CISCO PARTNER SUMMIT 2004, HONOLULU, February 11, 2004 - In an effort to highlight its top global channel partners, Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), today announced its 2003 annual Partner Summit Global Channel Partner award winners. These sixteen honorees were selected from a list of nearly 3,000 Cisco Certified Channel Partners worldwide for their outstanding performance in 2003. Cisco will recognize the top global channel partners in the following categories, distribution, Gold, Silver and Premier Certification, customer Satisfaction, IP communications, mobility and security.
"I consider our channel partners as an extension of our sales capability and like any good sales organization we want to recognize and reward our top performers," said Paul Mountford, senior vice president, Worldwide Channels at Cisco Systems. "We have spent the past nine-months defining the requirements, identifying the nominees and selecting the winners of the second annual, Cisco Global Channel Awards. Last night I had the honor and the privilege of recognizing our top global performers for 2003."
The Cisco Global Awards are conferred to partners who meet a specific set of requirements, which are designed to identify the best global channel partner in each category. Cisco has also built a formalized nomination and selection process that begins with each sales theater identifying and nominating a channel partner for each category. These nominations are reviewed and a collective group that includes Cisco worldwide channels and theater channel executives makes final selections. With the exception of the Global Distribution Award, which recognizes value creation and operational excellences, all the other global awards are in compliance with the requirements of the Cisco Channel Partner Program and customer satisfaction as its foundational criterion.
The 2003 Cisco Global Channel Partners of the Year Award Winners are:
| Award: | Winner: |
|---|---|
| IP Communications | Sentinel Technologies (United States) |
| Security | Datacraft (Asia Pacific) |
| Mobility | CC CompuNet (Europe, Middle East, Africa) |
| Gold Certification Customer Satisfaction | Dimension Data (United States) |
| Silver Certification Customer Satisfaction | Netcloud (Europe, Middle East, Africa) |
| Premier Certification Customer Satisfaction | Step Logic (Europe, Middle East, Africa) |
| Gold Certification | Net One Systems Co., Ltd (Japan) |
| Silver Certification | The Ram Group (Americas International/Canada) |
| Premier Certification | DataVox, Inc. (United States) |
| Americas International Partner of the Year | Ingram Micro (Latin America) |
| Americas International Partner of the Year | IBM (Canada) |
| U.S. Partner of the Year | Northrup Grumman Computing Systems |
| Japan Partner of the Year | IBM |
| Asia Pacific Partner of the Year | IBM |
| Europe, Middle East, Africa Partner of the Year | CC CompuNet |
| Distribution Partner of the Year | Ingram Micro |
For more features, news, videos, and photos relating to the Cisco 2004 Partner Summit visit http://newsroom.cisco.com/partnersummit/
