Linksys SMB integrated into Cisco portfolio 12 August, 2008 By Chris Talbot

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With this change, the Linksys SMB brand will be incorporated into Cisco's SMB portfolio. Many partners already sell both Cisco and Linksys products, said Bob Martin, territory marketing manager for SMB Canada at Cisco Systems, but up until now, they've had to purchase through two separate partner programs. Cisco has changed that -- although Linksys consumer products will still stay at Linksys.

"With this catalog of solutions, we needed to find a way to basically address the growing VAR market and the growing SMB market and give our partners more resources," Martin said.

The integration offers one solution set for VARs to go to market with, he said. Partners will get the benefit of having only one partner program and one brand to deal with.

Since acquiring Linksys in 2003, Cisco has grown the business from one based mostly around consumer products to one with over 150 products, many of which (the Connected Office brand) are targeted at SMBs.

By moving the products to Cisco, partners will be more efficient in offering total solutions to their customers because they'll be able to match products from both businesses for their customers more easily, Martin said.

As the Linksys SMB brand has grown, many Cisco VARs have begun selling Linksys products in addition to Cisco products, he said. That meant they had to deal with two partner programs and two sets of products. The integration of Linksys into Cisco will have a very positive effect on VARs and will make it that much easier to sell products from both companies, he said.

"Now they only have to deal with one partner program. All of their sales will be recorded and they can receive benefits under one program rather than having it under two buckets," Martin said.

Additionally, resellers that have only sold Linksys products to date will now have access to the resources and tools that have been available to Cisco partners, he added.

"The SMB market continues to present tremendous growth potential for Cisco and our channel partners, and we have been successfully serving the sector with solutions from both Cisco and Linksys, said Andrew Sage, vice president of small business sales for worldwide channels at Cisco Systems. We believe that taking a coordinated approach across technology and go-to-market strategies is a natural evolution that brings greater synergies to our customers and channel partners alike. This includes an array of channel program benefits to meet the broad requirements presented by our partners' customer base, all designed to increase revenue potential and enable us to focus collectively on serving the SMB customer."