As December winds down, and as it becomes real that 2020 is, in fact, on its way out the door, the editorial team at EDGE360 wanted to take a pause to revisit the best of the best content read by our IT channel community.
Our 2020 coverage was dominated by stories of how members of this community met the challenges of COVID-19 head-on. From dispelling the myths about work from home to holding successful virtual conferences, this industry came together and achieved something great.
However, the content that had the largest impact on the Cisco partner community was focused on more than just the response to the economic slowdown. IT partners valued insight on how to work and maintain relationships with Cisco and how to succeed in new, evolving economies.
For your consideration, we present our top five pieces of content, which showcase the biggest lessons of 2020 that will help you prepare for 2021.
Succeeding in the New “Subscription Economy” Requires VARs’ Commitment to Customer Experience
In March, as a sign of things to come, we published an article on the rise of the subscription economy and what impact that has on our community. The name of the game is value, as the article notes, and value to a subscriber looks very different than value to a buyer.
For this piece, we reached out to Joe Vlajcic, Director of Cisco Customer Experience for SYNNEX Comstor, who outlined the different expectations that customers have when subscribing to a service. From increasing revenue and lowering costs, to attracting new customers, Vlajcic pulls back the shroud and takes readers into the mindset of a subscription customer and offers advice that is as useful today as it was back in March.
Among our top content of 2020 was our “On the EDGE” video series, featuring the SYNNEX Comstor Product Business Managers (PBMs). The series focused on how the PBMs help partners build their own successful and profitable Cisco practices. New and old partners alike gained the knowledge to hone their existing skills to benefit their bottom lines.
The video series featured SYNNEX Comstor experts on collaboration, security, data centers, Meraki, and enterprise networking, sharing how partners can get started and navigate the full range of Cisco solutions. Creating content that is readily accessible and easy to digest has always been at the core of our teams’ mission. These videos and their reception as some of our highest viewed content of 2020 go a long way towards helping partners increase their business.
Take Control of Your Cisco Journey with the EDGE Focus Tool
The Cisco journey is full of complexity as the marketplace can be daunting to partners at any stage. In this article, we presented the facts on how the SYNNEX Comstor EDGE Focus Tool (EFT) can help resellers navigate the Cisco Marketplace.
Featuring the insights from SYNNEX Comstor’s Carissa Scholl, Saxton Barnes, and Jackson Grise, it is easy to see why this article was among our most popular. The piece walks you through the specific role that EFT can occupy in your business and offers some best practices for its use. As you begin 2021 preparations or are looking to revisit your figures from last year’s marketplace, revisit this article to refresh your memory and see how EFT can benefit you.
Communications Between Cisco Partners and Distributors is Key to Success during Cisco’s Year End
July was the end of the Cisco fiscal year, and as partners were pushing for their final sales, EDGE360 wrote on what partners could do to be successful in this stressful time. In a practical, advice-heavy article, our editorial team sat down with Dan Forbes, Senior Director of Field Sales at SYNNEX Comstor, and picked his brain about what partners could do to be more successful.
Forbes spoke on several topics, but the crux of his argument was that partners must communicate with their distributors during the fiscal year-end. Being in communication with your distribution team helps keep the flow of business smooth as distributors won’t be surprised when partners make deals quickly. In all, if your Cisco fiscal year ended successfully or if there was room for improvement, Dan Forbes’ insight is worth a revisit.
SYNNEX Comstor Wins Cisco Distributor of the Year for Americas and Global
After a long year, our community came together in November for the Cisco Partner Summit and celebrated each other’s many accomplishments. While there were many winners, our article focused on the Cisco Distributor of the Year Awards for both the global and Americas communities.
This year, SYNNEX Comstor took the titles for demonstrating innovation and growing business while delivering outcomes for their partners. The win came in large part due to the EDGE platform, which offers partners a robust suite of end-to-end practice-building programs, built-in SYNNEX Comstor expertise, all of which is focused on partner enablement.
