Daisy Group strikes Gold with Cisco
Daisy becomes the 35th Gold partner in the UK
Daisy has achieved Cisco Gold status across the whole of its business, in a move it claims will be a boon for its partners.
In an announcement made today, Daisy said the "coveted" title of Cisco Gold partner puts it among the most highly accredited partners in the UK. According to the Cisco partner locator, there are 34 Gold partners in the UK, not yet including Daisy.
The company did have Cisco Gold status for its Damovo business, but not across its other divisions. Back in May, Daisy gobbled up Phoenix IT Group for £135m. The latter was kicked off Cisco's partner programme back in 2013. From now on, the whole business has the Cisco Gold seal of approval.
Daisy said it has invested "significantly" in Cisco across the board, in collaboration, datacentre services, security, WiFi and enterprise networks. It has 56 Cisco-certified staff boasting 276 certifications between them, and 10 datacentres built on Cisco kit.
Daisy's managing director, John Holt, told CRN that getting the accreditation across the Daisy business is good news for it and its partners.
"We've taken the Gold accreditation Daisy acquired with Damovo and continued to invest in that and raised it up across all of our Daisy customers," he said.
"So what this means is taking the partnership we already had with Cisco out to the whole range of Daisy customers now. Working with Cisco we've added a couple of accreditations so that we've got a much broader service that we can go to market with Cisco. It gives an indication of the investment we are making to deliver enterprise-class services into the mid-market."
Holt said the Daisy Gold status has been about six months in the making.
Daisy's chief executive, Neil Muller, described Cisco as a key business partner.
"Our continued investment enables us to provide our customers with the very best in business communications and IT infrastructure solutions and services," he said.
"We are now able to offer our SMB and mid-market customers the option of a single provider, who has the capability and care to support their complete telecommunications and IT landscape. In today's ever-converging marketplace, I believe that puts us in a very strong position."
Daisy said the new accreditation will enable it to offer "more valuable" services to its SIs, telcos, VAR and smaller reseller partners.
Cisco's UK partner and commercial sales managing director, Richard Robert, said Daisy is a great addition to the Gold club.
"The Gold certification recognises businesses that have an in-depth level of expertise across the vast Cisco portfolio and can demonstrate high customer satisfaction as a result," he said.
"The ongoing investment that the Daisy Group has made to ensure that they have the sales expertise and capability to deliver as a Gold Certified Partner is clear to see. As a partner with Gold status, the business will have access to a whole new level of support with which I am sure they will continue to thrive."