Miodrag Ilić, CEO of Nil Data Communications - IT support on territory of former SFRY
(Miodrag Ilić)
Nil Group is one of the leaders in Slovenian IT sector. In 2009, when that Group celebrated its 20th anniversary, company Nil Data Communications, a Nil Group's daughter company, was registered in the market of Serbia.
The company's CEO, Miodrag Ilić, speaks in an interview for eKapija about the impressions after the first year of operations, quick development in association with Cisco integrator and the most important projects.
- We exist for less than ten months in the market of Serbia. During that time, we made some significant contacts in both Serbia and the region. The focus of our business is on demanding segment Service Provider, as well as on Enterprise Market.
The first impression is that your business is closely related to cooperation with Cisco?
- The majority of equipment that we use is Cisco equipment. We are also trying hard to deserve as many certificates of that company as possible.
We have recently been promoted as Cisco SP Video Partner.
(the team of Nil Data Communications)
What are the business advantages of Cisco certification?
- The company that does not have certain certificates has no right to order equipment rom Cisco. Also, Cisco has a part of the website that is called Partner Locator, which makes it possible for the user to type certain keywords to get the list of companies that are certified and the best in the desired field. In that way, Cisco has the role of mediator since it has local offices in numerous countries, through which it can affect potential partners.
Nil Group cooperates with numerous international and global companies, some of which are also present in Serbia. Has Nil Data Communications established cooperation with these companies?
- We have tried to establish local contact with the companies with which Nil Group cooperates at international level. Of course, sometimes problems occur because every local branch office has certain level of independence. We deeply believe in professional relationship and our staff, so that we are competent enough to implement any project in Serbia that Nil Group implements at international level.
We are working with certain number of Slovenian companies that are present in Serbia such as Merkur, Mladinska knjiga and Trimo. Unfortunately, we do not cooperate with some other companies.
What are the most significant projects of company Nil Data Communications?
- Our biggest engagement in 2009 was planning and installation of Digital HeadEnd in company K.D.S. in Novi Sad. The team of our engineers led by Marko Radović and the team of engineers from K.D.S. led by Nenad Vorgučin implemented that project completely independently, among the first in the region, which made K.D.S. one of the leading digital television providers in the country.
Other significant project is the Internet capacity enlargement in one of the biggest cable operators in Bosnia and Herzegovina - the group of companies HS, HKB and M&H Company in Sarajevo. This year we are working on important project for improvement of Internet security on HS cable network, as well as on the overall Internet capacity enlargement.
In addition to headquarters in Slovenia and your company in Serbia, Nil Group also has companies in Croatia and Austria, as well as in the USA and South Africa. Where is the focus of the operations of the Group and your company?
- We wish to expand the business to the countries of former SFRY. That is a part of our vision and our mission - to provide an adequate IT support to all companies that see us as an adequate partner. For now, we are present in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but we also strive to position ourselves in Montenegro. The Group's focus is, primarily, on the Balkans, and then on the rest of Europe and Africa. Namely, Cisco has recently focused its attention on Africa, as the quickest-growing IT market, and since Nil Group is focused on Cisco, it is quite often focused on the same countries as that IT integrator.
What are the company's plans for the following period?
- We plan to get closer to our biggest competitors in the market - Saga and MDS, which are certified as Cisco's gold partners. Namely, Cisco has common registered, selected, premier, silver and gold partners. It took us three months to become a premier partner. We are now working on introduction of ISO standard that is necessary for us to become a silver partner. Nil in Slovenia is Cisco's gold partner for more than 10 years now, and it was among the first companies in Europe to earn that title. Therefore, we find the gold partnership one of the strategic goals and the means to get closer to all competitors in Serbian market.