Cisco has appointed a new channel director to head up the South African region, as well as a new distributor to help accelerate time to market and service channel customers.
Kevin Hardy has been appointed as director of partner operations and commercial for Cisco’s South African operations to extend Cisco’s Channel business focus to the Eastern and Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal regions as well as its commercial business.
Meanwhile, Cisco has appointed AxizWorkgroup, a focused, value-added IT infrastructure distributor to help extend the company’s exposure in the market and provide access to the public sector which is a key focus for Cisco in South Africa.
“This is a very exciting time for our partner organisation in South Africa as someone of Kevin’s calibre is ideally placed to drive the business forward,” says Alpheus Mangale, MD of Cisco South Africa. “Likewise, our strategic collaboration with AxizWorkgroup will give us access and exposure to new markets.
“At a time when a massive wave of global connectivity, employee mobility and an explosion of data is making customers’ business more complex, Cisco and its partners have an opportunity to solve customers’ most complex business challenges in a way that only Cisco and its partners can deliver.
“We are confident these appointments will enable us to help our partners in South Africa evolve their business models to respond to market transitions and new consumption models,” he adds.
With over 10 years’ experience within the Cape region, Hardy brings an in-depth knowledge of the region that will help him deliver on his goal to build the best possible structure to support the right partners in South Africa.
Hardy started his career in the Eastern Cape where he ran Dimension Data’s sales for the region. He later ran the national converged communications business for Dimension Data in Gauteng. Prior to joining Cisco, he was sales director, responsible for the go to market for Aspivia, a telecommunications expense management business.
AxizWorkgroup was formed in April 2011 when Axiz and Workgroup joined forces, and represents some of the world’s leading IT brands with business partners across the African continent.
“We are delighted that Cisco has selected AxizWorkgroup as their distributor of record in South Africa,” says Henry Ferreira, CEO of AxizWorkgroup. “Not only are we known within the South African IT market as a successful specialist knowledge distributor of software and value-based hardware products, our core strength is also rooted in being able to predict and integrate vendors and resellers’ needs.
“We can offer Cisco the extensive dealer reach they are looking for with on-going and consistent market penetration. We pride ourselves on our long relationships with resellers and vendors and aim to be a valued supplier at all stages of the sales process and we look forward to a long and very successful working partnership with Cisco.”