Get, Set, Go

Putting India amongst the three strategic markets, worldwide, Cisco is quite
bullish on India's growth potential. A breakthrough performance last year with
a 100% growth, and high market share gains in the LAN market and the switch
market, specifically, has already set the pace for the next phase of growth for
the company. As per IDC, the company grew its LAN market share from 66.7% in Q4
2003 to 76.5% in the same quarter the following year; in the switch market it
witnessed a huge jump from 54.5% share in Q4 2003 to 70.4% in the same quarter
2004.

In terms of strategy, while core networking will continue to remain the bulk
of the company's business in the coming years, there is a growing thrust on
the advanced technologies side. As of July 2004, the core technologies-routers,
LAN switch and access market-accounted for around 80% of Cisco's business
worldwide. But, the advanced technologies business has been experiencing a
robust 40% y-o-y growth on a worldwide basis. When Cisco started its advanced
technology study about two years back, it set a target for each of the segments
to hit a billion dollar. The security piece of the advanced technology pie has
already hit that mark, end of last year.

Cisco
will be leveraging its strong, existing, base in the core technology market to
drive its advanced technologies business. The growth in the advanced
technologies space in India is estimated to be in a similar range to the
worldwide growth for Cisco; the company shipped over 50,000 IP phones through FY
2004, in India.

According to Rangu Salgame, president, India & SAARC, Cisco Systems, to
take its growth to the next level, the company has also aligned its 'Go-To-Market'
strategy along four vertical business units including IT services, enterprise,
service provider and government/defence. Besides the re-alignment in its
business strategy, Cisco India has also undergone major expansion over the last
year. The company almost doubled its workforce and added eight offices in the
region.

According to Ranajoy Punja, vice president, Marketing, India & SAARC,
Cisco Systems, "The country is today at an inflection point where we are
seeing an enormous infrastructure build-out. We see the strong growth continuing
for the next three to four years." Cisco has identified telecom, banking,
government, IT services, manufacturing and SMBs as the key drivers in the coming
years.

Shipra Arora The
author was hosted in Kovalam by Cisco India