Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, today announced the official opening of its African head office and state-of-the-art Customer Experience Centre, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

According to Wojtek Piorko, the recently appointed managing director for Vertiv Africa, the formal opening of the South African premises forms an important part of Vertiv’s ‘Africa for Africa’ initiative, and underscores the organisation’s investment in the region.

“Vertiv is placing a strong business focus on Africa, as well as expanding our local network of authorised partners and service providers. Our ‘Africa for Africa’ project also emphasises the importance of meeting our local clients’ needs, of which the opening of the African head office and local Customer Experience Centre play a key role,” Piorko explains.

The Johannesburg Customer Experience Centre provides customers with the opportunity to engage with Vertiv’s diverse range of critical infrastructure solutions for applications from the edge of the network to the cloud. These include :

• VertiväSmartCabinetä – a complete cabinet solution for a multitude of environments, providing intelligent and integrated infrastructure for any type of IT;
• VertiväLiebertâ EXS – compact and flexible three-phase uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with high-efficiency operation;
• VertiväLiebertâ EXM2 – highly reliable monolithic UPS designed to provide industry-leading performance and efficiency up to 98.8%, for mid-size critical applications

In addition to the products displayed at the centre, Vertiv offers the experience of its large-scale modular data centres, power and thermal management solutions through virtual reality (VR) to African customers.

Piorko clarifies: “Using our VR offering, the Vertiv Virtual Showroom, clients can embark on a unique virtual trip to experience Vertiv’s capabilities, giving both novices and seasoned experts of Vertiv products a way to fully understand the entire layout of the critical digital infrastructure.”

Users wear a headset and use hand controllers to navigate the VR environment, interact with equipment, and watch animations that demonstrate a product’s value and key features. They can observe the spatial placement of Vertiv’s rack and row solutions, as though they were actually on site. They are also able to customise a Vertiv™ VR rack by placing servers, power, thermal, and storage devices into

the unit.

“This experience gives decision-makers a deeper understanding of the entire infrastructure at work,” Piorko adds. “In addition, our new Customer Experience Centre will provide presales, sales, and product training, as well as full-service certification courses for Vertiv’s authorised service partner network.”

Piorko was joined recently by a number of senior Vertiv leaders for the African head office roof wetting celebration, including Karsten Winther, president of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region; Peter Lambrecht, VP of sales for EMEA; Vicente Chiralt, VP of marketing for EMEA; Viktor Petik, VP and global leader for Vertiv’s Integrated Modular Solutions business ; Kjell Lovqvist, VP for DC power and outdoor enclosures for EMEA; Andrea Ferro, VP for Technology Application and Market Development; and Juraj Sekera, transformation director EMEA.