I stepped away from Cisco over three years ago, and even with what I’m about to share, I’m still proud to have represented them—I truly believe Cisco is the best place anyone could work. I know many of these points might already be fixed or made easier with AI.

Cisco is a networking powerhouse for good reason—their flexible, advanced solutions tackle real challenges for all kinds of companies and governments around the globe. Sadly, their licensing got so layered and difficult you needed full-time experts to make sense of it.

There’s margin in complexity, unless you piss it all away due to complex licensing.

While not unique to Cisco, licensing for me sapped lots of cycles I preferred to spend on the market differentiating nerdy bits. More importantly, licensing complexity got in the way of our resellers’ (Partner) ability to compete & profit.

A key Partner’s role is to sell Cisco when Cisco is not in the room.

Every year, a Channel Organization leader would cheerfully say, “We’re making Cisco easier to partner with…” I once spoke up to challenge that idea in front of my colleagues. It felt a bit awkward, but I’m glad I shared my thoughts—even though it didn’t really change anything. My take: these updates rarely seem to help Partner Sales teams directly.

FACT: Over 80% of Cisco sales go through their Partners.

Why am I bringing this up now? Well, it still bothers me that some of those with the power to exert change and dampen licensing complexity would rather not rock the boat and continue to put more lipstick on the licensing pig. When I retired in 2023, said pig still roamed free in a cratered field.

Thus, the point I evidently failed to communicate to Cisco leadership was:

GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY AND HELP YOUR PARTNERS HELP YOU!