How Cisco rewards and incentivizes partners with Innovation Challenge

Alex Pujols, vice president of engineering for global partner and route-to-market sales at Cisco

Vertical solutions, software-as-a-service, and other repeatable solutions have shone the light on innovation in the channel over recent years. And Cisco has seen a lot of that innovation coming from its partner base.

For the last five years, the networking giant has run the Partner Innovation Challenge, rewarding partners who’ve offered the most innovative solutions to the market. In this edition of the podcast, we’re joined by Alex Pujols, vice president of engineering for global partner and route-to-market sales at Cisco and the father of the Innovation Challenge to discuss the program’s history and future.

We discuss:

what is the Cisco Partner Innovation Challenge and the history of the event;
why partners adding innovation to the mix is so important to Cisco;
how Cisco looks to support, guide and amplify innovative partner-designed solutions;
how the challenge works and what Cisco’s looking for in judging the Innovation Challenge;
how the challenge has grown over its five-year history;
what partners can earn and how they typically use their winnings;
what Pujols has learned along the way;
how innovation “comes from everyone” in partner organizations, sometimes without the C-suite even knowing it’s happening;
how the Innovation Challenge is expanding, adding Bold Bets and similar nation-level competitions; and
what partners can expect from this year’s Innovation Challenge.

All this and much more are in this edition of the ChannelBuzz.ca Podcast.