TORONTO, ON - June 7, 2000 - Cisco Systems Canada today announced ESSC (a division of Genicom Canada) has become the seventh Canadian channel partner to achieve Silver Certification status. Silver Certification status provides strong recognition of ESSC's continuous investment in its Consulting Systems Engineers' training in enterprise Internetworking technology, and ESSC's commitment to providing leading technology solutions to its customers. This commitment mirrors the efforts undertaken by Cisco to help customers view their networks as strategic business assets and to earn the highest level of customer satisfaction.

"Our designation as a Silver Certified Partner recognizes our success in selling, designing, supporting and servicing Cisco solutions," says Bill Wilkinson, vice president, Supplier Partnerships, ESSC Canada. "ESSC can offer our clients a consistently high level of product knowledge, technical expertise and service capabilities as a result of our Silver Certification."

Cisco Silver Certification Partners offer a full complement of pre- and post-sales support services, including standard installation, onsite hardware repair and upgrades, broad troubleshooting expertise and Cisco product sales, configuration and upgrade support. In addition, Silver Partners are required to have certified network support staff to provide five-day, eight-hour technical support and onsite service, with four-hour response time available to customers.

In addition to its Silver Certification, ESSC has also achieved Cisco's Advanced Security and Voice Access specializations. Cisco's Advanced Security specialization authorizes ESSC to sell, design, install and support Cisco's suite of security products, including: Cisco Secure, Cisco PIX Firewall and IOS Firewall feature sets and VPN-enabled IPSEC software. With Cisco's Voice Access specialization, ESSC has demonstrated the expertise required to successfully deploy New World data, voice and video integrated solutions.

"The purpose of the Cisco Partner certification and specialization programs is to build channel partner expertise and help them develop profitable, long-term relationships with their clients," says Brent Rebus, Canadian Channel Operations Manager, Cisco Systems Canada Co. "Partners must meet rigourous training and support requirements in order to achieve Silver Certification, and Advanced Security and Voice Access specializations. Customers who choose to work with ESSC can be assured of a consistently high level of product knowledge and technical support in their implementation of New World networks."

ESSC offers a wide range of advanced services, including outtasking, planning, consulting, help desk, integration, migration and up-time, as well as network management services (NMS). NMS offers network consulting solutions for LANs and WANs, Internetworks and client/server environments, including onsite and remote network monitoring services, product integration and help desk support.

About Cisco Systems Canada Co.

Cisco Systems - with $16.7 billion (US) in revenues and over 30,000 employees - is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Established in 1990, Cisco Systems Canada employs over 500 Canadians and is headquartered in Toronto, with field sales and service offices across the country. In addition, Cisco also has a state-of-the-art development centre in Kanata, ON - focusing on the development of optical internetworking solutions to build the next generation of the Internet backbone.

The Internet is changing the way people work, live, learn and play - and Cisco Systems Canada is a primary agent of this change and a compelling example of the power of this revolution. By widely deploying business solutions based on the Internet, Cisco Systems saves over $825 million (US) per year in operating costs, has grown revenues by 100% in two years and has increased customer satisfaction at the same time. Cisco produces networking solutions for enterprise organizations, service providers and small/emerging businesses.

For additional information:

• Gillian Hewitt
  Strategic/Ampersand Inc.
  (416) 961-5595 ext. 428
  Pager: 1-800-68-CISCO
  E-mail: ghewitt@cisco.com