After fifteen months of development and joint design with its partners, the company has announced its new Cisco 360 Partner Program. Cisco’s success is based on working closely with its partners to meet customer needs in the changing world of AI.
Now, Cisco is strengthening its support for partners, while making it easier for them to help customers. The new program, designed for developers, consultants, managed service providers, resellers and other business models, better empowers Cisco partners to deliver results for customers in the areas of AI-ready data centers, future work environments and digital resiliency.
“Together with our partners, we have strengthened what is already a world-class ecosystem to deliver even more value and help our mutual customers connect, protect and thrive,” said Tim Coogan, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Partner Sales at Cisco.
“The Cisco 360 Partner Program helps us differentiate ourselves through our experience. We value being measured by the value we bring; that only benefits our mutual customers,” highlights Nicko Roussos, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Transformation for Cisco at TD SYNNEX.
Native AI infrastructure, services and capabilities
Cisco’s recent AI Readiness Index report shows that being AI-ready provides a competitive advantage for businesses. Meeting these needs depends on collaborating with expert partners to provide native AI infrastructure, services, and capabilities. Cisco 360 Partner Program recognizes partners’ expertise and rewards value creation throughout the customer lifecycle, allowing them to offer secure and agile solutions that accompany customers in their transformation.
Cisco 360 Partner Program: Alignment between partners and customers
The Partner Program is designed to provide clarity and help partners achieve more predictable returns. At the same time, with the new Cisco Partner Locator, customers can now search for the ideal partner across major Cisco architectures such as Security, Networking, Collaboration, Services, Splunk, and Cloud Infrastructure and AI.
Clearer, more predictable revenue for partners with Cisco Partner Incentive
Now available, Cisco Partner Incentive (CPI) streamlines elements of previous programs, provides partners with clearer, more predictable earnings across the Cisco portfolio, and helps partners plan for growth by aligning sales focus and go-to-market strategies with Cisco’s roadmap.
Helping customers find the right experience
Cisco’s new partner designations make it easier to identify partners with the right capabilities. All participants are recognized as registered Cisco partners. Cisco Portfolio Partners demonstrate proven sales and technical expertise, a strong practice, and a strong commitment to customer engagement. Cisco Preferred Partners go even further, offering advanced technical skills, strong lifecycle and adoption practices, and the ability to provide end-to-end solutions.
Improved resources
With new refunds, partner value indexes, development fund and artificial intelligence assistant. Cisco partners have access to new resources to help differentiate and optimize their offerings for customers:
• Cisco Partner Incentive (CPI): Cisco introduces CPI bonuses to increase partners’ earning potential, focusing on One Cisco, including new Secure Networks and Secure AI Infrastructure specializations. These temporary bonuses will expire at the end of July 2026.
• Partner Value Indexes (PVI): Cisco’s flagship measurement framework will soon add dedicated indices for developers/advisors, large-scale infrastructure, and resellers with customized learning roadmaps and opportunities for these different types of partners to increase their value and profitability.
• Distributor Development Fund: This new fund is designed to drive greater alignment and success between Cisco and the reseller, focusing on partner growth and enablement.
• Improved Cisco AI Assistant: A more intuitive Cisco AI Assistant for Partner Experience Platform (PXP) will help partners work smarter and focus on providing value to customers.
According to Elisabeth De Dobbeleer, Senior Vice President of the Cisco Partner Program, “Cisco 360 Partner Program is designed with partners to foster shared success, drive differentiation and help them grow with confidence. It is about conveying the unique value of our ecosystem to the market and our customers.”
“Insight is fully aligned with the Cisco Partner 360 Program and its focus on delivering meaningful results for customers. This focus reflects the way we work every day: we strive to solve complex business challenges and accelerate transformation. Together, we are positioned to generate even greater impact and measurable value for our joint customers,” says Kevin Brown, Vice President of Partner Management at Insight.
The Partner Program is designed to provide clarity and help partners achieve more predictable profitability in the age of AI
“We actively participated in the Cisco Partner 360 Program prior to launch and are already seeing the benefits of the Cisco Partner Incentive Estimator for planning. This information is essential to ensure we offer the most competitive solutions to our customers,” highlights Lane Irvine, Director of Strategic Alliances at Long View Systems.
For Alex Schank, Senior Partner Operations at Pomeroy Technologies, LLC, “Cisco has invested a lot of time and effort in redesigning this program. While there were understandable hesitation at first, it is clear that the improvements made throughout the process have strengthened the overall approach. I especially appreciate that partner input was carefully listened to and carefully considered throughout the process.”
Concluding the statements section, Anurag Agrawal, Founder and Chief Global Analyst at Techaisle, states that “Cisco 360 is a bridge to the new partner model: high-touch, high-value, results-based and AI-ready. Partners who adopt the Partner Value Index not as a scorecard but as a business plan will discover that 2026 will not be a year of consolidation, but of unprecedented profitability.”
