Cisco bolsters small business products portfolio

Cisco has expanded its range of products specifically for the SMB market.

The new Small Business Pro line-up includes the ESW 500 Series switch and the SPA8800 IP Telephony gateway, which allows customers to connect their open source IP PBX to existing analogue phones and fax machines. The vendor has also introduced the PVC300 IP camera to its Small Business Series, as well as made enhancements to its Small Business Community Systems such as single number reach, WebEx phone connectivity and third-party monitoring and management applications.

The products are now supported by the Cisco Small Business Support Community, which has been opened up globally. The centre is manned by dedicated Cisco staff across each region and provides three-year, 24-hour assistance for end users and partners.

The new Small Business Pro offerings are aimed at organisations that need to do more with technology, embrace video and the virtual world, but don’t know how to get there, Cisco vice-president of the Small Business Technology Group, Ian Pennell, said.

To coincide with the new product series, the vendor has doubled rebate amounts for SMB accredited partners to up to $US15,000 and kick-started a Small Business Performance Accelerator aimed at improving partner profitability.

It will continue to refine training programs to ensure partners get up to speed on the range and Cisco’s go-to market strategy in the small business space, the vendor’s vice-president of small business sales, Andrew Sage, said.

Last year, Cisco announced plans to ramp up its small business channel play and launched a dedicated Small Business Technology Group to focus on the market segment. The vendor claims about 18 per cent of its global business comes from SMB today.

According to Cisco, there are now over 100 products in its SMB portfolio.

Nadia Cameron travelled to Cisco Partner Summit as a guest of Cisco.

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