Block builds on H1 success

London-based Cisco Gold partner enjoys success in the finance sector as part of first-half growth

Strong foundations: Block enjoyed sales of £4m in 2010's first half

After doubling first-half turnover and winning deals outside its NHS stronghold, Block Solutions hopes its Cisco Gold badge will attract top sales talent.

For the six months to the end of September, the London VAR is set to post revenue of about £4m. Block has long been an NHS specialist, but commercial sales now provide more than half the firm’s top line. Recent customer wins including IG Group and NewFinance Capital.

Block sales director Rohan Abey said: “The deals are not just important from a revenue perspective, they are projects that we can reference from a technology and a vertical perspective.”

Block gained accreditation on Cisco’s Unified Computing System datacentre kit around the start of its fiscal year and became one of the vendor’s top-level Gold partners in June. Abey said the badges would help achieve Block’s sales recruitment goals.

“Before we had [Gold accreditation], we really had to sell ourselves,” he said. “Now we have it, the conversation time is halved.”