Global Headquarters: 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA 01701 USA P.508.872.8200 F.508.935.4015 www.idc.com
GUIDELINES
Smart Business Roadmap: The Partner Discovery Guide
Sponsored by: Cisco
Ken Presti
January 2006
N AV I G AT I N G T H E S A L E : F R O M B U S I N E S S N E E D S
TO TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS
As this industry becomes increasingly competitive, long-term success extends beyond technology
expertise and hinges upon your ability to help your customers make smart technology choices based on
both their immediate and long-term business needs. The transition is not always a simple one.
Businesspeople are focused on the specific issues and core competencies that dictate their success.
Meanwhile, channel partners are experts in technologies that help to secure that success. Unfortunately,
it's often difficult for channel partners and business executives to establish a common dialogue.
To find a common dialogue, the partner must be able to translate business needs into technology
solutions. Doing this for one customer can be an extensive process. But with limited resources, making
this translation across an entire customer base may seem out of reach. Adopting a more systematic
approach to making these translations will significantly improve the efficiency of this process.
Cisco's Smart Business Roadmap (SBR) maps the top business issues identified by customers as their
primary pain points — cost containment, operational efficiency, customer responsiveness, and security
— to Cisco technology solutions.
IDC has worked with Cisco to create the Smart Business Roadmap Discovery Guide, a solution-selling
framework based on industry and channel business practices. It is designed to help sales professionals
identify customers' business issues and develop technology plans to address their immediate concerns
while creating plans for future implementations. The Discovery Guide offers a series of questions that
identifies and qualifies each customer's primary business pain point(s).
Cisco has independently developed a color-coded Solutions Recommendations Guide that correlates
those pain points to Cisco's own product lines.
Cisco's Solutions Recommendations Guide maps to each pain point and is based on how your customer
scores. The Cisco Solutions Recommendations Guide provides a phased deployment example to help
you work with a wide variety of customers, from those who are just starting to use technology to those
who are fairly advanced in their use of technology to address business goals.
In essence, the Smart Business Roadmap Discovery Guide and the Smart Business Roadmap Solutions
Recommendations Guide help to initiate and promote dialogue that increases sales professionals'
understanding of their customers' real business needs so that they can provide more value and secure
longer-term relationships and revenue. It was developed with the assistance of highly skilled channel
partners to help build the foundation for a life-cycle relationship that enhances customer confidence and
leads to ongoing revenue opportunities.
2
200347
©2006 IDC
Mapping Business Processes to Technology Solutions
This new process will systematically help channel partners evaluate their small and medium-sized
customers' urgent needs, as well as develop plans that address future needs, providing upselling and
cross-selling opportunities. It focuses on weighing the four key issues identified by end users as their
primary pain points and considering them in relation to one another. By doing so, channel partners can
better prioritize their sales efforts and recommend the solutions most likely to garner strong support within
their customers. Provided below is a brief description of the type of questions contained in each category
worksheet. Enclosed in this Discovery Guide is one worksheet for each category.
Cost Containment. Much of the modern IT focus is on helping customers do more with fewer resources.
A number of technologies can help you accomplish this objective, but the correct sales strategy is
dependent upon how well you understand your customers' business processes and how well you can
match the right solutions to the specific circumstances. The questions contained in the following Cost
Containment worksheet are an effective guide to exploring issues concerning customers' administration,
telecom expenses, and use of online resources.
Operational Efficiency. Efficiency is rooted in time! In other words, processes considered efficient five
years ago are probably less optimal today. The questions in the following Operational Efficiency worksheet
go beyond a basic inventory of technology usage and should also be used as a format for building insights
into customers' attitudes toward capabilities such as automated business processes and the sharing of
networked applications with established partners. From this information, you can identify opportunities
while also assessing where the resistance to change is strongest.
Customer Responsiveness. Customer responsiveness is both proactive and interactive in nature. The
questions in the following Customer Responsiveness worksheet help customers identify how technology
can enhance their access to your offerings, whether through faster access to specialized or informed
employees or improved self-service access to information via the Web, in person, or over the phone.
Security. Security is one of the most important issues facing companies today, encompassing a wide
range of elements such as secure ecommerce, virus protection, regulatory compliance, and the outright
theft of information. The questions in the following Security worksheet will help you assess the degree to
which your customers are protected or in need of additional technologies to prevent threats or
vulnerabilities now and in the future.
Copyright Notice
External Publication of IDC Information and Data — Any IDC information that is to be used in advertising,
press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval from the appropriate IDC Vice
President or Country Manager. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any such request.
IDC reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason.
Copyright 2006 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden.
Disclaimer: Information on Cisco solutions, products, and services does not constitute an
endorsement by IDC.
©2006 IDC
200347
3
Getting Started
Fill in each of the four pain point worksheets with your customer to determine which are the
priority focus areas.
Question #1 is rated on an ascending scale of 0 to 3 (0 = not important, 1 = important,
2 = priority, 3 = critical priority).
Question #2 is rated on an ascending scale of 0 to 3 (0 = not at all, 1 = foundation, 2 = growth,
3 = optimized).
! Calculate the average of the numerical answers to the #1 questions within each pain
point. (High score indicates top priority. Low score means that while this is a pain
point, it is not a priority.)
! Do the same calculation for the #2 answers exclusively. (High score indicates
customer is well along the path to addressing this pain point. Low score indicates
that customer is just starting to address this pain point.)
! Compare the #1 averages from each pain point to choose the most important pain
point(s).
! For the chosen pain point(s), map the #1 and #2 averages to color-coded sheets that
point to corresponding Cisco solution roadmaps. (These solutions are contained in
the Cisco Solutions Recommendations Guide.)
4
200347
©2006 IDC
D I S C O V E R Y G U I D E PA R T I : T H E A S S E S S M E N T
Instructions
A special CD and Web site (www.cisco.com/go/smbpartner) enable you to download separate
worksheets for each customer. The process is quite simple.
1.
Fill in each of the four worksheets with your customer. Each of the four pain point
worksheets features a short series of statements. There are two questions to ask
for each statement:
#1: To what extent is the above statement a priority for your business?
#2: At what stage are you in implementing these capabilities?
Question #1 is rated on an ascending scale of 0 to 3 (0 = not important,
1 = important, 2 = priority, and 3 = critical priority).
Question #2 is rated on an ascending scale of 0 to 3 (0 = not at all,
1 = foundation, 2 = growth, and 3 = optimized).
2.
Total the answers from each of the #1 questions within each pain point, and divide
by the number of statements within the pain point to calculate the average. (Do not
add or average the numbers from different pain points or from #2 questions.)
3.
Do the same calculation for the #2 answers exclusively. Fill out each worksheet
completely.
4.
Compare the #1 averages from each pain point to determine which of the pain
point(s) are most crucial to this particular customer. The calculation of #2 answers
provides a simple benchmark of the customer's degree of implementation.
5.
The two results are then mapped to color-coded sheets in the Cisco Solutions
Recommendations Guide developed by Cisco that identify corresponding Cisco
solutions and provide a direct response to the immediate need(s) identified. The
Solutions Recommendations Guide will assist you in addressing the priority pain
point(s) you have identified from your worksheets as well as provide a growth path
for your customer to continue incrementally addressing key business needs.
Disclaimer: Information on Cisco solutions, products, and services does not constitute an
endorsement by IDC.
©2006 IDC
200347
5
6
200347
©2006 IDC
©2006 IDC
200347
7
8
200347
©2006 IDC
©2006 IDC
200347
9
10
200347
©2006 IDC
IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, one of the world's top
information technology media, research and exposition companies.
Visit us on the Web at www.idc.com
To view a list of IDC offices worldwide, visit www.idc.com/offices
IDC is a registered trademark of International Data Group.