Argility has achieved Google Premier Partner status for Google Cloud and Google Workspace, making it one of only six Google Premier Partners in Southern and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (SEEMEA).
This comes on the heels of Digicloud Africa naming Argility “Rising Star Partner of the Year” for 2024 in recognition of its exceptional efforts in achieving Premier status. The award highlights Argility’s impressive dedication to obtaining certifications, writing customer success stories, and expanding its client base but most notably the company’s ‘remarkable commitment to excellence’.
Japie Saunders, ATG’s managing executive for Google Solutions, says achieving the advanced status is in line with Argility’s strategy to enhance its role as a trusted Google partner for its customers offering a broad range of services and support.
Argility moved from being a long-standing Google customer to becoming a Google partner some three years ago. Saunders explains that Argility’s in-house ICT department, saw the value Google Cloud and Google Workspace delivered to its own organisation, and later opted to offer these solutions to Argility customers also. The move transitioned the division from a cost centre to a revenue generator, adding to the broader business’s offerings.
“Having used Workspace (formerly known as Google Apps) in-house since 2010, we chose to move our organisation to Google Cloud eliminating exorbitant on-premise data centre operating costs. We extended Google Cloud services to customers, and have since helped many clients move, reducing or eliminating their data centres,” Saunders says.
Achieving Premier Partner status in record time comes on the back of intentional investment in skills development to meet the stringent Google Premier Partnership requirements. Argility’s team members focused on upskilling and certifications, now boasting a combined total of 74 Google Workspace and Google Cloud certifications.
Saunders notes that this level of certification is unusual in the local market and expects growing demand for Argility’s in-house skills. “Moving to the cloud has been a slow process for most local businesses, but in the past three years there has been a big uptick in digital transformation and increased numbers of organisations moving to the cloud to eliminate risk. More mid-size businesses and large enterprises are now looking to move to Google Cloud and Google Workspace with the support of expert partners.”
Saunders adds some of the drivers for uptake include the fact that Workspace and Cloud are cloud native solutions offering exceptional, reliable ease of use. Google is also an AI leader and offers benefits such as Gemini generative AI included for Workspace Business and Enterprise customers.
“Another important factor for South African customers is the recent landing of Google’s data centres and subsea cable locally ensuring security, data protection and business continuity. With Google Workspace and Google Cloud, all data is secure and available to authorised users, whether a device fails or is lost or stolen.”
Saunders says the Premier Partner status offers customers new levels of assurance that Argility has access to unmatched expertise and exclusive benefits such as early entry to new products, programs, and cost optimisation strategies. As a Premier Partner, Argility also benefits from dedicated resources and prioritised support from Google.
“With our Premier Partner status, we are positioned as a leader for providing end to end Google services – including seamless cloud migration, collaboration platforms, cloud computing and data centres in the cloud on the back of Google,” he concludes.