Cisco AppDynamics reveals A/NZ channel plan

Dylan Morison (Cisco AppDynamics)

Cisco AppDynamics is gearing up to leverage its partner base across Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) following its move to a 100 per cent channel model last year. 

In September 2021, the application performance management and IT operations analytics solutions vendor made the decision to sell solely through the channel on a global scale, citing the need to align more closely with parent company Cisco’s sales method.

At the time, the company also said it wanted to reward partners for extra effort and activity for opportunities and closing deals. According to Dylan Morison, director of channel sales for Asia Pacific Japan, the move is also about “about leveraging and achieving more with partners”.

“AppDynamics has always had a strong, proud relationship with the channel community,” he said to ARN. “About 90 per cent of our business was already being done through the channel in the Asia Pacific Japan and China (APJC) region, so this move is a reinforcement of our commitment to the community.”

The decision to go through the channel came as a result of a myriad of changes to its partner program, which saw it move away from its mixed direct and indirect sales model, forming the basis of its channel strategy in the region. 

"Cisco AppDynamics’ current partner strategy across Australia and New Zealand revolves around our updated Global Partner Program with a select number of partners from our newly-created elite level, through to the existing titan and alliance levels,” Morison said.

“The program is targeted at helping our partners fully exploit the potential of full-stack observability with business context. 

"Our strategy for success lies around stronger collaboration with our partners and continuing deeper alignment with Cisco and its sales motion. This is the right time to unleash the potential of our partners and maximise the opportunity for full-stack observability."

The vendor doesn’t have any specific goals in mind when it comes to partner acquisition, with Morison instead claiming "[it] comes down to partners who see the opportunities and are willing to jointly invest in addressing the market”. 

"As organisations fast-tracked their transformation projects to digital-only strategies in order to deliver services and products online, it reinforced the importance for resellers to engage with customers digitally and manage digital services efficiently,” he said.

“Partners are now looking to enhance and grow new skills sets in areas such as cloud through resources upskilling, acquisitions and training. We have always encouraged our partners to create opportunities that allow customers to meet their priorities and enrich their experiences."

Across the region, Morison believes that Australia and New Zealand are fairly similar when it comes to both cloud adoption and application and digital services.

In fact, he claims out of the whole Asia Pacific, Japan and China (APJC) region, the two countries are two of the most active when it comes to driving digital transformation projects.

"We're two years into a COVID-19 climate and the region has seen a lot of great, new opportunities emerge. But this also means it has become a highly competitive space,” Morison said.

“Today, organisations need to sharpen their skill sets, keep up with change and innovate to meet customer requirements. There has also been a significant movement from organisations to enhance their visibility across applications in order to meet these new customer requirements for digital. It's produced a deeper need to support customers around the application, beyond simply delivering infrastructure, a network or security service.

“Can they understand everything that's happening in real-time, across their application delivery chain through the lens of the business? We're seeing system integrators, resellers and partners invest more in cloud, embracing platforms like AWS, Azure and Google to be closer to the application and visualise the health of their digital platform. It's now about connecting the 'why' of what they're delivering and how that connects to the health of the application's business processes.”

With an increase in competition, Morison added that this paves the way to more innovation, such as small and large partners working together.

"Within the customer base itself, many are looking to more than one incumbent and for a partner that offers greater visibility across their application to successfully deliver innovation at scale in previously unimaginable schedules," he said.