Cisco completes one year of the NOW campaign

Subbalakshmi BM

BANGALORE, INDIA: It has been a year since Cisco India began its marketing campaign - the 'Network on Wheels (NOW)' program in India. Besides the US, Canada and China, India is the only market where the NOW program is running. This program was kicked off in May 2006 and has so far covered tier-II and tier-III markets across the country. The NOW initiative is in sync with Cisco's growing focus in the small and medium businesses (SMBs), in these regions.

Speaking about the campaign, Pramodh Menon, Senior VP-Commercial, Cisco India & SAARC said, "We began the initiative as a pilot program with an aim to reach out more effectively to the SMB customers. Thus far we have covered more than 3000 small and medium businesses (SMBs) (in FYO7) and given hands-on product experience to customers. This has helped to increase awareness on the benefits of IT especially in smaller towns and also increase our focus on the small businesses in tier-II, tier-III markets."

As part of the NOW program, Cisco has created a customized van with a live network environment on board. The 'Network on Wheels' van is a 25-foot mobile showcase equipped with the latest SMB customized Cisco networking solutions including advanced technologies such as security, wireless and unified IP communications aimed at helping SMBs leverage the power of networking technology for business growth.

The mobile van visits strategic industrial locations across key tier I, II and III cities and hosts live demonstrations for more than 100 customers per city. The NOW van has covered 25 cities including New Delhi (NCR), Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Karnal, Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad thus far. Going forward the NOW van will cover key industrial cities in the South including Cochin, Coimbatore, Madurai, Pondicherry among others over the next few months.

According to Menon, "The NOW van is available for channel partners five days a week for eight hours a day. Thus far we have had just one NOW station which would travel across various regions. We plan to launch two more by the end of the year. We began the campaign with North India and have covered the North and West. We are covering whole of South now and would need to begin the Eastern region after that."

Menon also indicated that besides serving as demo centers, the NOW vans also serve as training centers for channel partners in the tier II and tier III cities. "The NOW vans are a meeting point for customers and partners and serve also as a platform for new sign-ups besides helping us reach out to a larger customer base."

As far as the future goes, the NOW campaign would work to fill the awareness gap by showcasing customized networking solutions in a live environment and help SMBs in their IT and Telecom investments