Cisco training and coaching

ERS for the Data Centre is a unique sales enablement programme that drives qualified Cisco Data Centre proposals at the executive level, based upon a financial business case. The course has been available to Cisco Partners in the US for the past two years through Comstor on an exclusive basis, where it has succeeded in driving over $50m of incremental Cisco business for partners.

Cluster is now delivering a series of ERS Lite courses as part of the Cisco Data Center Roadshow in the EMEA, US, Latin America and Asia-Pacific regions for Cisco. In addition to the ERS Lite course, Cluster is delivering a follow-on ERS Certification class where partners can gain practical use of financial business case examples to help them sell Cisco Data Center propositions to CFOs.

As an alternative to becoming enabled, partners may engage Cluster to deliver ERS consultancy to their end customer prospects and help increase deal closure rates.

The courses are designed to assist Cisco Partners understanding how to sell more effectively at a higher level, says Matthew Hathorn, CEO of Cluster. “The discussion regarding technology investment now takes place in the executive suite, and the conversation is all about net present value, internal rates of return and payback periods – not a list of technology features and benefits. Selling is no longer just about creating and sustaining great relationships – it’s about delivering measurable value in cold, hard financial terms using financial modelling that the CFO relates to. This critical ROI information is what any CFO expects from any business case presented to them.”

“Millions have been spent in the data centre without any way of measuring true value. A modern CTO will be expected not only to deliver an excellent IT service to the business, but also to producing evidence to show that the investment is justified and generating business benefit. Many CTO bonuses are now paid on the basis of these factors. At the same time, many sales people in the IT industry are struggling to make the leap from selling technology to selling a business case. They absolutely must make that transition if they want to continue to be successful.”

The ERS programme is designed to help Cisco Partners make this transition. Cluster was selected to deliver the courses having established a strong track-record in delivering training of a consistently high standard to partners on a global basis for previous Cisco programmes.