Cisco India's year started with a change of leadership, as Rangnath Salgame took charge after high profile and media savvy Manoj Chugh quit. But that did not in any manner slowed down the company's growth. On the contrary, Cisco's domination on the Indian networking market continued in 2003-04 as it chronicled its best equipment sales performance in India, ever. Sale of routers and switches was the biggest contributor to Cisco's kitty. Role of software exports continued on more or less the same scale.
Belief in big and strong partnerships paid. Almost 60% revenue came through the big network integrators. Major thrust on hot verticals like BPO-ITeS, BFSI and Telecom helped Cisco move up on the growth curve. Telcos (like Bharti, Sify, Reliance and Tatas), with many of them building data networks and investing in MPLS, were the key. Not just in India, but Cisco bagged orders from operators in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Services began to make a significant contribution to its overall revenue. Another focus was on what Cisco calls 'advanced technology' like broadband, wireless, IP telephony, security, storage, and optical products-a fairly big chunk of revenue came them. This focus was reflected in the growing number of specialized partners in these areas. Cisco currently has 22 partners specializing in wireless, 18 in security, two in voice access and 12 in IP telephony. Over 90% of these specializations have come in the past 15 months. With Linksys launching its wireless, broadband and networking hardware for the consumer and SOHO markets, Cisco, will now be addressing yet another growing vertical.
While traditionally vendors wanted to position themselves in league with Cisco, the gap between Cisco and its rivals has been widening every year. But now with many smaller and newer players who have started to focus on specific product niches not just on features but on prices as well, the game is likely to change. Besides exploiting on the hot verticals, gearing up for this challenge was what this networking giant also worked on last year.
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