LOS ANGELES — Cisco announced plans to overhaul its partner program in 2026, using the opening keynote for its Partner Summit conference here to introduce its new Cisco 360 Partner Program.

The new program comes as Rodney Clark hosts his first Partner Summit as channel chief. Clark was introduced to the Cisco channel ahead of last year’s Partner Summit, which was the last for longtime Cisco partner leader Oliver Tuszik in the role.

The program will eliminate the current Select, Premier, and Gold hierarchy and four roles, including integrators, providers, developers, and advisors, to offer a much flatter structure. Two tiers will cover all partner roles: Cisco Partner and Cisco Preferred Partner.

Clark, senior vice president of partnerships and small and medium business at Cisco said the new program is about “one ecosystem and shared success.” With it, Cisco aims to recognize the contribution of various types of partners and shift rewards and incentives to cover the overall value partners provide to customers rather than more closely matching a partner’s transactional might.

With the new customer value index metric, Cisco will try to capture more of what its partners do for its customers. However, it will still be heavily weighted towards partner capabilities, certifications, and expertise. The index will include ten metrics across capabilities, performance, engagement, and what Cisco calls “foundational” partner elements, including factors like managed service acumen and sustainability practices.

The Partner Value Index will be measured across networking, security, observability, collaboration, and cloud and AI, with partners being measured on the index in each category.

Elisabeth De Dobeleer, senior vice president of partner programs at Cisco, said the company thinks the new program will be “much more inclusive” of partners’ various roles in its ecosystem. This includes better recognition of partners who aren’t heavy on resale but influence and implement solutions for customers.

The new program will “double down” on specializations, and the company’s existing specializations will continue to exist in their current form. The company will also introduce what it’s calling “next-generation specializations” that will be open only to Preferred partners under the new program.

The program in its totality, along with the previously-announced all-encompassing Cisco Partner Incentive, will come online on February 1, 2026, and both Clark and De Dobeleer stressed that Cisco is giving its partners more than 15 months to get ready for the change. De Dobeleeer said the Partner Experience Platform (PXP) portal will soon be updated to help partners track their progress for Cisco 360 and provide guidance on maximizing their performance in the Value Index.

On its way to that Feb. 1, 2026 start date, the company announced that Value Indexes will come online for security in December of this year, followed by networking next February, collaboration and cloud, AI and services in March, and finally observability in April. That suggests partners will have at least 10 months with full-unveiled value indexes to understand the moves they need to make to optimize their position in the revised program.

Over the last few years, the company has talked a lot about its partner community as an ecosystem, and the 360 launch provides an opportunity for it to put some incentive behind that. The company has frequently nudged partners with reminders and statistics about the value customers place on the role of multiple partners in delivering complex solutions. Clark said 360 would include incentives that reward partners for co-selling with other types of partners to offer more complete solutions or customer outcomes in Cisco’s preferred terminology.

In discussing the program changes with press and analysts, Clark seemed to acknowledge that the current Gold partner community is diluted, suggesting that the “value of Gold is diminished” currently in addressing Cisco’s need to put its marketing muscle behind what Cisco Preferred Partner means as the new premium partner brand.

“What happens to Gold is a delicate thing because it’s been there for a long time,” acknowledged De Dobbeleer. But she insisted partners know that how they add value to customers has to evolve: “It’s up to us to make it happen and make it successful.”

Clark added that the partner organization is taking a “no partner left behind” view by providing a long runway for partners to adapt to the new program structure and providing clear paths for current top-level partners to attain the new Preferred status. Clark also suggested he hopes that the new structure will help other partners move up the pyramid from the base level to Preferred.

“We’re protecting our partners’ investment, and we’ll give them a roadmap,” Clark said. “The intent is to help every partner get over that line.”

Clark also signalled that the company aims to fully integrate the Splunk partner program into Cisco 360 when it launches in 2026.