CRN Channel Awards Australia: Finalist Q&A with Rodney Hamill, Managing Director, Partner and Routes to Market Sales at Cisco ANZ.

Rodney Hamill talks about being a finalist at this year's CRN Channel Awards Australia

Rodney Hamill is a Cisco executive who recently transitioned into the role of Managing Director, South, leading sales teams across Victoria, ACT (including Federal and Defence), and Tasmania. For almost five years prior, he led Cisco ANZ’s Partner and Routes to Market organisation, carrying the full A/NZ number across tier 1, tier 2, distribution, marketplaces, ISV and service provider channels. His standout achievement was spearheading the successful national rollout of Cisco 360, Cisco’s new partner program, across Australia and New Zealand.

What prompted you to enter the CRN Channel Awards Australia this year?

This past year has represented one of the most consequential periods of change in Cisco’s Australian partner history, and I felt it was the right time to put that body of work forward. Leading the successful deployment of Cisco 360 across Australia and New Zealand — a program we first announced at Cisco Partner Summit 2024 and delivered over a 15-month rollout involving hundreds of partner workshops and meetings — was a genuine team achievement worth recognising. Entering the awards is as much about celebrating the partner ecosystem and internal team who leaned into that transformation as it is about my own recognition.

What would winning this award mean to both your teams and your customers/partners?

For my team, it would validate an enormous amount of change-management work I asked them to deliver with transparency and empathy over a 15-month journey, often while partners were adjusting to a materially different program structure. For our partners, it would reinforce that our channel strategy — opening new revenue streams and equipping the ecosystem for the AI era — is being noticed and valued externally, not just internally.

What would you say is your company's proudest achievement over the past year?

The clear standout for me is the successful national deployment of Cisco 360, our next-generation partner program, across Australia and New Zealand. Delivering this within 15 months required hundreds of partner workshops and meetings, deep collaboration with tier 1 and tier 2 partners, distributors, marketplaces, ISVs and service providers, and a relentless focus on partner outcomes throughout. It reshaped how partners engage with us, opened new revenue pathways, and positioned our ecosystem to capitalise on AI-driven demand — a genuine reshaping of what the Australian channel can become, rather than incremental improvement.

What have been the biggest challenges of the current year so far and how have you overcome them?

Managing a program change of Cisco 360’s scale while simultaneously carrying full financial and accountability for the A/NZ business delivering an outstanding bookings year was a significant balancing act, and I had to keep partners engaged and confident through a period of real uncertainty. What worked for me was transparency and consistent communication — treating partners as genuine stakeholders in the change rather than simply recipients of it.

What lessons do you think the industry has learned over the past year, and what changes does it still need to make?

The past year has reinforced for me that successful channel transformation depends on partner trust as much as program design — partners will embrace significant change if they believe we’re listening and genuinely invested in their outcomes. I’ve also seen that partners need practical support, not just messaging, to pivot toward AI-era opportunities and software/subscription-based revenue models. Looking ahead, I believe the channel still needs to keep simplifying how partners access new technology and consumption models, ensuring smaller and regional partners aren’t left behind as programs increasingly favour scale and specialisation.

What do you see as the main opportunities for the industry in the coming 12 months, and how do you plan to capitalise on those?

For me, the biggest opportunity is helping customers and partners translate AI enthusiasm into real, secure, deployable outcomes — particularly around secure AI infrastructure, networking and cybersecurity, which sit at the core of our portfolio.

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