HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -

While also being awarded Gold Certification in the USA, ADP Dealer Services announced on Tuesday it received five other Cisco Certifications and Distinctions.

The complete list of ADP accolades includes: 

—Cisco Gold Certification in USA
—Advanced Data Center Architecture Specialization in USA
—Cisco Customer Satisfaction Excellence Distinction
—Cisco Powered Managed Security Services
—Cisco Powered Managed Unified Communications Services
—Cisco Powered Managed Data Center Services 

“It is an honor to be recognized by Cisco in achieving what we feel are their most prestigious certifications,” stated Ken Ragsdale, vice president of ADP’s network solutions.

“I feel the certifications are an accurate reflection of our high standards of excellence in establishing a highly skilled and experienced network solutions sales, deployment, and support team,” Ragsdale continued. “The certifications further solidify ADP’s reputation as a superior network, security, wireless, and voice solutions provider in each one of our automotive, truck, heavy equipment, and powersports vertical markets."

To achieve Cisco Gold Certification, ADP had to meet rigorous standards set forth by Cisco in networking competency, service, support and customer satisfaction. 

“We are committed to providing the tools, training and programs that facilitate partner growth, differentiation and profitability,” explained Edison Peres, senior vice president of worldwide channels at Cisco.

“With specializations in unified communications, routing and switching, security, and wireless LAN, ADP has made an investment in developing the capability to deliver the integrated and customized technology solutions that today’s customers demand,” Peres continued.

As a Cisco Gold Certified Partner, ADP met the requirements for attaining the broadest range of expertise across multiple technologies by achieving Cisco advanced specializations in unified communications, routing and switching, security and wireless LAN.

In addition, ADP has integrated Cisco Lifecycle Services into its offerings and is required to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction. Cisco Gold Certification provides ADP with access to comprehensive sales, technical, and lifecycle services training and support available from Cisco.

Meanwhile, ADP has also achieved Cisco’s Advanced Data Center Architecture Specialization, what officials believe should further enhancing ADP’s ability to help its customers achieve optimizations and scalability within their data centers.

ADP successfully completed the requirements and program prerequisites to sell, design, and deploy Cisco Data Center Architecture solutions to organizations across the USA. Cisco’s Data Center Network Architecture can enable IT executives to better align their data center resources with their business priorities, thus lowering total cost of ownership.

The architecture also can provide enhanced resilience and agility by evolving data center infrastructures through consolidation, virtualization, and automation.

The solution can allow dealerships to protect valuable applications, services, information, and infrastructure as well as facilitating new IT strategies in order to enhance data center operational efficiencies.

Additionally, ADP achieved a Customer Satisfaction Excellence Gold Star from Cisco. This designation recognizes ADP for delivering outstanding customer service to customers in the USA. 

“Customer service is a cornerstone of the Cisco Resale Channel Program. We are pleased to recognize and congratulate ADP for achieving outstanding customer satisfaction,” Peres declared.

Cisco explained that it measures the customer satisfaction levels achieved by its Gold, Silver, and Premier Certified partners based on regional target goals, providing a weighted average of a partner’s pre- and post-sales support over a rolling 12-month period. Partners that achieve outstanding customer satisfaction are awarded the Customer Satisfaction Excellence Gold Star and can be found using the advanced search menu in the Cisco Partner Locator.

Finally, ADP also achieved the Cisco Master Managed Services Certification. This certification is meant to recognize ADP’s investment in the ITIL processes, practices and tools necessary to provide high-quality managed services. 

As a Cisco Master Managed Services Certified Partner, ADP said it demonstrated the ability to deliver sophisticated solutions, met stringent requirements that reflect a depth of capabilities, and undergone an independent audit by an objective third-party auditor.

ADP pointed out it was also required to offer at least two managed services using the resources and procedures necessary to deploy, manage and support Cisco solutions.

“ADP’s investment in the Cisco Master Managed Services Certification ranks it among an elite group of channel partners with the resources to deploy, manage and support services for multiple technologies,” Peres concluded.