Cisco on Wednesday announced ‘Race to Rio’ a new incentive program for its distributors & channel partners in India and other SAARC nations, including Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives & Bhutan. The program is aligned with Cisco''s growth strategy to motivate partners, especially in upcountry markets to accelerate sales and widen geographical reach for Cisco.

The program offers partners a chance to win an all expense paid trip to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in February 2012 corresponding with the Rio Carnival.  The program, which is currently underway, will go on till January 20, 2012. 

Arun Dharmalingam, Vice President, Partner Led, Velocity Sales, Cisco said, “All our unique incentive programs have been well received, with previous initiatives helping to increase partner coverage exponentially during the program period. This accomplishment has prompted us to consistently increase our investments in channel promotions and enablement programs; we expect ‘Race to Rio’ to exceed our expectations and become a bigger success.” 

The products included under Race to Rio program are Cisco UCS C Series, Cisco Small Business product portfolio and specific Cisco Switching and Routing products.  Apart from the trip to Rio for the top performers and runners-up, other partners can accumulate points upon selling participating SKUs and encash them for exciting rewards such as Bose Home Theater Systems, Canon DSLR Cameras, Samsung Galaxy S2 Phones, etc. 

“Our strategy to expand 3G services in rural, industrial, agricultural and educational heartlands of India has helped us become the largest 3G network in the country. We hope mobile users in J&K will connect to Idea’s 3G services and avail a range of high-speed data services, and roaming facility while travelling to other parts of the country.”

With the launch of 3G services in J&K, Idea’s national 3G footprint now covers over 1,600 towns across 20 circles.Idea has traditionally focused on growth from semi-urban heartlands of India and will continue to drive its 3G services from these industrial, agricultural and educational regions.