Cisco places key executive in Bangalore

NEW DELHI: Cisco’s ‘chief globalization officer’, Wim Elfrink, will be based in Bangalore from January 1, 2007.

Elfrink, who reports directly to CEO and chairman John Chambers, is now based in Cisco’s San Jose headquarters and heads Cisco Services as senior vice president, the role he will continue even after shifting to Bangalore.

Elfrink will move in to Bangalore with his family (his wife, two children who will study at Bangalore’s International School, and he adds, his dog).

Elfrink confirmed this on the sidelines of a gathering for a demo and launch of Cisco’s Telepresence technology by Chambers in Delhi.

Telepresence is Cisco’s HDTV-based videoconferencing system, which allows up to six people in one room to converse with six in another, using 1080-line high-definition TV signals and high quality audio, for a lifelike feel.

At present, the system is expensive at nearly $300,000, and requires enormous bandwidth up to 12 Mbps at full quality. To each group participating, the other group appears almost to be across the table.

CyberMedia participated in the Telepresence launch, which included a live session involving seven guests and five Cisco executives, including Chambers, Elfrink, and Owen Chan, Cisco’s APAC president.

The launch was part of the CII CEO Forum on The Network as an Enabler for Life's Experiences, where Chambers spoke about the evolving role of the network to over 200 business leaders.

He said Cisco was leading the transition to the “network is the platform”, combining its core strength of IP and unified communications services, to create a powerful intelligent communications platform. This was “a market inflection point that is changing the face of networking”.

Elfrink’s move was hinted at by Businessweek a month ago as part of a scoop that Cisco was setting up a ‘second global headquarters’ in Bangalore, a report that Cisco denied.

However, the placing of a global key executive highlights the strategic importance of India for Cisco, well beyond that of a rapidly growing networking market.

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