USKO Communications has been awarded Silver Partner status by Cisco, and is on its way to achieving Gold Partner status in recognition of its inhouse Cisco skills and resources.
Bogoshi says USKO`s rating entitles it to certain privileges to pass on to its clients, including access to a marketing fund for joint projects and Cisco`s global information network, sales incentive and trade show seminar programmes, and access to Cisco`s Executive Briefing Centre.
"The purpose of the certification programme is to solve end-users` problems quickly on the frontlines rather than handing them back to us," says Jonas Bogoshi, Cisco SMB manager.
"It positions USKO as a Cisco partner with the prerequisite presales, post-sales and support infrastructure the position requires. USKO has the capability to support customer networks with access to Cisco`s Technical Assistance Centre, and therefore the labs and design engineers to handle some of the difficult problems customers encounter in practice."
Certified partners help Cisco distributors through increased revenue (from repeat business and customer loyalty programmes) and reduced cost of sales (a certified partner has both presales and post-sales staff so the distributor does not incur costs).
"With certified partners Cisco will have loyal and satisfied customers," adds Bogoshi. "The certification helps uphold the Cisco brand in the market."
According to Rob Abraham, MD of USKO Communiucations, Cisco is strong in large enterprise businesses, but is not known in micro, small and medium companies.
"This market is growing and Cisco is targeting it with specific products, channel and marketing programs," he says. "USKO`s target market is the medium and large enterprise, so we are key to Cisco`s strategy."
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