As I'm sure you've seen this year, nothing is set in stone in a world of VUCA -volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. In this challenging environment and an ever more competitive business landscape, how can companies change to stay ahead?

This question has been much on my mind recently, not least because October 2020 saw Cisco hold its first all-digital version of our annual Partner Summit. With Future Ready as its theme, the event saw us take a deep dive into the capabilities companies need to transform faster than ever before to help their customers achieve new levels of business agility and resilience.

Among the insightful debates and discussions that Partner SummitDigitalgenerated, one takeaway really stood out for me: for companies to win in this digitalized era, they need to transform their marketing strategies. Armed with marketing approaches that are future-proofed and modernized, businesses will be in a much stronger position to stay relevant to customers who are themselves contending with disruptive market forces.

Transforming Marketing Strategies in the New Normal

Today, customers are more knowledgeable, have more choices available to them, and won't hesitate to switch brands. This means organizations must try harder than ever to win-and keep-their business. Marketers must be able to respond to new demands quickly and effectively, using data-driven insights to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Often, they are expected to be a strategic partner to the business as well.

All this is even more important today as we figure out how to navigate a post-pandemic world. In the new normal, with its focus on socially distanced behavior, businesses have shifted to a much stronger reliance on virtual interactions. Winning in this environment means changing marketing strategies and finding creative new ways to forge connections with customers.

For example, with a heavier reliance on virtual events, marketers need to find ways to deliver virtual experiences that are uniquely memorable for their target audience. At the same time, with more happening online, data pools are growing-offering information that can be leveraged, with the right tools, to increase understanding of customer requirements.

Winning with Cisco Marketing Velocity

Our close engagement with our partner ecosystem means we're very familiar with the challenges partner marketers have to face when it comes to embracing change.

For instance, many of you have told us that you're overwhelmed by the amount of data and processes you often have to manage in deploying digital marketing tools and techniques. That's where Cisco Marketing Velocity comes in.

We've integrated our existing best-in-class partner marketing programs into a simple yet powerful platform, making it much easier to access the resources that can help you elevate your digital marketing expertise and modernize your approach.

For example, Marketing Velocity Learning delivers real-time access to marketing education materials. It's a smart, easy way to keep abreast of the latest trends in digital marketing and learn best practices to sharpen your marketing capabilities.

The platform also includes Marketing Velocity Central, a full-service marketing portal. We've designed this to be your go-to spot for customizable materials that can help you execute effective integrated marketing campaigns and create the insights-driven omnichannel journeys that can keep customers engaged and amazed.

Don't just take my word for it. We've put together a short partner testimonial video, so you can hear directly from some of our APJC partners Logicalis Asia, Data#3, Emarson Infotech and Wafer Systems. Learn how they're using Marketing Velocity resources to accelerate their digital marketing transformation and execute effective partner marketing campaigns that they jointly developed with Cisco:

Accelerating Future-readiness, Together

Enabling you to use the latest breakthroughs is more important to us than ever as we look to deliver digital transformation together. That's why I'd urge you to take advantage of the cutting-edge resources we've designed to help you reach your customers in new and transformational ways.

Last but not least, I'd like to congratulate the 2020 award winners recognized at Cisco Partner SummitDigital. Each of these amazing partner teams achieved top honors for delivering innovative services to customers while remaining agile, relevant, and profitable. They are truly becoming future-ready and setting the standard for other organizations.

I'm really looking forward to another inspiring and collaborative year together and celebrating more successes with all our partners!