Hello there,

I've heard that Cisco awards big discounts to companies that hire Cisco certified staff. Is that true?

Sincerely, GRinch

I've heard the same. For CCIE's!

But can't confirm it unfortunatly, since i'm not....yet ;) I can confirm that since i completed Cisco Networking academy, i got a 45% rebate on most of the Cisco Press books.

I wonder if it's lifetime? I did 2 purchases at this time. And it seem i still have it.

For becoming Silver and Gold partner comapnies need to hire a certain amount of CCIEs. Once they become partners they get heavy discounts from Cisco.

HTH... Deepak Arora http://deepakarora1984.blogspot.com

Thank you for reply, I think any discount from cisco is a big advantage =) Discount on cisco press book is my dream, I pay full price for each book. The far you go with your certification path the more books U need =)

Cheers, GRinch

You're not going to get much of a discount from cisco press by having a partnership with Cisco, as Cisco doesn't actually handle the printing and distribution or sales of the book. I believe that's all owned, ultimately, by Pearson.

Cisco Press's own website sells books for deep discounts, especially if you take their short survey. The prices are on par with Amazon, but I prefer to buy from them instead of Amazon because they offer the book for free via Safari for a few months when you purchase the text. This allows you to take the slower (but free) shipping option, and begin reading right away.

@drakonblayde

Thanks for reply. My question was about disscounts for Cisco equipment not books. Talks about disscounts from cisco press are not common in this thread =)

MrGRinch, The certification to discount level is at the reseller level. When your local VAR signs up with Cisco to be a reseller, they to a point choose at which level of partner they want to be with Cisco. In addition to money changing hands, the VAR is required to sell so much product and have so many certified staff on hand. As your partner level goes up the discount rate, or your cut of the profits from Cisco, goes up. For the most part the end user of the equipment doesn't see this discount, it is added profit/ capability to handle overhead for the reseller.

When we as end users see discounts from Cisco is when we purchase in bulk. Generally everybody gets at least 10-15%. As the deal gets bigger the discount gets bigger, especially when Cisco sales reps are involved in the process. For example a company I have worked for in the past purchased essentially a full infrastructure refresh and implemented VoIP at the same time and our discount rate was in the neigborhood of 40% off list.

So no, you really aren't going to get discounts on your gear just by being certified.

@k00laid

Thanks a lot. Very informative and absolutely clear. My investigation gave me almost the same result. I realized that you should be a resseller to be a partner. Thanks once again.