Every Friday, we'll highlight the most important Cisco partner news and stories of the week, as well as point you to important, Cisco-related partner content you may have missed along the way. Here's what you might have missed this week:

Off The Top

We are always seeking to make it easier for partners to do business with Cisco. One of the items both customers and partners have inquired about is our Return Materials Authorization (RMA) process. Historically, Cisco has operated an RMA back-end swap process. Based on feedback from Cisco customers, we have now moved to a front-end RMA swap process that immediately updates your contract information with the new part information at the start of the RMA process.

Check out Cisco Senior Director of Technical Services Jim Fuller's comments on the new process and how it will make it easier for you to do business with Cisco.

Are You Doing All You Can With Social Media?

Last week in our "Keep an Eye Out" section, we mentioned an upcoming training session on Social Media. We encourage you to join us for that special USTREAM event on July 31 at 9 a.m. Pacific Time.

In the meantime, why not brush up on some of the basics and best practices by taking a peek at what Cecelia Taylor had to say leading up to this event? Since you already have the subject matter expertise, she can help guide you on how to get that knowledge out to your customers via social media. Be sure to check out her blog that provides practical social media advice.

Good Reads

• Kerry Best discusses Midland County Texas' library of the future
• Jennifer Barr reports on the most recent Cisco Networking Academy Conference
• David Deans talks about why digital business ecosystems really matter
• Joseph Bradley instructs on how to increase mobile device security

Keep An Eye Out

• Would you be interested in learning the ROI modeling used by Forrester in order to replicate that for your customers? Join our webcast on July 24 and learn how to derive the total impact and ROI of the Cisco Secure Data Center Solution.
• Check out the Marketing Velocity page for full details about all of our upcoming and archived webcasts.
• Swing by the Cisco Partner Event calendar for the latest information on Cisco partner gatherings.