The journey from on-prem to cloud with Nexgen Australia.

From on-prem to cloud, discover how Nexgen Australia leverages Cisco devices and Webex to deliver superior products and services to its business customers. 

In 2009, Nexgen co-founders James Harb and Elie Ayoub saw an opportunity to launch a new offering that would serve the small- to medium- business (SMB) market—which they recognized was underserved and lacked innovation after the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008.

“We saw that this segment wasn’t being serviced by the incumbent telco providers,” says Elie. “We wanted to be able to service this particular segment simply because businesses weren’t being looked after.”

There was no innovation; no competition. After such an arduous time, the lack of ambition and support in the industry may have been understandable, but both Elie and James knew it couldn’t carry on that way. Their customers deserved better.

Nexgen operated for more than a decade as a strictly on-prem provider without any kind of cloud services or Cisco devices. Fast forward to 2020, when the organization recognized the need for change, leading to the deployment of Cisco BroadCloud, which boasted resounding success with a 85% attach rate of Cisco devices. 

With a stable and successful foundation in BroadCloud, Nexgen recognized that the shift to remote work would necessitate further change and bring increased competition. In addition, customers were growing more price-conscious; they wanted a great product at an affordable price.

Having acknowledged these two factors, Nexgen used them as a blueprint for future successes: To deliver an innovative, secure product and a service that exceeds expectations, all at a competitive price.

“Our ethos and motto in everything we do is to help Australian businesses achieve more through technology,” says James.

Elie adds, “We’ve always been at the edge of whatever’s new, whatever’s the latest, whatever we thought was going to be competitive to the market.” 

The decision to go to Webex via Cisco’s Wholesale Route to Market (RTM) offer was not made without careful consideration. Knowing the journey that Nexgen needed to travel to deliver on its vision, Cisco stood out as an advantageous partner.

“Webex has a pretty big name out there in the market and it’s growing, with the shift of businesses moving toward a more mobile type of work environment,” James explains. “The decision to go Wholesale was to effectively leverage not just the Cisco name, but the Webex name as well—and to provide a superior product to the small and medium businesses out here in Australia.” 

Adding to that, Elie remarks, “When you think of Cisco, you think it’s a confident product because enterprise and government use it, and it’s worldwide.”

The move to Webex via the Wholesale RTM helped Nexgen grow by enhancing its reputation, reducing costs, and enabling remote customer service.

Selling Webex as a proxy for on-prem solutions, with the added benefit of Cisco devices, helped ease tension for Nexgen’s customers.

“Handsets are at the forefront,” says James. “[Cloud-based Webex] looks similar to an on-prem solution. The team has been great in developing the functionality of the platform to effectively copy some of the efficiencies that cloud platforms have, but the fact that we’re selling the hardware as a proxy- or quasi-on-prem solution really has helped.” 

James also notes that having a similar look and feel to an on-prem solution helps close the chasm between on-prem and cloud, making for a less-arduous, smoother transition altogether.

Today, Nexgen operates a full Cisco solution with Webex. In just a few years, the organization transformed from an on-premise PBX Provider with virtually zero cloud- based or Cisco products, to a premier cloud service provider leading with Webex and Cisco devices. As a result, 90% of Nexgen sales and customer renewals are on Webex, and the team has sustained an impressive attach rate of 85% for Cisco devices.

Beyond that, the two organizations share the same values for their customers, staff, and partners.

“With the collaboration partnership—or any partnership we’ve had in the past—it’s about the people you work closely with,” Elie adds. “It’s not just [Cisco’s] Wholesale model that makes our business grow; it’s the collaboration between the two businesses that enables us to achieve more. We sit down and actually collaborate. It’s formed to be more of a partnership than anything else.” 

True collaboration starts from the first interaction. But the quicker you onboard, the faster you start to see results.

“Our onboarding support from the guys at Cisco was absolutely outstanding from the very first order that we placed; in terms of configuring, in terms of some teething issues that were there. We effectively ironed them out pretty quickly,” says James.

“That gave our sales team and internal operations team the confidence to sell the product. Having access to the team was the most helpful to our growth.”

What Nexgen has achieved in the last few years is exemplary of true partnership.

Further, the deployment of Webex via the Wholesale RTM has resulted in a 25% decline in onsite service calls for Nexgen-which helps free up field teams to focus instead on speeding new installations and scaling the business well into the future.

These successes, together with an exemplary partnership, an excellent product, and competitive pricing, culminated in Nexgen receiving the Cisco AIPC Rising Star Award for 2021, as well as APJ Partner of the Year for 2022. These accolades validate Nexgen’s goal to provide a superior product and service to Australians while setting a precedent for future triumphs in technology.