Under the financing program, customers can defer payments for up to 120 days, without interest, during their Cisco Unified Communications system deployment, and channel partners receive progress payments from Cisco Capital when installation milestones are reached. The financing program is designed to help customers when they are required to make deposits prior to full deployment of unified communications projects, and to help Cisco channel partners manage their cash flow on projects with long implementation times.

"Cisco Capital recognizes that Cisco Unified Communications deployments can have cash flow impacts for both partners and customers when upfront payments, or multiple payments, are required to be made to Cisco during implementation," said Rajiv Menon, director of Cisco Capital in Asia Pacific. "With this program, both partners and customers are able to better manage expectations based on a structured deployment and payment schedule. The Zero Percent Progress Payments Program has been available in the United States and Canada for more than two years and is one of Cisco Capital's most successful channel partner enablement tools."

To qualify for this program, the Cisco channel partners must hold a Cisco Unified Communications Specialization. The minimum transaction size for qualifying for the Program is US$50,000 (Rs 23.55 lakh). The program is available until July 25, 2009.

Apart from the Progress Payments Program, the company also has many activities lined up for its channel partners, including a roadshow in the next couple of months. "Partners will be able to can get a drill-down on all the details of the products there," said Manjula Talreja, Vice President, Strategy& Business Operations, Software Group, Cisco

Cisco is also planning to increase its channel partner base in the SMB vertical as it gets increasing businesses from this sector.