(Left to Right) Etisalat Group CEO, HE Ahmad Abdul Karim Julfar and Cisco’s Senior Vice President for Emerging Markets, Duncan Mitchell.
Cisco and Etisalat have signed a memorandum of understanding to map all strategic mutual objectives and a Global Frame Agreement to cover all of Etisalat’s affiliates for buying Cisco products and services across Etisalat’s 18 footprint countries.
The signing ceremony was held at Etisalat headquarters in Abu Dhabi and was attended by HE Ahmad Abdul Karim Julfar, Etisalat Group Chief Executive Officer and Duncan Mitchell, Senior Vice President, Cisco Emerging Markets. The delegation also included Wayne Hull, Director and General Manager, Cisco UAE and Mohammed Tantawi, Regional Manager, Cisco UAE.
As part of the agreement Etisalat and Cisco intend to work towards extending Etisalat’s business including wireline, mobile, managed services and data centre technology. The agreement will also aim to improve Etisalat’s customer experience and satisfaction by collaborating with Cisco to bring thought leadership from worldwide service providers.
Cisco will collaborate with Etisalat to help build a high level strategic articulation and a comprehensive framework for Cloud services based on the specific countries of presence for Etisalat. Cisco will help provide Etisalat with products and services to build their Next Generation IP Network.
Through this agreement, Etisalat will explore utilising Cisco’s services to lower total cost of network ownership, increase network availability, improve business agility and facilitate faster time to market. This includes exploring the group’s wide deployment and utilisation of Cisco’s Network Optimisation Services.
The agreement will help Etisalat and its affiliates to identify optimal ways to acquire Cisco equipment and services capitalising on Cisco Capital, the financing arm of Cisco which provides flexible and innovative financing across the region.
Etisalat has operations and investments in the Middle East, Asia and Africa including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Tanzania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Niger, Togo, Republic of Central Africa, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Afghanistan, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
