Cisco further strengthens Channel Partner Program in North Africa and Levant

With the ever changing customer requirements and market dynamics, Cisco Systems' award-winning partner program is designed to provide partners with the ability and skill-sets that will enable them to maximize their growth, profitability and competitive edge.

'As intelligence migrates into the network, the network is rapidly becoming the platform for all communications. This market transition is expanding the total addressable market for Cisco and its partners.'

said Mark De Simone, Cisco Systems' Vice President, Middle East and Africa.

'To capture this dynamic market opportunity, Cisco and our partners must lead, evolve, and grow together. Cisco has been working closely with to map out the evolution of our value-based program. We strongly believe that the direction we are taking will create opportunities for growth, differentiation and profitability for our partners.'

At the Cisco Partner Summit 2006, regional partners and resellers will receive an in-depth approach on Cisco's evolving partner program giving them the opportunity to profit from their investment in both breadth of technology offering and depth of expertise, while recognizing the changing demands of customers.

'Cisco's evolving partner program gives partners the opportunity to profit from their investment in both breadth of technology offering and depth of expertise, while recognizing the changing demands of customers,' said Yasser Elkadi, Cisco Systems' Managing Director, Middle East and Africa. 'But this is also a wake-up call to partners: those who fail to evolve their own business models will find themselves falling further behind those who can differentiate around advanced technologies and integrated solutions.'

In his keynote address at the Cisco Partner Summit 2006, De Simone will unveil plans to roll out the information technology industry's first offer-based channel program strategy. Over the next year, Cisco will launch three new channel partner programs that will assist and reward channel partners who deliver global resale, outsourcing and managed network service offerings to customers. These new programs will complement the existing Cisco Channel Partner Program, which primarily supports local resale offerings, and will map to the distinct offerings that Cisco partners are delivering to the market.

The Summit will be concluded by a prestigious awards ceremony to celebrate best performing partners who will be recognized for demonstrating best practices, commitment and dedication towards their customers, vendors and markets.