NHR’s NetSure offers customers next-day hardware replacements and 24-hour technical support for Cisco, Foundry, Extreme and Juniper equipment.

Robert Wolthuis, EMEA general manager for NHR, told CRN that customer concerns about SMARTnet’s cost and Cisco’s more aggressive approach to enforcing its re- certification fees led his company to set up a US maintenance division.

“It was very well received,” said Wolthuis. “When we received that confirmation we immediately started hiring people to offer the same service in Europe.”

Wolthuis said SMARTnet charges a set fee for maintenance of a chassis whereas NHR charges customers based on the number of items inside the chassis, allowing them a discount of about 70 per cent.

"NetSure will be pretty big, especially with the thousands of customers that have end-of-life equipment, which is no longer supported by Cisco,” he claimed.

However, Keith Humphreys, managing consultant for EuroLAN, said: “I think people will see the benefits of going with the Cisco brand and NetSure has very little chance of being successful. [Cisco chief executive] John Chambers is not going to lose a night’s sleep over this.”

NHR opened its first UK office earlier this year and Wolthuis said he was hoping to double the firm’s UK staff and generate more than £5m turnover this year. “Larger corporate clients are more interested in working with us now than when we were working from Amsterdam.”