Cisco and Redington alliance opens up N50b resellers’ market
Jonah Iboma
Information Technology solutions firm, Cisco and Redington said they have entered an alliance tom open up the Nigerian resellers’ market estimated to be worth over N100billion.
The firms said on Tuesday that the nveiling of the alliance recently in Lagos signals the beginning of a new journey for resellers in Nigeria.
Cisco, world leaders in networking for the internet, and Redington, the leading distributor in the Middle East and Africa Regions, signed the agreement in Lagos. With this, Redington will be availing the IT sector its immense skill, experience and market support programmes to radically transform the way solutions are delivered to the customer, increasing the value add to products and services.
These market support programmes are essential in a rapidly growing market, where skills and other incentives are not widely spread, says Maduka Emelife, Managing Director of Cisco Nigeria. “Cisco has gone from an IT to a human company. This change opens up a lot of opportunities for companies like Redington, a Cisco distributor that has the responsibility to sell Cisco solutions. They add a lot of excitement to traditional ways of delivering these solutions,” he added, at the formal event held to unveil the alliance.
The Nigerian market, and indeed the West African sub-region have been growing rapidly. This growth momentum is expected to be sustained even at a higher level. “Only a few years ago, resellers were involved in pushing just boxes. With the change from selling boxes to delivering solutions that contribute to growing customers’ businesses, innovation and entrepreneurship, even at the small scale level, are factors determining the successes of businesses,” says Mr. Emelife. Redington’s experience in emerging markets will be crucial in this region, he added.
Redington has experienced and is continuing to experience huge growth in markets where it has presence, says Ram Kumar, Business Unit Manager, Redington. “Revenues were up by 75 per cent last year from two years ago in the MEA (Middle East and Africa) region. This shows growth, and acceptance of Redington’s value proposition.
We are going to contribute to moving forward our key partners, helping their business grow, and also helping to bring new channel partners to Cisco. We want to also help customers deliver better solutions in areas such as design and large projects. We will be adding value to our channel partners through continuous training. Within a year, Redington, in conjunction with Cisco, will set up a product testing centre to be made available to our partners in the subregion,” he says.
Cisco Partners can rapidly transform their business from a small scale to a bigger level because growth scale in the emerging market is huge, says Bayo Sanni, Regional Channel Director, Cisco Africa. ”At Cisco, we focus on driving partner profitable growth and with the Nigerian market estimated to be worth over N50billion (US$350m) by 2009, Cisco dedicated resellers are uniquely positioned to exponentially grow their businesses. So you can see with our current revenue in Nigeria, we have hardly scratched the surface here. With the emerging market opening up at a rapid rate, we need distribution partners like Redington to support Cisco resellers readiness to drive the market,” said Mr. Sanni, during a presentation at the event.
Continuing: “Redington has been working with Cisco Asia in the last six years. It therefore comes with a lot of credibility and performance winning Cisco’s best Distributor in Asia. We therefore believe they will add the same value to resellers in this market”.
The alliance will also avail resellers the opportunity to do business across the West African subregion, thereby further increasing their potential for growth, says Elias Mathew, Country Manager, Redington Nigeria.
Information Technology solutions firm, Cisco and Redington said they have entered an alliance tom open up the Nigerian resellers’ market estimated to be worth over N100billion.
The firms said on Tuesday that the nveiling of the alliance recently in Lagos signals the beginning of a new journey for resellers in Nigeria.
Cisco, world leaders in networking for the internet, and Redington, the leading distributor in the Middle East and Africa Regions, signed the agreement in Lagos. With this, Redington will be availing the IT sector its immense skill, experience and market support programmes to radically transform the way solutions are delivered to the customer, increasing the value add to products and services.
These market support programmes are essential in a rapidly growing market, where skills and other incentives are not widely spread, says Maduka Emelife, Managing Director of Cisco Nigeria. “Cisco has gone from an IT to a human company. This change opens up a lot of opportunities for companies like Redington, a Cisco distributor that has the responsibility to sell Cisco solutions. They add a lot of excitement to traditional ways of delivering these solutions,” he added, at the formal event held to unveil the alliance.
The Nigerian market, and indeed the West African sub-region have been growing rapidly. This growth momentum is expected to be sustained even at a higher level. “Only a few years ago, resellers were involved in pushing just boxes. With the change from selling boxes to delivering solutions that contribute to growing customers’ businesses, innovation and entrepreneurship, even at the small scale level, are factors determining the successes of businesses,” says Mr. Emelife. Redington’s experience in emerging markets will be crucial in this region, he added.
Redington has experienced and is continuing to experience huge growth in markets where it has presence, says Ram Kumar, Business Unit Manager, Redington. “Revenues were up by 75 per cent last year from two years ago in the MEA (Middle East and Africa) region. This shows growth, and acceptance of Redington’s value proposition.
We are going to contribute to moving forward our key partners, helping their business grow, and also helping to bring new channel partners to Cisco. We want to also help customers deliver better solutions in areas such as design and large projects. We will be adding value to our channel partners through continuous training. Within a year, Redington, in conjunction with Cisco, will set up a product testing centre to be made available to our partners in the subregion,” he says.
Cisco Partners can rapidly transform their business from a small scale to a bigger level because growth scale in the emerging market is huge, says Bayo Sanni, Regional Channel Director, Cisco Africa. ”At Cisco, we focus on driving partner profitable growth and with the Nigerian market estimated to be worth over N50billion (US$350m) by 2009, Cisco dedicated resellers are uniquely positioned to exponentially grow their businesses. So you can see with our current revenue in Nigeria, we have hardly scratched the surface here. With the emerging market opening up at a rapid rate, we need distribution partners like Redington to support Cisco resellers readiness to drive the market,” said Mr. Sanni, during a presentation at the event.
Continuing: “Redington has been working with Cisco Asia in the last six years. It therefore comes with a lot of credibility and performance winning Cisco’s best Distributor in Asia. We therefore believe they will add the same value to resellers in this market”.
The alliance will also avail resellers the opportunity to do business across the West African subregion, thereby further increasing their potential for growth, says Elias Mathew, Country Manager, Redington Nigeria.
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