Cisco Bolsters Small Business Portfolio With New Products, Programs and Services

To assist SMB channel partners, Cisco Capital extended its zero percent financing terms for Cisco Unified Communications and Small Business Pro series solutions through July 2010 with 36 month same-as-cash terms and the option to own the equipment at lease termination.

“We know clearly how we’re going to succeed in this market,” Sage said. “We want to invest and develop value in services and support, products and solutions and help our partners to profit from their efforts,” he said.

Sage said that SMB partners had made substantial use of the vendor’s Partner Development Fund program, an initiative that now contains some 20,000 participants, a number of which boast growth rates of more than 40 percent quarter-over-quarter, he said.

“The vast majority of our 78,000 partners sell in one capacity or another to the SMB market,” Sage said. “More than 70,000 are two-tier, local in nature, and, while not exclusively focused on small businesses, get significant sales from that market.”