A.L ■ The Cisco 360 programme emphasises customer outcomes, which is something Planhat has always preached. What's the benefit to you and your partners of focusing on outcomes and results, rather than on miscellaneous processes?

R.M ■ Especially in the digital resiliency era we're in right now, customers want to do more with less. They want to make sure that what they've purchased is giving them the outcome they were looking for.

I think of this example. Cisco is a networking company. One of my bosses asked me once, “Why do you like using Wi-Fi?” I said, “Well, because I can connect in remote places, I can do this, I can do that.” And he said, “Well, what if it's just because you don't like using the wires in the wall?”

And I thought—that's so simple, but it's a focused outcome that I don't really have awareness around.

That's what we're starting to look at. We're trying to get to the simplicity of business outcomes: this is what it's going to do for you, and this is why you bought it. And we're seeing that more and more, especially as we transition out of customer success. In customer success, we can tell you usage, telemetry, insights and data—but did we really focus on the outcome you were looking for?

I see Planhat doing that. I know Cisco is doing that as well. Having great companies doing that together is a win-win.

A.L ■ Cisco's framework revolves around people, process and tooling. What do those mean at Cisco, and how does Planhat map onto them?

R.M ■ It's a great three-step process.

With people, we want to make sure we have the right people sitting in the right seats to drive those outcomes. So we look at the segmentation of our business, and at how we scale to reach more people.

With process, what we really want is data governance and a system in place, where we're asking how we build a one-to-many approach with customers—product overviews, getting started with our products—but also how we run one-to-one engagements where we're really handholding some of our customers.

And then we look at our digital tools, where customers can get curious and start navigating things themselves. When you start doing this across different product architectures, you almost end up with customer success managers externally talking about the Cisco product.

When you think about a partner you work with inside an organization, they're a trusted ally—you start focusing on each other and on how you both become successful. That's what Planhat is starting to integrate with some of our Cisco partners: this is something you can really ease into, but it also accelerates your business model.

When you combine all three of those things, that's how you set up a framework to be successful in any technology segment—or through any change in the market.

A.L ■ If someone wants to get Cisco certified and deepen their relationship with Cisco, why would they pick Planhat to do that with?

R.M ■ It's really the transformational experience you'll have.

Right now at Cisco we're in this era of AI where everyone is looking to build as fast as possible. As we work with more of our customers, they're asking: how can we look at third-party integrations? Obviously with Cisco we want to make sure we're practicing security experience and that we're optimal when it comes to our integrations.

Planhat is doing an excellent job of looking at different tools, and at practicalities, to make sure partners are successful just as much as Cisco is successful. As we expand that network, especially with partners, one of the things Planhat gives them is access and tools to do that from a security layer—but also to make sure that as customers look at their whole infrastructure from a CRM and customer success perspective, they still have access to the tools they've already bought from Cisco.

And on getting certified—there are so many certifications right now. I just finished my AI practitioner certification through Cisco. If you want to get more involved in those things, getting curious is kind of the answer.