"Cisco's converged networks will enable solution providers deploy

Rangnath Salgame, President, India and SAARC

Rangnath Salgame popularly known as Rangu, is poised to take Cisco at a position where the company can be the market leader. He is happy to see that certain business verticals are gaining momentum in India, which spells great opportunities for business. Cisco talks of business verticals gaining momentum in India and Cisco's strategies to target them in an interview with Faiz Askari. Excerpts:

Cisco has started focusing on niche verticals like telecom and opened an exclusive division for this. What is the strategy and potential for this sector?
India has benefited greatly by being a late-adopter of telecommunications technology, and therefore, has leap- frogged to the third generation of telecommunications – the IP era.

Rangnath Salgame, President, India and SAARC

The Indian Service Provider (SP) market is today driven by converged services – while voice traffic continues to boom, and rates crash – it is the data services (SMS, MMS) that is driving up the Average Revenue Per User. Cisco's converged networks offering will enable SPs to deploy value-added revenue generating services and enhance the efficiency of the bandwidth usage in the network also.

What developments are made with respect to the emerging service provider market?
Cisco has been working with service providers in India to enable them develop and market intelligent revenue generating services on their networks. It has been delivering global telco's IP-based solutions to deliver new solutions such as Metro Ethernet, VoIP and multi-service switching solutions to help service providers deliver scalable, profitable and differentiated services to their customers. Cisco has also been at the fore of offering solutions to service providers to offer managed network services to their enterprise customers.

IT majors in India are repositioning their management for the Indian market. What kind of repositioning is expected at Cisco?
Cisco believes that the Indian market is prime for growth. The country is increasingly becoming the preferred hub for outsourcing development and services.

We have formed four separate vertical business groups that will focus on IT services, enterprises, service providers, and government. We have announced the launch of Cisco Capital, our leasing arm, expansion of our networking academy and enhanced advanced customer services offerings.

What new strategies have been framed to maintain leadership in the Indian market?
2004 has been a breakaway year for Cisco. It has been at the fore of driving the growth in the networking market–with 100% growth y-o-y for Q4'04. The investments made, coupled with continued innovation in our core business and advanced technologies, are generating record results.

Cisco has expanded its portfolio of solutions from core networking technologies such as routers and switches to advanced technologies such as IP telephony, wireless, network security, storage, optical, and home networking. These new technologies enable Cisco's customers to derive even greater value from their network assets.

What is the number of channel partners you have in India? Are you planning to expand it further?
Cisco's go-to-market strategy is driven entirely through our partners. Today, we have more than 1,500 reseller partners in 100 cities across India. Our focus for the coming year is to increase the rhythm of business that these partners drive for us. We intend to do this by investing in upgrading the skills and competencies of our partners.

Cisco's Advanced Technology Partner Program enables premier partners to specialize in multiple solutions, and deliver a more compelling solution to customers.

In terms of upgradation and updating of knowledge of skilled manpower, what steps are taken up by Cisco to maintain the lead? How important are channel partners for this initiative?
Cisco has, over the last year, launched some innovative channel focused programs which have helped us connect better with our partners across the board. It not only has quarterly training modules – on specific and emerging technologies, but also daily updates on the Cisco website, that keep the partners informed about our roadmap. New products and solution launches are a part of a very conscious strategy to reach out to the market. The SmbConnect initiative, for instance, is an online portal for all our partners where they can order our collaterals, technical papers.

Cisco has a special focus on partner reseller training and specialization in latest networking technologies such as wireless LAN, IP telephony and security among others. This is where 'Cisco Channel Partner Program' comes in. It has an extensive pre and post sales support program for partners. Our Warranty Insured Network (WIN) support program supports advanced replacement of spare parts, within the next business day itself to partner locations.

What expectations do you have from the market and potential areas you foresee?
India is one of the markets, which shows tremendous long-term potential. John Chambers, in the latest investor call, while announcing the annual results for FY 04 – had mentioned specifically that Cisco's decision to focus on new major countries such as China, India and Russia are paying solid dividends.

Faiz Askari

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