Cisco Systems addresses SMB challenges at IDC Middle East Roadshow in Bahrain

The event is scheduled for February 13th at the Diplomat Radisson SAS Manama. This engagement will help create an environment that outlines how SMBs can leverage IT to devise new partnerships, improve profitability and increase efficiency.

"In the months and years to come, small and medium size business will increasingly face fierce competition in their market. As they aim to stay on top, one of the differencing factors will be their ability to react to swift changing market conditions. In this light, Cisco has heavily invested in developing the appropriate product portfolio at the right price point from a bottom-up approach," said Samer Alkharrat, General Manager - Gulf Region and Pakistan, Cisco Systems.

"We have spent a considerable amount of time gathering extensive market intelligence across the Middle East to ensure we better understand our SMB customers and the market opportunity in depth," added Alkharrat, "Cisco is committed to enabling Middle East's small and medium-sized businesses become more productive, more efficient, and more secure by enabling them to maximize the return on their investment in information technology."

"As part of our commitment at enhancing and supporting the success of SMBs in the region, our product set not only takes into consideration simplicity of deployment and operation of SMB products but we do this in a smart, secure and integrated manner. The Cisco solution is designed to help SMBs in the region control cost, improve operations and gain a sustainable competitive advantage," added Alkharrat.

Last year, Cisco was awarded the "Best SMB Solution" prize for its 'Integrated Services Routers' at GITEX Saudi 2005, the kingdom's largest gathering of IT services and solution providers. The Integrated Services Routers are the industry's first routers to deliver secure, wire-speed data, voice, video and other advanced services to SMBs and enterprise branch offices as well as to service providers for their managed network services offerings.