Subscribe
  • Home
  • /
  • TechForum
  • /
  • NEC XON wins global networking award for innovative African solutions

NEC XON wins global networking award for innovative African solutions

ADVA's Global Partner of the Year award celebrates NEC XON's revenue growth, sales and business development in Africa, and its use of ADVA technologies.

Johannesburg, 18 Oct 2019
Carel Coetzee, CEO of NEC XON, accepts the award from Guenter Landers, Director Africa of ADVA Optical Networking.
Carel Coetzee, CEO of NEC XON, accepts the award from Guenter Landers, Director Africa of ADVA Optical Networking.

NEC XON has won ADVA’s Global Partner of the Year award and received the award at its annual summit, held at Sun City in October 2019. 

“This is a global OEM, recognising that a South African systems integrator is its top global partner,” says Anthony Laing, GM of networking at NEC XON. “It signals the level of solutions across the board that we’re capable of delivering to our customers based on the close, collaborative relationships we have with our OEM partners, who provide the best technologies in their sectors worldwide.” 

The ADVA award celebrates NEC XON’s 125% year-on-year revenue growth, sales and business development through a broad presence and excellent customer relationships in Africa, its investment in ADVA technologies, and its capitalising on cross-selling opportunities into its large customer base. 

“We strive to bring our customers innovative solutions that meet their practical needs,” says Laing, “like the network we created for the South African National Research Network (SANReN) that connects thousands of researchers, scientists and students across Africa.” 

In May this year, NEC XON announced that it was deploying a national DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplex) network based on ADVA technology for SANReN, which is an initiative of the South African Department of Science and Technology hosted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The deployment provides high-speed connectivity for research institutions, universities and other higher education institutions across the country. 

The SANReN network consumes less energy and reduces truck rolls, which makes it an ecologically sound solution that delivers broadband connectivity for “researchers, educators and students, enabling them to push the boundaries of discovery and use advanced applications while collaborating with their peers in new ways”. 

ADVA is creating technologies that address the openness challenges that network operators face, giving them the flexibility to upgrade elements that meet new demands and also allow them to benefit from the latest technologies. Transponders, for example, develop faster than optical light source (OLS) components, so it makes sense to be able to swap just them out rather than replace an entire DWDM system. 

“The ability to work with elements of the total solution gives us the flexibility to give customers cost-effective, up-to-date solutions and upgrade them as technologies change,” says Laing. “We’re able to leverage that with our architectures and designs, and with the way we deploy these solutions to provision some of the most innovative networks on the continent.”

Share

NEC XON

NEC XON is the combination of XON, a Systems Integrator providing custom ICT and security services and solutions in Southern Africa since 1996, and NEC Africa, the African business of the global technology giant NEC Corporation. NEC Corporation implemented its first communication solution in Africa in 1963 and established NEC Africa in 2011 to grow its business ICT and public safety. 

Kapela Capital (Pty) Ltd, XON’s B-BBEE partner since 2010, continues as NEC XON’s B-BBEE partner in South Africa, with Israel Skosana as chairman of the board of directors of NEC XON. 

NEC generates global revenues in excess of $30 billion by orchestrating a brighter world for public entities, enterprises, telecoms carriers, and providing system platforms for businesses.

The combined NEC Africa and XON (NEC XON) operations seek to more fully explore the opportunities for safe city, energy, cyber security, telecommunication solutions, retail, managed services, cyber defence services and cloud (both public and private), among others in sub-Sahara Africa.

NEC XON maintains its head offices in Gauteng, South Africa with a footprint that covers all nine provinces in South Africa and 16 countries in sub-Sahara Africa.