There’s no greater reward for our Buyer Expertise team than celebrating our customers’ triumphs. At Cisco’s annual Stay Melbourne event, the company shines a spotlight on a select group of forward-thinking clients by presenting them with the prestigious Cisco CX Buyer Hero Awards.
Buyers who receive awards have consistently demonstrated exceptional qualities that set them apart from their peers. From across various industries within the Asia-Pacific Japan Company (APJC) region, a selection of honorees was made from a pool of nominations received. Indeed, these awards are aggressively competitive. I’m delighted to introduce this year’s award recipients, and I’d be thrilled if you joined me in extending warm congratulations to each of them!
The Cisco Partner of the Year Award is presented to a buyer who has collaborated with Cisco providers to effectively enhance its security, proactively protecting and defending its entire IT infrastructure. East Japan Railway Company has emerged victorious, aiming to safeguard multiple systems including employee terminals, networks, and ticketing mechanisms. Through a combination of Cisco security solutions and Cisco Customer Experience, the company has achieved zero outages due to security incidents this year. Yoshihiro Sekiguchi, Deputy Director of the Safety Countermeasures Workplace at Japan’s ICT Infrastructure Headquarters, led a team that successfully implemented eco-friendly SOC (Security Operations Center) operations, processing an astonishing 250 billion transactions and handling 400 billion pieces of information. This achievement enabled a significant reduction in the time required to prepare reports for government ministries, showcasing the organization’s commitment to efficiency and sustainability.
The Distinctive Innovation Award honors outstanding achievements of a Cisco customer who, through collaborative efforts with the Cisco Customer Experience (CX), has delivered exceptional results that showcase innovative thinking and problem-solving skills. This year’s winner is Hana Financial Group, which topped the charts in customer experience and revenue in 2024 by delivering reliable financial services through innovative digital platforms on an annual basis. By successfully accelerating their subsequent migration mission by one year, they also streamlined numerous critical adjustments through automation, ultimately boosting overall work efficiency by an impressive 50%.
The Cisco CX-partnered buyer is the recipient of The Excellent Automation Award for revolutionizing their IT operations through innovative automation solutions. KDDI, a prominent Japanese telecommunications services provider, has emerged victorious. Through a collaborative effort with Cisco’s Buyer Success team, Takumi Nakamatsu, Architect of IP/MPLS Spine, and his team at KDDI are transforming community operations by integrating generative artificial intelligence and Cisco’s Network Services Orchestrator (NSO). They’re streamlining guide responsibilities and simplifying pre-deployment evaluations to achieve a reduction in overall guide tasks exceeding 50%.
Takumi Nakamatsu
The Cisco Digital Transformation Luminary Award recognizes buyers who have successfully leveraged a strategic partnership with Cisco Customer Experience (CX) to drive efficient and impactful digital transformations. This yr the award goes to the Hong Kong Jockey Membership, a world-class racing membership with companies together with Racing, Betting & Leisure, Membership and Charities. Committed to revitalizing its community infrastructure with cutting-edge capabilities, Gary Delooze, the government’s director of information technology, has collaborated with Cisco to develop a transformative solution built upon the foundation of Cisco’s ACI, SD-WAN, and SDA technologies. Through this transformative process, the membership will acquire a more scalable, secure, and robust infrastructure capable of supporting its future growth, serving hundreds of thousands of customers and processing billions of transactions annually. Gary’s workforce collaborates with Cisco CX professionals to optimize observability strategies, enhancing incident detection and response capabilities, thereby securing companies and delivering seamless digital experiences for the membership’s constituents and clientele.
The Operational Excellence Award is presented to a buyer who achieves tangible and compelling results by leveraging the power of Success Tracks.
This year’s award goes to LG CNS, a trailblazer in digital transformation and innovative solutions, empowering organizations across various industries. LG CNS ensures seamless connectivity through its MPLS-based “LG-Web” platform, providing a robust spine network that links all LG subsidiaries and fosters collaborative operations. Through a collaborative effort with Cisco CX, Young-Mi Lee, Vice President of the Head of Cloud Community Enterprise Division, leverages her team’s expertise to deliver exceptional cloud community services while ensuring minimal disruption.
The AI Trailblazer partnered with Cisco’s Customer Experience (CX) team to design and deploy its AI-driven infrastructure. The winner is HCLTech, a global technology services company that provides businesses with the tools and solutions to drive digital transformation. Mr. At HCLTech, Ramana SV and his global IT team, known as GIT, had been striving to transform the company’s wireless infrastructure by leveraging innovative technologies from Cisco, including Wi-Fi options, AI-powered Radio Resource Management (RRM), and Wi-Fi assurance capabilities. Collectively, HCLTech, Cisco CX & Buyer Success automated all the deployment, future-proofed the community with Wi-Fi 6E expertise, and leveraged AI-Enhanced Radio Useful resource Administration (RRM) and AI Ops to optimize wi-fi configurations. Now, HCLTech delivers seamless Wi-Fi protection across numerous campuses and amenities, achieving substantial efficiency gains while significantly reducing implementation time, establishing new standards for user experience with enhanced security. Congratulations to HCLTech and GIT Workforce on their well-deserved 2023 AI Trailblazer Award for a profitable year!
This prestigious award honors a pioneering buyer whose groundbreaking innovations have revolutionized their industry. The winner is Niterra, a leading manufacturer of high-performance automotive ignition systems and innovative digital solutions for the vehicle industry. Niterra sought to upgrade its infrastructure to efficiently respond to the rapidly evolving demands of its enterprises and protect its manufacturing facilities from escalating cyber threats. To achieve this goal, Kazuyuki Kimura and his team at Niterra collaborated with Cisco CX to conduct a comprehensive Cyber Vision Assessment, resulting in the development of a more advanced, adaptable, and secure Operational Technology (OT) infrastructure. Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) are increasingly diverging, paving the way for a cutting-edge IT infrastructure that offers enhanced visibility and optimal security safeguards.
The prestigious Pinnacle CX Award is bestowed upon the esteemed client who has consistently delivered the most outstanding overall enterprise results through their exemplary partnership with Cisco’s Customer Experience team. The winner is Coles Supermarkets, a national full-service grocery store chain operating over 1,800 outlets across Australia. Hong-Sin Lim’s team collaborated with Cisco CX experts to revolutionize community operations at Coles, significantly upgrading the technical proficiency of their workforce, expediting issue resolution times, and minimizing risks to critical systems across supermarkets. Key outcomes embody:
- Throughout the past year, our network infrastructure has consistently achieved an impressive 99% uptime across both local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) environments. This remarkable reliability has empowered grocery store shops to operate confidently in a “Always On and Always Safe” community.
- Streamlined Performance Metrics for Grocery Store Shops:
To optimize operations, we recommend establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) that track the efficiency and effectiveness of in-store processes. This includes metrics such as inventory turnover rates, sales per square foot, and shrinkage percentage.
- Significantly reduced decision-making time by 50% within the HTEC workforce, attributed to meticulous focus on pivotal details.
- We have achieved a 300% enhancement in the efficiency of identifying and prioritizing Wi-Fi signal strengths, allowing for more effective allocation of resources to qualified personnel.
- The automation of software programs is expected to significantly reduce the time spent on operating system updates, leading to enhanced productivity and freeing up employee time for more innovative projects.
- Proactive monitoring through a centralized dashboard enables swift identification of issues, leading to a more than 50% reduction in the time required to remediate problems.
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Discover more about our customer champions and their stories by visiting our Buyer Stories – a curated collection showcasing how Cisco customers are transforming and innovating to drive impact within their organizations and beyond.
Discover some of our latest stories, curated just for you.
- Establishing novel standards within America’s most extensive municipal healthcare framework.
- Automation streamlines processes, fostering a culture of consistency, ensuring safer operations, and accelerating deployment timelines.
- Unlocking unparalleled travel experiences: Introducing Agent on Demand – Elevating Passenger Expertise to New Heights
We’d love to hear your compelling buyer story! Join us at [insert URL] to connect and share your experiences. Let us hear your thoughts! Stay tuned for additional customer experience updates!
What’s the point of storytelling without context or purpose? Let’s build it together.
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