Cisco and IBM expand global service alliance

Cisco Systems and IBM will expand their Global Services Alliance to provide product maintenance services for enterprise customers in 46 new countries.

The move builds on the success of the initiative in the US and means that IBM customers purchasing Cisco networking technology solutions will now get a globally consistent level of IT infrastructure support.

"This is a significant evolution in our Global Services Alliance," said Karl Meulema, vice president of Cisco services marketing and channels.

"Providing a collaborative maintenance service offering means that our mutual customers will no longer need to choose between Cisco networking skills or IBM multi-vendor systems integrator capabilities."

The Cisco Global Services Alliance has been in place for three years and is intended to increase customer success with Cisco networking technology.

The programme promotes greater collaboration and alignment between Cisco and its Global Service Alliance partners in order to deliver a consistent level of IT infrastructure support across the network lifecycle.

IBM will market and sell this service under the title of 'IBM Managed Maintenance Solution for Cisco Products'.

Big Blue will provide customers with consolidated call management for all networking devices and will retain responsibility for resolving customer issues.