Cisco has canned its controversial Shared Support programme, closing it to new applicants just weeks after completing a final migration of its partners onto the scheme.
It is understood the replacement, dubbed Collaborative Support, will evolve from Shared Support over the next few years, and Cisco has already laid the foundations with its network management Smart Care service.
Key partners learned the axe had fallen at Cisco’s recent partner summit, but most thought the move was positive given the high-profile problems of the system.
"[Shared Support] had become a bit of an issue in terms of the way it was presented," Logicalis managing director Tom Kelly said. "I genuinely think it was difficult for Cisco to implement."
Richard Eglon, marketing manager at IT support provider Comms-care, which attained Cisco Collaborative Partner status in April, also believed the changes would ultimately benefit Cisco. "We’re very early on in the process, but our initial discussions have been very responsive," he said.
But while the revised scheme will be in development for some time some partners have already expressed concerns and Cisco will have to launch a charm offensive to overcome the potential issues.
"We do have some reservations about Smart Care, which Cisco expects to be the core of the programme," one partner said.
He added: "There appears to be a huge bias towards electronic data collection. Cisco seems to be obsessed with whether or not the customer or partner is covering all their equipment."
EuroLAN managing consultant Keith Humphreys argued that monitoring could be seen as a positive by integrators looking to manage their clients’ networks effectively, but admitted there were other worrying aspects.
"If anything, those who will have cause for concern are the larger partners, because this will allow smaller partners to outsource services to Cisco, so they will compete in areas where they haven’t got expertise," he said.
A Cisco spokesperson confirmed that the project would be complete by 2011. "The detail of the changes has yet to be confirmed," he added. "Cisco is committed to working with its partners to support profitability and this will be reflected in the new programme."
