Cisco and Mobily, the official brand name of Etihad Etisalat and a major mobile and data service provider in Saudi Arabia, have announced the signing of a joint marketing and sales agreement.

The agreement follows a memorandum of understanding signed by both companies on Sept. 17, 2013, to collaborate and streamline Cisco and Mobily’s competitive resources and create a joint go-to-market strategy to address the Kingdom’s ICT market.

This alliance is stated to be a key catalyst to help accelerate Mobily’s transformation as a major information and communications technology provider in the Kingdom.

The agreement was given the stamp of approval by Mobily’s Chief Business Officer (CBO) Marwan Al-Ahmadi and Cisco’s Chairman and CEO John Chambers at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona recently.

As part of this agreement, Cisco and Mobily will create a joint marketing, sales and business development task force to deliver a differentiated offering to the Saudi marketplace. By working together on joint market activities, Mobily and Cisco will be able to offer customers a differentiated set of integrated solutions.

Mobily and Cisco plan an ambitious growth strategy to jointly invest, develop and market new innovative technology solutions focused on communication, collaboration and mobility cloud as well as managed services for the corporate, small business, education and health sectors.

In September 2013, Mobily achieved Cisco gold certification as a 2-tier Cisco reseller.

Al-Ahmadi said: “This joint marketing and sales agreement is yet another milestone in what has become a very successful collaboration between our two companies.”

Chambers said: “Over the next 10 years, a major opportunity will be for companies to evolve their organizations to thrive in the new environment as we enter the era of the Internet of Everything, which is presenting a new level of opportunity for technology growth and innovation. Mobily has already embarked on this journey.”