17. CISCO: Systems INDIA Net Leader

IT was an eventful year for this networking giant–through the ISP boom and the buzz in the emerging call center market, the company left no opportunity untapped. Even the slowdown left the giant unruffled: it marched ahead with yet another year of three-digit growth. Overall revenues, at Rs 765
crore, left the competition way behind, not even close enough to bite the dust.

The boom in the ISP segment that began last year continued till the beginning of this fiscal. As the year went by, though, changing economic conditions made it tough for most companies to allocate resources optimally. But Cisco smartly realigned its focus toward more stable sectors. The enterprise business continued to do well as banking and finance, telecom, education and the government invested heavily in networking. Cisco also implemented the country’s first gigabit backbone for
VSNL. 

The second half of the year also saw the emergence of a number of players in the contact/call center space. The share of the SME segment in Cisco’s total revenues went up from 10% to between 15% and 20%. The company expanded its reseller base from 600 to 1,200.

Cisco’s leadership was untouched by the entry of new networking companies such as Juniper and
Unisphere. The company increased its dominance over the router market with an 85%
marketshare. In the RAS (remote access server) segment, however, it lost out to 3Com, which emerged as the leader with 53% of the
marketshare, against Cisco’s 25%. The LAN switch segment was another area where it faced tough competition from
Enterasys, but managed to retain its leadership with a marketshare of 41% (estimates: Voice&Data).

Global president and CEO John Chambers’ landmark visit this year also emphasized the company’s confidence in India’s potential as an emerging market. Chambers not only indicated a thrust on the R&D front, but also promised to invest in education through network academies across the country.

Although the impact of the slowdown might be felt in the coming months, Cisco is prepared. If broadband services take off and service providers are able to resolve bandwidth issues, this segment could rise. Cisco has introduced new technologies like the IP+ optical solutions, AVVID architecture, and contact center solutions. The company has already installed about 8,000 IP telephones and will continue to focus on these areas in the next year as well.