Cisco and Citrix announced the launch of the Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator. This new global initiative aligns the channel sales and delivery models across the two companies through a single framework to build partner competencies, elevate partner differentiation and drive partner profitability.
According to the companies, joint Cisco and Citrix channel partners can use the Partner Accelerator to capitalise on the fast-growing customer demand for enterprise mobility, desktop virtualisation and device choice by delivering the Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI) with Citrix XenDesktopsolution.
Brian Allison, director, data center go-to-market solutions, for Cisco said, “Customer trends like bring your own device, work-shifting, mobility, video, collaboration, desktop and application virtualisation, and cloud are changing the workplace as customers look for solutions that enable them to access all applications, communications services and data securely, with a superior user experience, from any device, anywhere, anytime. The Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator draws from the two companies’ best practices to give channel partners the resources they need to deliver complete, multi-vendor solutions that meet the needs of the changing workplace, and build more strategic relationships with their customers.”
With the Partner Accelerator tool channel partners can engage in consultative sales, expand their data centre, desktop virtualisation and collaboration practices, and develop repeatable solutions, the company said. It provides tools that better enable resellers who are partners of both companies to build a Cisco VXI with Citrix XenDesktop practice and deliver complete solutions that combine virtual desktops, voice and video for built on optimised data centre, network and collaboration infrastructure.
In addition, the Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator also makes available sales and marketing resources, which reduce the partners’ time-to-market and allow partners to compress customer sales and implementation cycles, representatives said. Additional benefits that enhance partner profitability include proof-of-concept and assessment funding, they said. The Cisco and Citrix Partner Accelerator also provides differentiation in the form of unique branding for those partners that complete the required investments.
Cynthia Gallant, VP, worldwide channel strategy and market development, for Citrix said, “Citrix and Cisco have been working together for over two years to bring a complete solution to the market based on the Cisco VXI platform that addresses the critical customer requirements to enable secure access to desktops, applications and data from anywhere and any device, while reducing operational complexity and cost. The Partner Accelerator, the next step in the evolution of our partnership with Cisco, arms our joint partners with the tools and training they need to build more strategic relationships with customers and grow their business by increasing revenue and shortening the sales and implementation cycle.”
