According to CRN, Cisco’s new channel chief Tim Coogan has revealed that the company’s Cisco 360 partner program represents the biggest refresh in the nearly 30-year history of the company’s channel strategy. The program, which fully launches in February 2026 after a 15-month lead time, eliminates separate partner programs including VIP, Perform Plus and the Cisco Services Partner Program, consolidating them into a single Cisco Partner Incentive structure. The iconic Cisco Gold partner designation will be replaced by Cisco Partner and Cisco Preferred Partner categories that partners can earn for each portfolio specialization. Coogan emphasized that the program’s ultimate success metric will be whether it’s “additive to or did it diminish from the trust that we have with our partners,” with partners like Presidio and World Wide Technology already preparing for the transition.
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The End of an Era in Channel Strategy
What Cisco is attempting represents one of the most ambitious channel program transformations in recent enterprise technology history. The traditional Cisco partner ecosystem has been built around clear hierarchical tiers that rewarded volume and breadth of business. By eliminating the Gold status that partners have spent decades and millions of dollars achieving, Cisco is fundamentally rethinking what constitutes partner value. This isn’t just a program refresh—it’s a complete philosophical shift from rewarding scale to rewarding specialization and capability. The risk is substantial: established partners who’ve built their business models around the existing hierarchy may see this as devaluing their historical investments.
Market Forces Driving Change
The timing of this overhaul isn’t accidental. Cisco faces increasing pressure from competitors who’ve built more agile partner ecosystems. Companies like Juniper, Arista, and even cloud-native players have been chipping away at Cisco’s dominance by offering simpler, more focused partnership models. The consolidation of multiple incentive programs into CPI suggests Cisco recognized the administrative burden and complexity had become competitive disadvantages. More importantly, the shift toward portfolio-specific designations acknowledges that customers increasingly seek specialized expertise rather than general technology providers. This reflects broader industry trends where solution specialization often trumps vendor breadth.
The Execution Hurdles Ahead
While the 15-month runway shows thoughtful planning, the implementation challenges remain formidable. The transition from volume-based to capability-based rewards requires partners to fundamentally rethink their business models, staffing, and investment strategies. Partners who’ve optimized for Gold status now face the prospect of rebuilding their value proposition around specific architectures like security or networking. The ecosystem implications are profound—partners may need to choose between being generalists across multiple portfolios or specialists in high-demand areas. This could trigger consolidation in the channel as smaller boutique partners find their specialized expertise suddenly more valuable, while larger generalists struggle to maintain relevance across all categories.
Why Leadership Matters in This Transition
Coogan’s background becomes particularly relevant given the scale of this transformation. As a 25-year Cisco veteran, he understands the cultural and operational nuances that an outsider might miss. His experience positions him to navigate the inevitable resistance from partners who’ve built successful businesses under the old model. The reference to working alongside executive leadership like Oliver Tuszik suggests Cisco recognizes this transition requires coordinated effort across the entire sales organization. Leadership stability will be crucial—the departure of previous channel chief Rodney Clark after less than two years created uncertainty that Coogan must now overcome while implementing the most significant channel changes in decades.
The Collaboration Technology Context
This channel transformation occurs against the backdrop of Cisco’s broader portfolio evolution, particularly in collaboration technologies like Webex and adjacent platforms. As businesses increasingly seek integrated solutions that span networking, security, and collaboration, the traditional siloed partner approach becomes less effective. The portfolio-specific designations in Cisco 360 acknowledge that partners need to demonstrate deep expertise in specific solution areas rather than general Cisco competency. This aligns with how customers actually buy technology today—they’re looking for specialists who can solve specific business problems, not vendors who can provide everything.
The Trust Equation as Success Metric
Coogan’s framing of the program’s success around whether it’s “additive” to partner trust reveals Cisco’s understanding of what’s at stake. Channel relationships, particularly in enterprise technology, are built on long-term trust and predictability. Any program changes that feel like zero-sum games—where some partners win at others’ expense—risk damaging the very foundation of Cisco’s go-to-market strategy. The company’s channel has been its competitive advantage for decades, and maintaining that trust while implementing radical change requires careful balance. The fact that partners like Presidio report meaningful input in the program’s development suggests Cisco understands this can’t be a unilateral decision.
What Success or Failure Looks Like
If successful, Cisco 360 could create a more dynamic, responsive partner ecosystem better aligned with how technology is consumed today. Partners would compete on capability rather than volume, driving innovation and specialization. However, failure could accelerate partner defection to competing platforms and undermine Cisco’s market position. The transition period through 2026 will be telling—if partners see clear business benefits from the new model, adoption will follow. But if the changes feel like cost-cutting disguised as modernization, the damage to Cisco’s channel relationships could take years to repair. The company is betting its channel future on getting this right.
