CanadianSME Small Business Magazine recently sat down with Erin Gertner, Vice President of Partner Organization and SMB Sales at Cisco Canada. Erin elucidated on how her dedication to promoting women in technology profoundly influences her leadership approach at Cisco Canada. Addressing the distinct growth trends of Canadian MSPs compared to their global counterparts, she outlined Cisco’s strategies to capitalize on these disparities. As cybersecurity looms large, particularly due to Canada’s skill shortage and readiness gap, Erin detailed Cisco’s proactive measures to tackle these challenges. Interestingly, while most of Cisco’s channel partners in Canada are resellers and SIs, Erin highlighted their tailored engagement tactics that differ from their approach with the 18.5% MSP partners. Grounded in Business Administration and a fervent advocate for women in tech, Erin shared her vision for encouraging more women into the IT and cybersecurity sectors amidst the current industry growth and shifts. Offering pearls of wisdom for the next generation of tech leaders, especially those striving to champion inclusivity, Erin provided guidance on harnessing opportunities and navigating challenges in the tech realm.
With nearly two decades of experience in the technology industry, Erin is widely recognized for her ability to build collaborative teams and forge strong relationships to deliver outcomes for customers. As the leader of Cisco Canada’s Partner Organization, Erin and her team develop the regional channel strategy with a focus on security, managed services, and software. Erin strongly believes that together, Cisco and its partners are best-positioned to address the unique challenges faced by Canadian organizations through innovative, tailored solutions that also drive profitable growth. On the SMB side, our team is focused on helping small and medium sized Canadian customers achieve their business goals through purpose built technology solutions.
Most recently, Erin was the Director Twilio’s mid market business where she built and executed the sales strategy for the new Canadian business. Prior to this, Erin held several strategic leadership roles during her 15-year tenure at Cisco, including Director of Virtual Sales (Canada, America’s service provider, global enterprise), leader of commercial acceleration, and Regional Sales Manager for central Canada.
Erin holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Dalhousie University and has continued her education through executive leadership programs, further enhancing her strategic thinking and decision-making skills.
Outside of her professional achievements, Erin is a passionate advocate for women in technology and is dedicated to mentoring and developing early-in-career talent.
How has your focus on empowering women in technology shaped your leadership and strategy as Cisco Canada’s Vice President?
I believe in the importance of identifying and cultivating high-potential talent and encouraging women to step into their next role. As women, we often doubt our capabilities and wonder if we are the right fit for a job if we don’t check all the boxes. I’ve had several amazing sponsors who recognized the potential in me before I saw it in myself. They pushed me to seize the next opportunity and I believe it is incumbent on all our leaders to pay it forward. Our leadership team in the Canadian Partner Organization is more than 50% women and I am so proud that we have some of the best talent in the industry leading our business.
Considering the anticipated 8.3% growth rate for Canadian MSPs as opposed to the global rate of 12.7%, what approaches is Cisco taking to leverage and navigate these varied growth trends?
Globally and in Canada, IT channel partners delivering managed services have a huge growth opportunity ahead of them in 2023. MSPs are projected to grow globally by 12.7% to US$472 billion in 2023– outpacing overall IT spending (3.5%). Canada mirrors global trends with US$10.1 billion in managed services revenue delivered by channel partners in 2022, growing 8.3%.
At Cisco, partners are at the heart of everything we do and have been for the past 27 years. Our priority is to help enable our channel partners to capture the opportunities in front of them – especially as it relates to the gap that MSPs can fill for organizations struggling with transformation and cybersecurity expertise and those who have limited resources to drive IT projects forward internally. We work hard to have the best platform, make it easy to work with Cisco and are laser-focused on performance so that we can help partners be successful.
As cybersecurity emerges as a pressing concern, especially given Canada’s readiness gap and the shortage of skilled talent, what strategic steps is Cisco taking to meet these challenges?
The cybersecurity skills gap is a major factor contributing to the need for managed services, as organizations lack the in-house talent to navigate a shifting threat landscape. This is particularly pervasive in Canada, as previous Cisco reports have shown that just 9% of organizations say they are ready to defend against cyber attacks (Cybersecurity Readiness Index) and 20% of cyber roles go unfilled (ICTC). Managed services help bridge that gap by providing cybersecurity talent and expertise needed to build a customer’s security resilience, and their detection and response capabilities in the face of evolving threats and attacks.
The need for a robust cybersecurity posture in Canada has never been more critical. With Cisco cybersecurity solutions and through the expertise of managed service providers, this is a significant avenue for businesses to access the solutions they need to keep themselves safe and secure.
Survey data indicates a strong majority of channel partners in Canada are not MSPs but rather resellers and SIs. What differentiates Cisco’s engagement approach with these groups compared to the 18.5% who are MSPs?
Cisco’s business is based on partnering. We invented the partner model for the IT industry 27 years ago and our strategy is based on a partner-driven go-to-market model. We’ve continued to adapt, evolve and charter new paths and create new experiences for our customers, driven and delivered by a wide array of partners.
We believe we’re in the Age of the Partner – where vendors, partners, and customers work together around a set of strategic business imperatives that drive customer outcomes. The important piece is that the partner is at the center, delivering on outcomes and experiences. We engage all our partners–MSPs, resellers, and SIs–with this approach in mind.
Our global ecosystem of trusted partners brings a diverse set of capabilities and differentiated offerings to our joint customers. All of our partners, including MSPs, resellers and SIs are among the most highly specialized partners on the planet, and we’re equipping them to stand out and excel.
With your educational foundation in Business Administration and a strong commitment to promoting women in tech, what strategies do you have in place to bring more women into the evolving fields of IT and cybersecurity, particularly given the current industry dynamics and growth?
This is an issue I’m staunchly passionate about, and I’m proud of the steps Cisco has taken to improve diversity in the tech industry, but there’s always more to be done.
Importantly, we ensure that we’re prioritizing diverse and inclusive hiring practices. Our hiring teams include diverse interview panels (based on both gender and ethnicity) and candidate slates for all hiring. Our leadership in Canada is passionate about this process and will not approve job requisitions if there is not a diverse panel. At Cisco, we also drive a culture of sponsorship through The Multiplier Effect. If every leader pledges to sponsor at least one person different from themselves, collectively we can build a diverse organization at every level.
We also connect employees across the country and globally with supportive networks through programs such as WISE (Women in Science and Engineering)–a community of women focused on developing, accelerating and attracting women in STEM careers.
Lastly, we place a high value on implementing proximity meetings. These are intended for leaders to become intentionally proximate with diverse employees by learning and understanding the employee experience from the perspective of employees who are minorities on their teams. These meetings are not focused on career discussions or mentoring; they are meant to drive meaningful conversations about diverse employee experiences at Cisco.
There are many more initiatives and measures in place and Cisco continues to be steadfast in its mission to power an inclusive future for all.
What advice would you offer to aspiring leaders aiming to navigate the complexities and opportunities in the tech industry, particularly those interested in breaking barriers for women and minorities?
Try to quiet that voice in your head that is shouting all the reasons why you can’t. Say yes to opportunities that may seem obscure, you never know where it will lead. Network and build genuine relationships; many of my best roles came from people I have built relationships with over the years. Lastly, you don’t need to be in a formal leadership role to lead.
