Channel Mechanics Integration with Cisco Commerce Workspace (CCW)

Channel Mechanics has announced the completion of a six-month process leading to the integration of its channel enablement platform with Cisco's Commerce Workspace (CCW).

CCW was launched in October 2013. That launch represented a significant change for Cisco's channel partner community, as the capabilities of 21 disparate commerce tools were consolidated into a single platform. Subsequently, Cisco partners have had one tool for quoting, configuring and ordering Cisco products, software and services. For many partners, the consolidation of business processes into CCW has resulted in faster bookings and significant productivity gains.

The integration with CCW came about as a result of the ongoing relationship Channel Mechanics has developed with Cisco over the past two years. That relationship has focused on creating 2-tier Distribution offers that can be easily consumed by partners. During the course of this partnership, it became clear that efficiency would be greatly enhanced if there was a direct tie-in to CCW that would provide the ability to return deal IDs and DARTs tied to the various transactions.

The integration with CCW has been very smooth and transactions initiated on the Channel Mechanics platform are now successfully returning deal IDs and DART numbers. Suman Mishra, Senior Manager on the CCW team, said that "Working with the Channel Mechanics and Cisco IT teams, we have created a solution to enable our distribution business execute channel programs not previously possible".

The successful integration with Channel Mechanics provides Cisco with the ability to create highly flexible and targeted offers for the channel. Going forward, the Cisco WW Distribution team foresees the ability to create dynamic bundles (on the fly) and to give partners options to build their own bundles (BYOB). These capabilities will be unique to Cisco and create a competitive advantage. "The combination of the Channel Mechanics and CCW solutions enable the deployment of new and dynamic offers for VAR partners buying through their Cisco Distributor. These commerce capabilities enable real time pricing and reduced time to market" says Ralph Panella, Senior Manager on Cisco's Global Distribution team.