Cisco strengthens its commitment to the Channel in South Africa

Cisco appoints new channel lead and distributor for its South African Channel business

Cisco today bolstered its commitment to its Channel partners in South Africa with the appointment of a new Channel Director to head up the region and also a new distributor to help accelerate time to market as well as 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. Additionally, 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.

With over 10 years’ experience within the Cape region, Hardy’s strong understanding of both the partner and OEM environment, will stand him in good stead in his new role at Cisco. He brings with him 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. Kevin has a wealth of experience in the ICT sector having worked his way up the corporate ladder at Dimension Data, starting his career in the Eastern Cape where he ran sales for the region. He then went on to run the National Converged Communications business for Dimension Data in Gauteng. Prior to joining Cisco, Kevin was Sales Director, responsible for the go to market for Aspivia, a Telecommunications Expense Management Business.

AxizWorkgroup has exactly the right pedigree and credentials to support Cisco. Formed in April 2011 when Axiz – a leading hardware distributor – and Workgroup – a powerful software distributor – joined forces to take their expertise and best-of-breed practices to the African market, it represents some of the world’s leading IT brands and currently interacts with thousands of business partners across the African continent. AxizWorkgroup also currently drives its BEE policy through the requirements as outlined by the Department of Trade and Industry BBBEE Codes and is a Level 4 contributor. This accreditation is important to Cisco and contributed to AxizWorkgroup being selected.

Cisco invests aggressively in helping its channel partners both globally and in South Africa evolve their business and grow their relevance with customers. The company’s goal, in addition to supporting partner profitability, is to help maximize partner business value, and optimise their overall return on their Cisco relationship.