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Networked Information Systems Named Cisco U.S. Partner of the YearTop-performing Cisco partner beats all other value-added resellers in competition based on revenue growth, customer satisfaction and the ability to deploy advanced technologies like IP communications and security. The award caps three consecutive years in which NIS was ranked among the 50 fastest-growing VARs in the world. Woburn, Mass., June 8, 2005 – Networked Information Systems (NIS), a leading IT solutions provider, announced today that it has been named the Cisco U.S. Theater Partner of the Year. The award was presented at Cisco’s annual Partner Summit in Vancouver, Canada, by Paul Mountford, senior vice president of Worldwide Channels at Cisco Systems. The award recognizes NIS as Cisco’s best-performing channel partner in the United States, and is based on NIS’ outstanding revenue growth in the enterprise and commercial markets, innovation in advanced technologies such as IP communications and security, and high levels of customer satisfaction. In winning the award, NIS topped more than 850 Cisco partners in the US. NIS is one of the fastest-growing value-added resellers (VARs) in the nation, and one of only six companies to make VAR Business magazine’s list of the 50 fastest-growing firms three years in a row. In 2003, NIS’ revenue grew 43 percent to $92 million. Last year, the company recorded $124 million in revenue, a 35 percent gain from the prior year. “We are extremely gratified to be named Cisco’s top-performing VAR in the nation,” said Thomas Foley, Co-CEO of NIS. “The award recognizes three years of concentrated effort, which led to NIS achieving the highest levels of engineering certification on Cisco technology, rapid revenue growth, and the best customer satisfaction scores in the industry.” NIS co-founder and Co-CEO Robert Murphy attributes the company’s winning ways to its customer focus – including a big investment in project management skills – and the decision to focus its solutions business on a few key technology platforms, which enabled the company’s engineers to specialize and achieve the highest levels of certification. “Any VAR can push boxes and deploy cookie-cutter applications,” said Murphy. “But the key to customer satisfaction and retention is to master market-leading technology platforms from companies like Cisco, EMC and Microsoft, and then deliver solutions that meet the needs of individual customers.” Foley and Murphy, both longtime veterans in the VAR channel, founded NIS in 1999, one year before the dot-com bubble burst. Despite the industry downturn, and a severe recession that began in 2001, NIS became one of the fastest growing VARs in the world. In 2004, it ranked 222nd on the VAR Business 500. “A key factor in our growth was the decision to build a company that could leverage the convergence of technologies in areas like IP communications and storage area networks,” said Foley. “That meant investing in a broader set of skills than most VARs. For example, we wanted to be first out of the gate in IP Telephony. That meant we had to acquire expertise in TCP/IP data and voice communications, Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory, storage management, and data security. Not many companies possess that range of skills even today.” Said Murphy, “Convergence creates opportunities, but it causes problems, too. Companies that have built comprehensive practices across these areas grabbed the early lead in IP telephony, storage and wireless infrastructure. The ones that didn’t were late to market and are still chasing the train.” Networked Information Systems is one of the fastest growing information technology solution providers in the world. NIS provides a broad range of IT infrastructure products and services built atop the leading technology platforms in enterprise systems, storage management and data communications. Solutions include IP communications, network infrastructure, systems and storage infrastructure, security, messaging, remote computing, and IT support. Cisco and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the US and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. |