Training provider continues its strategy of global growth
Fast Lane takes over GKI S.r.l., former Global Knowledge Italy
Hamburg/Berlin/Milan, 28 September 2009 – Fast Lane, a globally active IT training and consulting services provider, has concluded an agreement with GKI for the acquisition of the Italian education and high-end consulting experts. The complete integration of GKI into the Fast Lane Group is planned for 2010. In a first step, significant investments will be made in certifying further experts in the fields of Cisco Data Centre, Nexus and UCS (Unified Computing System), as well as in the provision of NetApp trainers and consultants. Merging of the course programmes will allow an immediate expansion of the portfolio across the board. In addition, marketing activities will also be synchronised with immediate effect.
With a market share of more than 50 percent and sales of 3 million euros, GKI is the market leader in Italy for the provision of certified Cisco training. The company also offers training courses developed in house, as well as official VMware and Microsoft courses, etc.
Renzo Silvestri, Managing Director of GKI, comments: “In Fast Lane we have found a highly skilled partner to assist us with further expansion in Italy. The company brings not just a multitude of high quality training courses but is also extremely well positioned for the rollout of all Cisco Systems Advanced and Emerging Technologies in Italy. As part of the world’s largest Cisco Remote Lab and Development provider we will have immediate and skilled access to new course programmes. Until now, this was a significant competitive disadvantage; with Fast Lane we are in the position to be able to double sales in the short term and to further expand our market position in Italy.“
“This takeover is a further milestone in our expansion strategy. With GKI we have been able to acquire and integrate a highly competent and profitable market leader in Italy into our European Fast Lane organisation. This helps us to take a significant step closer to our goal of market dominance in Europe,” explains Torsten Poels, Senior Vice President & General Manager Europe, Americas & Japan at Fast Lane.
Fast Lane recently received the ‘Cisco European Learning Partner of the Year 2009’ award and is active across Europe with the largest Cisco partner network. The company has already established training centres in ten countries and actively markets its comprehensive training portfolio itself. As a training services provider, Fast Lane is currently the world leader for high-end networking and data centre training – it is directly represented in 26 countries and is represented by partners in 65 countries.
Further information: www.flane.it
About GKI
GKI is a leading Italian ICT training company. GKI offers a complete portfolio of ICT courses, ranging from Vendor Authorized Curricula (Check Point, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, NetApp, Red Hat, VMware, Websense) to technology courses (networking, security, unix, wimax, wireless) to professional skills education (PMI project management, ITIL and more). GKI operates all over Italy from its 2 training centers located in Milan and Rome.