Cisco Systems has awarded networking solutions provider, I-Fusion with its Silver Partner Certification. The endorsement comes after I-Fusion achieved both the voice access and wireless local area networking (WLAN) channel specialisations earlier this month. This ensured that I-Fusion technical staff are equipped to plan, design, implement and support Cisco solutions in the areas of voice access and WLAN.
Steve Midgley, director, channel at Cisco Systems sub-Saharan Africa, says: "The silver certification is designed to recognise partners who have proven expertise in two specialisation areas, have achieved high levels of customer satisfaction and have demonstrated a solutions delivery capability. I-Fusion undertook to meet the stringent specialisation criteria to become a silver partner, ensuring that its customers are guaranteed of superior service delivery, support and consultancy."
Julian Liebenberg, technical director for I-Fusion, says: "We believe that achieving the Cisco Silver Certification sets us apart from other resellers in the market. It is not easy to accomplish, nor is it a light investment in terms of the money and training time spent on achieving this status. Cisco`s final audit looks at laboratory equipment, technical skills and customer satisfaction, ensuring that I-Fusion is able to offer consultancy and integrated solutions, enabling us to form long-term partnerships with our clients."
I-Fusion has been working with WLANs since the introduction of Cisco`s Aironet product set in 1998. "We chose to do the WLAN specialisation as the company already had a strong skills base in this area. It is also synergistic with other departments within I-Fusion such as the cabling and infrastructure division. The voice access specialisation was selected as many of our larger, national clients are looking to reduce internal communication costs by running voice over data within their corporate virtual private networks (VPNs). To ensure that we are equipped to meet our customers` needs, now and in the future, I-Fusion is committed to completing other specialisations such as VPN security," says Liebenberg.
After completing the programme, Cisco Silver partners receive access to Cisco`s 24x7 technical assistance centre, sales and marketing information, tools, support as well as the ability to offer customers Cisco-backed support services.
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Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. The South African office was started in late 1994, with a single office in Johannesburg and two members of staff. Growing significantly year-on-year, Cisco is now represented in all major South African centres by local offices and/or partner organisations.
The South African team offers support in sales, pre-sales, marketing and promotions as well as a pre-sales helpdesk. By breaking the team into these segments, it allows Cisco to focus on the unique requirements of each target market, so that it can ensure that it is providing its individual customers with products and services that meet their needs.
Cisco news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com.
I-Fusion
I-Fusion Holdings is one of South Africa`s leading suppliers of networking products and services to medium-sized businesses in all sectors of the marketplace. Its comprehensive range of networking products and services extend from local to wide-area networks with a specialist emphasis on outsourced services capability, offering clients a total IT solution.
Established in 1991 and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1998 under the name of Impotek, the group changed its name to I-Fusion in May 1999. In November 2001, I-Fusion Holdings Limited became a 100% owned company within the BidVest Group of Companies and subsequently announced the de-listing of I-Fusion from the Johannesburg Securities Exchange.
Based in Midrand, I-Fusion has national coverage in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban and points of presence in all the main business centres in SA as well as in Mozambique, Namibia and Botswana.
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