Cisco India to launch new products, set up academies

By siliconindia staff writer   |   Tuesday, 25 January 2005, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE: US major Cisco Systems has decided to tap the SMB segment in India and will appoint channel partners in 50 Indian cities by April this year to get a chunk of the market. ‘IT spending in India over the next one year would be around Rs 3,400 crore and over one million organizations, including large, medium and small are looking at investing in IT infrastructure, a company official said. To tap this market, the company is looking at introducing SMB class products specifically aimed at the segment. ‘We are coming out with products that are easy to manage and works out to be more competitive in terms of performance and cost, compared to any other local products. Also, when SMBs grows into large enterprise, these products will be scalable,” the company official said. “Cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad have more pharma companies, textiles companies are situated in Coimbatore region, likewise automobile companies are concentrated in national capital region. We are looking at having 2-4 channel partners in these cities, depending upon the requirement,” he said. “Today’s companies need robust IT infrastructure to address export market, where e-commerce is a way of life,” he said adding in the first phase, Cisco will expand its channel network to 15 cities and in the second phase it is looking at having 35 cities. “For instance, three years ago, 95% of Cisco India’s revenues were coming from five metros. In the next one year, we expect 20-25% of our revenues from 50 cities,” he said. Cisco is offering SMB class product for those companies who have around 100 employees with PC installed base of over 50. Realizing the potential of networking technologies, Cisco Systems India will set up academies throughout the country to train companies and individuals on the importance of networking technologies and implementation aspect. According o the Company, it will focus more on firewall application, intrusion and detection technologies and virtual security tunnel. Considering India as a key market, Cisco had recently started a network logistics network in Bangalore.

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