Cisco eyes higher SMB sales

Cisco Systems India Limited plans to roll out around 30 variants of its SMB (small and medium business) products in various segments like switching, routing, wireless and internet telephony services this year.

The new variants will be superior to the existing products as they will be cost competitive, more user friendly and have a higher operational efficiency.

"Some of the variants that we propose to launch include low-end switches and low-end wireless solutions. Cisco will also come up with an all new verticals based solutions which will help the owners of SMBs in segments like healthcare, stock markets and manufacturing", Amit Malik, head of Cisco's SMB business told Business Standard.

He pointed out that Cisco invested over $3 billion worldwide last year on new products. Cisco already has in place the 'Network on Wheels' scheme in which a mobile van creates awareness among the SMBs.

Today, the biggest challenges faced by the SMBs in India include providing cost competitiveness and achieving operational efficiency and this programme addresses both these concerns.

The Network on Wheels initiative has already started in the northern, western and southern regions of India and Cisco expects to bring it to the eastern region in the next six months.

Cisco is also planning to start a select certification programme for its SMB partners and feels this will enable its partners to cater to the needs of the SMBs better.

"The proposed select certification programme will be in the form of a 4-day workshop and we will award certificates to our partners after an online test to be conducted on the final day of the workshop. At present, we have around 100 partners and we intend to take that figure to over 200 soon", Malik added.

There is also the Opportunity Incentive Programme which aims to provide incentives to the upcoming SMBs as well as to the existing SMBs.

Currently, Cisco is running a successful job-oriented programme called the Cisco Certified Networking Associate (CCNA).

Apart from the training, CSIL also provides easy finance option to the SMBs for purchasing its products and also the other products in the market which do not compete with its own products at low interest rates.

Malik who refused to comment on Cisco's revenues said that it has posted over 100 per cent year-on-year growth in its SMB business in India.