We're trying to use the carrot and not the stick.

Customers more and more need a partner who can integrate all these technologies together, and this is one of the foundational elements we want our program to have going forward. But they sometimes need from partners a level of depth, so we wanted to identify the ones that have that level of depth or breadth.

The Cisco team has been working closely with partners for the past 18 months to map out the evolution of our value-based program. We strongly believe that the direction we are taking will create opportunities for growth, differentiation and profitability for our partners.

This is the opportunity for the specialized voice or data partners to brand themselves as a Master in those technologies. We'll be adding new Master categories over time.

We feel that we can answer the expectation of the president, ... What we are trying to do is impress the Palestinian people with the need to go from the world of rhetoric to the world of action.

Hell, there are no rules here--we're trying to accomplish something.