In 2026, partnership is key to profitability

If there has been a common theme running through the first part of 2026, it has been the importance of partnerships to business growth.

Even as businesses, small, medium and large must contend with financial constraints and a difficult economy, the message from both the financial sector and the tech sector has been the same: find resilience and business growth through partnership.

Equally as key for those in the technology provider space seeking to optimize their business is to offer better value to their customers through managed services.

With this in mind, Cisco’s recent managed services event for its partners was particularly timely and relevant.

Hayward Rose, Head of Partner Organisation for Sub-Saharan Africa at Cisco Systems, opened the event by explaining that the company’s 360 Partner program, which was launched earlier this year, was co-developed with its partners based on customer feedback. And, what emerged was that managed services are viewed as a critical route to market.

The partner program caused quite a buzz for some good reason earlier this year, and if you need to get up to speed on it, the below video, though coming out of the US, does a good job explaining more about it.

“We have found that Cisco’s most profitable partners typically have managed services practices in place. Partners that integrate, activate, drive adoption, and provide it as a managed service find that is where they are the most profitable.

These partners strengthen customer offerings by wrapping them with their own professional services,’’ he explained.

One of the keynote speakers at the event, Lamia Hassaan, the regional channel lead for Cisco in MEA, explained more deeply why the company was focusing on managed services.

She identified three key reasons: increased value, increased profitability and lifecycle engagement.

Being of value

Hassaan explained that taking a managed services approach create greater value for partners because they shift the customer relationship from a traditional, project-based engagement to a more strategic partnership.

In a conventional model, a partner may complete a project, hand it over, and return only for renewals or additional work.

By contrast, when a partner delivers managed services, the relationship becomes ongoing. She elaborated that instead of just been seen as a provider of services or products, customers are more likely to view those offering managed services as a trusted advisor that they can turn to when they have a problem.

This further enables the focus to helping customers optimize their operations and deliver better business outcomes.

I couldn’t help notice the correlation between how AI is compelling the need for upskilling amongst professionals, and how, in this context, businesses are also being given the opportunity to similarly upgrade themselves from being providers to becoming trusted advisors. The commonality between them is that both, professionals and businesses, it seems, need to be able to offer a higher level of value to their customers.

Lamia Hassaan, Regional Channel Lead, Cisco MEA

Profit as a priority

The second reason that Hassaan addressed was increased profitability.

Hassaan said Cisco’s research indicates that managed services can deliver margins that are roughly double those achieved through traditional project-based work.

While traditional resale margins may typically range from 10% to 15%, she explained that managed services can increase margins to around 30%, and in some cases as high as 40%.

She elaborated that this rather dramatic increase comes from the shift away from a cost-plus resale model toward a value-added model, where partners are not simply moving products or acting as traditional system integrators, but delivering ongoing value to customers.

In it for life

Finally, the last compelling reason to move to a managed services approach is lifecycle engagement.

Hassaan explained that lifecycle engagement is critical to ensuring customers fully use the capabilities and features promised to them when they purchase a platform, whether from Cisco or another vendor. She said this requires a best-in-class lifecycle approach, built around the land, adopt, expand, and renew model.

She pointed out that usually managed services partners have better adoption practices and noted that Cisco’s customer experience teams and specializations are designed to support partners in delivering on those commitments throughout the customer engagement.

Of course, it would not have been a presentation in 2026 without ample mention of AI. Hassaan reassured that for those partners do go the managed services route, Cisco's portfolio has AI features built into all its products, is able to deliver ''best in class outcomes to partners' end customers, and offers both differentiated experiences and opportunities for monetisation.''

The main takeaway from the session was that managed services, and particularly Cisco’s approach to supporting its partners, poses a real and attractive opportunity for those looking to grow their business.