Articles on the ICT Industry in South Africa

Converged network provider and Cisco silver partner, KSS Technologies (KSS), has aligned itself with Cisco’s Architecture Specialisations strategy to address growing technical and service market demands. To accelerate its growth, Cisco is focused on three multibillion-dollar market opportunities known as architectural plays - borderless networks, collaboration, and data centre virtualisation.

KSS has fulfilled the role-based training requirements and program prerequisites to sell, design, and deploy Cisco Borderless Networks Architecture solutions and Cisco Collaboration Architecture solutions in South Africa and has achieved this 8 months prior to the required dates as specified by CISCO..

KSS sales manager Stuart Cohen says the key to their success is their ability to offer technical and services capabilities. “To help us evolve by meeting growing market demands, Cisco has added architecture-focused specialisations to its portfolio of partner certification programs.”

“Architectural plays are simply the way Cisco categorises architectures by market opportunity. Key to our growth strategy will be our ability to build a sales process with architectural selling capacity and capabilities to drive innovation, differentiation, and transformation,” he explains.

The new specialisations will involve role-based training specific to Cisco's architectural vision. The new architecture specialisations will be required for resale certification starting in August 2012, with a generous transition period for existing Cisco Certified Partners. KSS elected to achieve these specialisations well in advance of the required time frame to enable it to align with CISCO’s vision early on in the process.

Cisco Borderless Network Architecture Specialisation tests knowledge in selling, designing, installing, and supporting the Borderless Network Architecture. Meeting the business and technical challenges of today's organisations requires an architectural approach.

The Cisco Borderless Network Architecture is the technical architecture that allows organisations to connect anyone, anywhere, anytime, and on any device - securely, reliably, and seamlessly. It is built on an infrastructure of scalable and resilient hardware and software. Components of the architecture come together to build network systems that span your organisation from network access to the cloud. Intelligent network, endpoint, and user services provide the flexibility, speed, and scale to support new devices, applications, and deployment models.

“Borderless Network Services are the advanced, differentiated capabilities that Cisco Borderless Networks delivers across its routing, switching, security, wireless, and WAN optimisation portfolios. Investing in these areas provides organisations with superior business flexibility and increased competitive advantage’” says Cohen.

Similiarly, Cisco Collaboration Architecture Specialisation tests knowledge in selling, designing, installing, and supporting the Collaboration Architecture. Business today increasingly requires ongoing interaction between organisation and their customers, partners, and suppliers.

The elements of the Cisco Collaboration Architecture establish a collaboration core that powers compelling experiences both within and among organisations. Working together in a modular fashion, these capabilities allow one to develop an investment plan that helps ensure interoperability with one’s existing assets. By implementing a collaboration architecture, one can also gain capabilities that provide highly secure and reliable access from any location; a consistent user experience on any device; and delivery of any content type - video, voice and data for immersive interaction.”

“The move to the architecture specialisations is the fastest way to align certified partners with Cisco’s architectural direction and vision. This alignment will help partners understand their role in this vision and to identify opportunities to help transform their business.”

“Additionally, the architectural approach provides a relevant way to organise training content, starting with the high-level view and then focusing on the individual pieces. This organisation provides a blueprint of how the various pieces work together, while also focusing on the top-down or architectural selling approach’” he concludes.

ENDS

More about KSS Technologies (Pty) Ltd

KSS Technologies (Pty) Ltd specialises in the design, implementation and support of converged networking solutions. The Company’s head office is situated in Midrand with support centres countrywide, providing a national support infrastructure. With a proven track record in the Enterprise, Mid-Market and upper-end Small Medium Enterprise (SME) market segments, KSS provides Information Communication Technology (ICT) solutions that integrate with legacy systems or builds solutions from the ground up through “greenfields” installations. Its approach, methodologies and solutions add unique business value by streamlining processes and eliminating redundant steps for clients within the public and private sectors.

KSS is committed to sustainable human resources and skills development through its continuous investment in highly skilled sales and technical resources thus creating confidence in our business partners, customers and employees alike. KSS has been committed to true black economic empowerment (BEE) since its inception in 2000 and has its BEE shareholding is currently over 50%. BEE executive management represents 67% of the board.

Certification and alignment with strategic vendor solutions empowers KSS to deliver business value to customers. Certification programmes assist to achieve consistently high levels of service and expertise. This commitment to empowering the organisation is reflected in its quest for certification. KSS received Cisco Silver Partner status in March 2000, highlighting an early dedication to delivering converged network solutions – now a key consideration for businesses eager to leverage the considerable efficiencies and returns that this platform delivers. More recently, KSS was awarded Cisco Customer Satisfaction Excellence, the highest distinction a partner can achieve within the Cisco Channel Partner Program.

In addition, KSS has developed its technical strengths by aligning and complying with standards from world-class vendor programmes including: Expand Value Added Reseller & National Support partner; Citrix Silver Partner; Microsoft Certified Partner; IBM Business Partner; HP Preferred Partner (Storage & Networking); AXIS Certified partner; CommVault Gold partner and SLi (representing Lenel).