Schneider Electric has teamed up with networking vendor Cisco to bring advanced networking and control system technologies to its customers.

The partnership will see Cisco added to Schneider Electric's Collaborative Automation Partner Program (CAPP), and aims to bring the company's industrial networking technology to Schneider Electric customers in more than 200 countries.

The agreement means Schneider Electric will be able to leverage Cisco's technologies to help deliver its industrial automation solutions.

Schneider Electric says many of its customers already use Cisco technology.

“Some IT departments require the implementation of Cisco technology as a standard across the enterprise, including the industrial network,” it says in a statement.

“Complementing our advanced core offer with best-in-class partners like Cisco is the next step in our commitment to helping our customers operate high performance networks and systems,” says Fabrice Jadot, senior vice president, Innovation - Technology and CTO, Industry Business, Schneider Electric.

Both companies say they welcome the benefits of the new partnership.

Loic Regnier, Schneider Electric CAP Program Deployment director, says, “Superlative technology partner companies like Cisco, recognised in the industry by analysts and customers alike, bring advanced capabilities to our customers and contribute to helping us build complete and robust solutions for those customers.

“Cisco is pleased to join the Schneider Electric Collaborative Automation Partner Program to develop and validate joint industrial solutions for our customers,” adds Sébastien Collignon, business development director, Industry Solutions Group, EMEAR, Cisco.

“The program will enable us to help customers in a variety of industries minimise risk and reduce implementation time at operational sites, thereby improving business value,” he says.   Schneider Electric's CAPP is a dedicated program to manage the company's technology partners who contribute to Schneider Electric solutions for industry end users.

The program features more than 40 partner companies, with presence in 130 countries and more than 200 partner products that are accepted in the program and integrated with Schneider Electric's automation solutions.