As any information technology (IT) professional knows, you need an IT infrastructure that’s secure and trustworthy, one that’s robust enough to achieve your current needs and agile enough to grow as a company expands. Well, the same can be said of an IT solutions partner.

Black Box Corporation is a leading technology solutions provider that’s helped its customers build, manage, optimize, and secure IT infrastructure for more than 40 years. Also, for the majority of that time, Black Box has been a trusted collaborator with NEC as a leading North American dealer of NEC solutions.

“NEC and Black Box’s relationship goes back 30 plus years,” said Mike McAndrew, CEO of Black Box Corporation. “Throughout that entire period, one of the key attributes that has lent itself to the success that we’ve had together is the clarity and commitment of the NEC team to the channel partner.”

McAndrew continued, “I think back to our first significant (UNIVERGE) 3C client. I got an email from one of the client representatives who remarked on how the Black Box and NEC teams were working together on a major cutover as if they were one company. And I was really proud of that note, because it was us working together, but in the client’s eyes we worked as a single unit.”

Recently, this partnership took a huge step forward as the two companies expanded their North American agreement into a global distribution channel.

“Essentially, we have two global companies that have been operating effectively outside of North America on their own,” said Larry Levenberg, vice president of NEC Corporation of America. “This agreement brings together new global capabilities for both companies.”

The new arrangement means that Black Box can now offer NEC’s unified communications and collaboration (UCC) solution, UNIVERGE 3C, to its global clients, as it has for its North American clients. UNIVERGE 3C integrates multiple media types to ensure that employees have the information they need anywhere, anytime, and from any device.

“Our clients are looking to simplify their IT and communications environment, while at the same time bring more capabilities to that environment relative to collaboration tools, network management, and other aspects. So, UCC has been a crown jewel for us,” said McAndrew.

NEC’s UCC solutions unleash productivity by combining IT and voice to facilitate mobility and “anywhere” communication. As more and more companies increase their global footprint, they require an IT infrastructure that is:

• Agile enough to be accessed anywhere and evolve as needed
• Resilient enough to handle the pressures of a global workforce
• Secure enough to withstand the threats of today and whatever may come tomorrow

It’s an approach NEC calls Smart Enterprise.

“The commitment to a positive client experience from NEC and Black Box is really tremendous,” said McAndrew. “Listening to the clients and what their needs are and finding unique solutions for them is the hallmark of a successful channel partner, systems integrator, and partnership moving forward.”

For nearly four decades, NEC and Black Box have collaborated to provide North American companies with agile, resilient, secure, and united IT and voice solutions. This expanded agreement will ensure global availability to the powerful, converged business applications of UCC – solutions that empower a workforce from virtually anywhere.

“We have put together a very cohesive and full portfolio of solutions, and having an integrator like Black Box that can go out there and put all those pieces together, make the commitment and serve those clients both from a sales perspective and operations as well as installation really means a lot. I’m glad that our views are so closely aligned going forward, and I think we’re really going to see a lot of success in the future,” said Levenberg.