Premier Partners
Get rewarded for your technical competency by becoming a Premier Certified partner. A Premier Certification identifies and rewards partners who have earned one of several specific specializations and have the know-how to transform customers’ hybrid IT. Get branded as a Premier Certified Partner and access best-in-class products and services, technical support, productivity tools, online training and marketing resources.
Individual Certification Requirements
- Partners must have a minimum of two unique Cisco career certified individuals associated to the company:
- One with a Cisco CCNA and one with a Cisco CCNA or Cisco CCDA. Higher level career certifications of the same type (network or design) will also be accepted.
Specialization Requirements
To achieve Premier Certification, a partner must have an Express Specialization or an Advanced Specialization. Partners can choose from:
One of the following Express Specialization tracks:
- Collaboration
- Data Center
- Networking
- Security
- Service Provider
- Video
One of the Advanced Specializations:
- Advanced Video Specialization
- Advanced Collaboration Architecture Specialization
- Advanced Data Center Architecture Specialization
- Advanced Enterprise Networks Architecture Specialization
- Advanced Security Architecture Specialization
- Advanced Service Provider Architecture Specialization
Role sharing rules:
Please review Cisco’s document on role sharing
Hybrid IT Requirements
Partners must be able to resell one Hybrid IT Service from the list below:
- Cisco Cloud Service
- Cisco Managed Service
- Cisco Powered Cloud Service
- Cisco Powered Managed Service
- Cisco Based-Partner Created Service
To sell a hybrid service, you will need to secure a provider contract(s) and ensure the following are in place:
- End customer SLA
- Marketing and/or technical description
- Hybrid IT resale lifecycle management process
Support Requirements
| Type | Premier |
|---|---|
| Legal agreement | Valid resale agreement or Cisco Indirect Channel Partner Agreement (ICPA) in place |
| Customer Service and call-back | 8 hours a day, 5 days a week |
| Pre-sales support | Required |
| Post-sales support | Requirements based on Partner Support Agreement |
Customer Satisfaction Requirements
| Measurement | Explanation |
|---|---|
| January measurement | Provide 10 valid contacts/email addresses for current customers to receive a customer satisfaction survey. |
| July measurement | Partner must enter follow-up activities in the PAL tool for all low scores received for the current fiscal year. |
| New Partner Certification* | Participation in customer satisfaction activities at the first measurement after a full twelve months of attaining Premier certification (January or July measurement) |
| Recertification | Participation in both January and July measurement customer satisfaction activities |
* The definition of “new” partner as it relates to the enforcement of the customer satisfaction requirement is a partner that has not been certified at any level within the previous six months.
Exception Premier partners moving to Gold Certification must provide a minimum of 30 valid customer contact names/email addresses at the first January measurement period that occurs after a full six months of attaining Gold Certification
Full details of Cisco’s Channel Partner Program can be found here
