Cisco sees channel play for its Linksys connected home offerings

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) unveiled a number of new home audio and network attached storage products as part of its connected home strategy last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and a channel executive says the new offerings will mean new opportunities for the channel and a tweaking of the company’s distribution model.

The new offerings include Cisco Eos, a software platform that includes analytics and site management tools for digital content providers, such as music labels, to deliver content to consumers across a variety of mediums and devices.

On the product side, the Linksys by Cisco Media Hub is a storage appliance optimized for media content that can also search for media across other devices on the network, providing one interface into all their media content. A number of wireless home audio devices were also launched that, leveraging your existing home audio system and a Wireless N router, allow the wireless streaming if audio across the home.

Bob Gregerson, vice-president of North America Sales with Cisco, says with its Linksys brand the company has long played in the home market, but the CES announcements move the strategy to the next level.

“I think what you’re seeing from the company for the first time is the end to end solution view, from the consumer to the home,” said Gregerson.

There will definitely be a retail play for the new offerings, says Gregerson, although it will take some time to get the model right. Currently in the consumer area, Linksys by Cisco has an open distribution model, working in Canada with Ingram Micro, Tech Data, ASI and D&H.

“Our core products have been open distribution but we want more specialty now; you can’t just put these products on a shelf,” said Gregerson. “They touch audio, storage networking and PCs and you need to have the ability to show that vision to a consumer, whether it be at retail or in the VAR community.”

Carl Glick, channel program account manager with Cisco, added they’re working with their distributor partners to put the right partner support programs in place.

“There are some folks with specialty in home theatre and some in the digital integrator reseller community,” said Glick. “We’re working on an approach to market that will be through our existing distribution partners.”

In addition to the retail market, Gregerson says there will definitely be a strong channel partner play, and he’s predicting the new offerings will see Cisco serving an expanded reseller channel, particularly in the pro-av and digital home integrator space.

The latter is a market that has been slow to take-off, but Gregerson says Cisco is changing the dynamic by taking a complete solution-based approach, rather than focusing on point products as other vendors have in the past.

“The utility, frankly, hasn’t been there in the past,” said Gregerson. “I think consumers will really get more of the wow factor.”

To support partners in the consumer space, Cisco has launched the Cisco Consumer Channel Network, a subset of the Cisco partner program that will provide resources, tools, training and support for resellers focusing on the consumer space and the Linksys by Cisco connected home offerings.

“Our partners are asking for the training, sales and marketing tools to enhance their business for their home based office clients, high tech home customers and very small business owners with about five employees,” said Gregerson. “The Cisco Consumer Channel Network is in its first phase and we’ll be bringing additional features and offerings over the coming year.”

Related content: CES Video: Microsoft and Cisco are targeting your home

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Jeff Jedras
Jeff Jedras
A veteran technology and business journalist, Jeff Jedras began his career in technology journalism in the late 1990s, covering the booming (and later busting) Ottawa technology sector for Silicon Valley North and the Ottawa Business Journal, as well as everything from municipal politics to real estate. He later covered the technology scene in Vancouver before joining IT World Canada in Toronto in 2005, covering enterprise IT for ComputerWorld Canada. He would go on to cover the channel as an assistant editor with CDN. His writing has appeared in the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and a wide range of industry trade publications.

Related Tech News

Featured Tech Jobs

 

CDN in your inbox

CDN delivers a critical analysis of the competitive landscape detailing both the challenges and opportunities facing solution providers. CDN's email newsletter details the most important news and commentary from the channel.