10 | Cisco Systems: The Nimble Foot

The networking giant just got bigger. Though the 26% growth figure paled in
comparison to the 46% recorded in the previous two years, it still crossed the
Rs 3,000 crore mark. The drop in growth was primarily because no new mega
telecom service provider deal was signed up during the year.

Cisco, however, more than made up for this by accounting for nearly half of
the enterprise networking equipment sales in India.

On the strategy front, the company divided its operations into four separate
vertical business groups that focused on IT services, enterprises and SMBs,
service providers, and the government. In IT services, it bagged big clients
like IBM, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Microsoft, Intel, Motorola, and
Oracle; enterprise clients included BHEL, Tata Motors, L&T, Bank of Baroda,
Canara Bank, UBI. The most important one was SBI where Cisco connected 10,000
branches. For SMBs it launched its NoW (Network on Wheels) initiative in 50
locations offering low-end products. Though no major telecom account was added,
Cisco was the main beneficiary of the broadband rollout by Bharti, BSNL, and the
Tata Group. And e-Gov proved to be Cisco's most lucrative segment, with the
SWAN deals for eight states as well as the income tax deal and NIC coming into
its kitty.

Cisco led the routers segment with 80% market share and switches with 76%,
virtually wiping out competition in both sectors. It also garnered 35% market
share in WLAN (including Linksys) and 20% in IP-PBX, and shipped out 100,000 IP
phones by December 2005. There was no surprise when the vendor announced a
whopping $1.1 bn investment in the country. In a recent development, Salgame has
left the company, and in his place David Caspari from Asia Pacific is running
the show, till a replacement is found.