The Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) recognized one of our programs for marketing excellence. The Cisco AScend/Customer Touch Program won the Diamond Award, beating out Avaya, IBM and KPMG. The Cisco Services Auto-quote Program claimed the Gold Award in the category of Generating and Nurturing Leads.
Recognition by ITSMA reflects Cisco’s innovative approach to marketing, teamwork across global organizations, a focus on achieving quantifiable results and a commitment to helping customers solve their toughest business challenges.
The AScend/Customer Touch Program was developed to ignite and enable our ability to position and sell Advanced Services. Combining a data driven marketing methodology with traditional demand generation tactics in the enterprise space, Customer Touch has grown AS sales 62% year over year since its launch. More than two-thirds of our targeted salesforce now sell AS and 100% of the top 10 partners include Cisco AS as an extension of their portfolio. This program exemplifies a well-orchestrated end-to-end sales enablement strategy that builds knowledge, motivates behavioral change and drives services demand.