If it seems like it was only several months ago that the Comstor team was gearing up for the annual Cisco Partner Summit in San Diego, it’s because it was…! With the calendar rearrangement of the global get-together to an autumn cadence, we are once again headed to Partner Summit — this time to San Francisco, CA.
Comstor management and business development teams will descend on and around the Moscone Center for a full schedule of meetings, keynotes and other news-filled sessions. With the messaging coming out of Cisco on key areas for growth and investment, Comstor is – I believe – very well-positioned to capitalize post-summit on the important strategies that lead to profitable growth for our Cisco reseller partners.
Security is sure to be at the top of the message board, and the Comstor Security Initiative (CSI), a key component of our EDGE (Engage, Develop, Grow and Extend) portfolio, is positioned to capitalize. Now in its second generation of refinement, CSI is racking up statistics to match the promises of empowering and enabling solution providers to enter or substantially grow their security practices, profitably.
Services is most likely another key area of emphasis, and our teams are ramping up new offerings to power Smart Net Total Care, ease the often daunting process of managing renewals (for software, too), and also investing in the expansion of Smart Services.
Refresh opportunities were a foundational message at Partner Summit in the spring, and figure to be prominent this time around, as well, along with the Digital Network Architecture focus. Again, Comstor has invested in programs, tools and services to help resellers leverage the power of distribution to deepen skill sets, extend reach, and help our customers compete for more and larger opportunities.
Finally, what was initially “thought leadership” is now coming fully of age, with the intense focus on leveraging technology to accomplish “business outcomes.” That is, understanding how to position technology to achieve objectives that matter to the CXO in the board room…shifting away from discussions of features and functionality that technology offers. Comstor’s Executive Relevance Selling is the poster child for MBA-style coaching, mentoring and enablement specifically aimed at aligning technology capabilities with those business outcomes.
Of course, the massive amount of content that will be delivered and consumed is a major part of Partner Summit, but so, too, is the opportunity to connect with colleagues, customers, and even competitors…most of whom we only see or hear on WebEx conferences most of the time.
More to come on the validity of our predictions for content, and whatever else comes from the main stage. Our Comstor team is excited to attend, engage, and execute together when the closing bell sounds and we all get back to our normal lives on Monday after the Summit.
