NEC, Cisco sign global system integrator agreement

Left to right: Wally Beelders, Executive of Communications Solutions at NEC XON, Brian Tarr Cisco Business Unit Lead at NEC XON and Ian Kruger Engineering Manager Networking at NEC XON.

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NEC Corporation and Cisco have signed a global system integrator agreement (GSIA) to expand their partnership in enterprise network solutions worldwide. The agreement underlines NEC’s successful track record as a Cisco Gold Partner over two decades and its proven engineering ability to provide Cisco products to its global customer base across multiple regions.

NEC XON’s African clients will enjoy the benefits of its intimate relationship with the global company and the Cisco status. “NEC’s global status represents a significant time, skills and resource investment,” says Wally Beelders, Executive of Communications Solutions at NEC XON. “Our customers need those deep networking skills and expertise for their enterprise businesses focus. It is testament to the network increasingly forming the beating heart of digitally aware and transformed operations across markets.”

NEC XON architects, designs and deploys networks for Africa’s leading enterprises. NEC XON delivers solutions for organisations such as multinational African banks and some of South Africa’s major retailers.

Through its access to NEC, NEC XON can provide certified Cisco equipment, skills, consulting, implementation, support and maintenance services across enterprise networks, security, collaboration, data centre, customer experience and next-generation networks. The African Cisco business will be led by Brian Tarr and Ian Kruger.

Tarr has extensive Cisco experience. Among other achievements, he grew BCX’s annual business from $6 million to $46 million between 2004 and 2008. He founded AT Services, a dedicated Cisco services company, in 2009 (it was the only one of its kind in South Africa at that time). He then joined StorTech, a subsidiary of Vodacom, in 2010 – together with a hand-selected team of Cisco specialists, including four CCIEs, to enable Vodacom to become a Cisco Gold partner in 2011.

Alongside Tarr is Kruger, Engineering Manager of Networking at NEC XON. He has been with the business for eight years and, prior to that, was with a business in London where he gained experience bringing multi-vendor solutions to market.

“Both Brian and Ian are industry veterans, each with a history of providing trusted advisory services to customers,” says Beelders. “We look forward to being a Cisco powerhouse in Africa with our exceptional team on board.”