Spescom DataFusion, a wholly owned subsidiary of the JSE-listed Spescom Group, has been appointed the first Advanced Technology Partner in Southern Africa of Cisco, the world's leading Internet and networking company.
This means that Spescom is the Cisco partner best qualified to provide Upper Tier Cisco solutions in the region. These solutions encompass Cisco's integrated architecture for voice, video and data (Avvid) as well as solutions that include Internet Protocol (IP) telephony (CCN), unified messaging (Amteva), intelligent contact manager (ICM-Geotel), web integration of customer relationship management (Webline), and Internet business and associated services, including optical and wireless applications.
Through this arrangement Spescom is elevated to Tier-1 Cisco partnership status. According to Tim Pryce, Cisco business unit manager at Spescom, this means that Spescom will in future deal directly with Cisco in all matters of supply and support, instead of having to go through a third-party distributor.
"By partnering with Cisco, Spescom has the leading edge in the market in terms of providing advanced Internet-based, technology and business solutions through the implementation of packet-switched technology," he says.
"Having the largest call-centre market share in Southern Africa, we are well positioned to provide companies with a single IP-based communications infrastructure running off Cisco products. This will be the platform necessary to handle Internet business solutions that will dramatically improve our customers' efficiency and competitiveness."
The interest that this has generated is extremely positive, says Pryce. "We have several trial IP telephony installations running, and I expect the market to mushroom in the near future, as more companies realise that IP is the future."
The award of Advanced Technology Partner status can be attributed mainly to Cisco's acknowledgement that Spescom has highly skilled and experienced technical staff and an international customer base for its voice and data solutions
"With the new Internet revolution", says Steve Midgley, channel sales manager at Cisco, "to simply survive, most enterprises will need to implement leading-edge Internet solutions during the next three years. These solution will improve operational efficiencies, as well as speed to market, and will introduce Internet/Intranet applications that are revolutionising the way business is done. Spescom, by working directly with Cisco, the market leader in this field, will be able to deliver major competitive advantage through the deployment of new-age technologies."
Midgley adds: "Although Cisco is in the process of enabling other traditional Cisco partners to obtain Advanced Technology Partner status, Spescom has thus far been the leading company to have met Cisco's stringent accreditation criteria .With this partnership we are hoping to position Cisco as the leading solutions supplier of this new wave of technology."
Tony Farah, executive chairman of Spescom, says: "This Cisco partnership is very much in line with our global focus of connecting and enabling organisations to manage their information using leading-edge solutions, which include Spescom's own voice and knowledge management offerings. This is the focus of our global drive and we are currently investigating possibilities of using Cisco's international network as a channel to market for our own products."
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