Cisco sees SMBs maturing, to bank on UC products

BANGALORE, INDIA: Networking giant Cisco is focusing on a number of technologies to help enterprises upgrade their IT infrastructure and face the economic slowdown. The company firmly believes that Indian SMBs will be moving towards the second phase of technology adoption, and has chalked out strategies  to meet the increasing demand for custom-made solutions from the SMB sector.

In an interview with CIOL R. Dhamodaran, senior vice president, Channel Operations and Commercial Strategy, Cisco India & SAARC, shared his views on some of the technology trends, Cisco's  focus areas and some new initiatives for SMBs. Excerpts:

CIOL: What technology trends do you foresee for SMBs during 2009 ?

R. Dhamodaran: The global economic slowdown has resulted in companies looking at ways to increase productivity, efficiency and increased ROI in technology. According to AMI Partners, SMBs in India are moving towards the second phase of technology adoption where their focus is on networking, hardware and software for internal and external uses. This trend will translate into collaborative technologies gaining traction.

CIOL: What will be the prime technology focus of Cisco ?

Dhamodaran:Cisco’s prime technology focus areas for the future are:

Collaboration - In the future, we see collaboration moving from intra-company to inter-company, creating a safe and secure channel for companies that work together to communicate effectively with each other. The architecture supporting this shift is based on the network, and how effectively it is able to integrate all network requirements towards a seamless collaboration experience

Virtualization - Virtualization technologies reduce infrastructure costs and streamline IT management. It enables businesses to treat all IT resources as a set of shared services that can be combined and recombined to improve efficiencies and scale quickly

Video - Cisco is ready with new technologies that have been designed to enable advanced communications, collaboration and entertainment experiences through video- and rich media-optimized service provider, business and home networks, known as ‘medianets’. Streaming video allows for high-quality videoconferencing, which Cisco believes to be a great business transformer today, especially considering the high cost of travel, which impacts the company’s bottom-line as well as its carbon footprint.

CIOL: Have you planned any new initiatives to tap the SMB sector this year ?

Dhamodaran: Cisco’s SMB market strategy involves helping customers create a sustainable and competitive advantage, improve their operational efficiencies, increase their employee productivity, and ultimately boost their revenues and profitability.

The SMB offering combines all crucial elements of Cisco solutions and services, including intelligent services, growth technologies, strategic partner assistance, and world-class service and support. These solutions and services are developed specifically for the SMB market, making it easier for these organizations to deploy and manage their networks to achieve maximum business value.

Cisco has launched the SMARTnet solution, an award-winning technical support service that offers direct, anytime access to Cisco engineers and an extensive range of technical resources. This allows for rapid issue resolution, flexible device-by-device coverage, and premium service options to help maximize operational efficiency.

Cisco will also continue to leverage its Webex acquisition to penetrate the SMB market further through its on-demand collaboration applications, and its network-based solutions for delivering business-to-business collaboration. This extends Cisco's vision for Unified Communications, particularly within the SMB segment.

While larger enterprises rely on technology to improve efficiency and ensure future profitability, SMBs rely on IT as a matter of survival - to stay competitive. Cisco has understood and addressed the networking technology needs of SMBs and developed end-to-end networking solutions specifically for them.

CIOL: Do you expect Indian SMBs to spend liberally during this phase of slowdown ?

Dhamodaran: SMB is the fastest growing segment for Cisco in India and worldwide. A new study by AMI Partners Inc. reveals that the IT spend of Indian SMBs is leading India’s SMB spend growth rate to 8.5 percent, and making it the fastest growing market in the APAC region.

SMBs are maturing to the extent of seeing inherent value in IT investments, and while their investments in the product segment have traditionally been present, we are now seeing them also buying Services. We are fully committed to reaching our SMB customers where they are, and enabling them to transform their businesses.