We want to sell solutions like the way products are being sold

Can you give us an insight into Cisco services?

The moment someone thinks of Cisco, they instantly identify with the products it offers. However, we also have a wide spread presence in services as well. In fact, during FY10, 11% of our India revenues came from services only. Our services range from network management services, unified communications services to Data center and storage services. We are a 100% channel-driven company, because worldwide we have scaled through partners only. We have an advisory and technical committee for partners. We want to sell solutions like the way products are being sold. 95% of our business is only through channels.

How does the Bengaluru Global Briefing center fit into the Cisco services plan?

The Global Briefing Center at Bengaluru provides a place for open-dialog about how network is truly the platform for transforming customers business. Partners can bring their customers to the center, to leverage business and they can use it as their own office. All that the partner need to do is to get in touch with channel account managers.

How do you profile your partners and the latest happenings in the channel space?

Our profiling of partners is different from other companies. For example, if a partner is operating with 50 customers, we ask him to show us his client list and which market vertical they belong toIT, ITeS, education, BFSI, etc. Then based on that, we find out the similarity and make a team to educate them on how to use the products and services. We also get them to train with our account managers.

We are also in talks with partners from smaller cities to understand their requirements. Next year we want to come up with solutions pertaining to education, healthcare, e-governence. This will again be fueled through channels. We also have a channel recruitment policy, which is vertical-based and based on the emerging market. But if a general partner wants to become our partner they have to contact our account manager, and we will take care of the rest.

What is your go-to-market strategy?

We have a tier-approach and vertical-approach. For example, a partner in Coimbatore wants a manufacturing solution to address SMBs, etc. He might be interested in services also. In spite of having different approaches, we maintain a balance between them. An interesting trend has come up, tier-2 partners being equally strong. After the years closing we noticed that the number of events conducted in smaller cities was up by 3 times than the last few years.

Which is going to be the next big vertical?

SMB is the next big segment. After SMB, IT, ITeS, healthcare and education is also doing well. According to our analysis, the commercial market is best addressed and understood by tier-2 partners. We are training them and giving incentives to get solution-centric. People today know Cisco as a product company but we want them to know it as a solution company too. We have started doing pilot projects with partners because the market has become crowded. Partners now want to know how to differentiate and create niche businesses over a period of time.

Private verticals are most flourishing but government is picking very fast. Recovery is faster in the government space. Manufacturing has also touched its peak. IT and ITeS is also showing an interesting trend. The other newer markets are defense, manufacturing and IT/ITeS. Springboard research indicates growth in all our services and verticals. We have grown from 16.3% in 2009 to 16.9% this year. If you split vertical-wise, we have grown from $6,653 mn to $7,780 mn.

Which cities are you targeting?

We are looking at all major trading cities like Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. We are also covering Sri Lanka as it is an emerging market. We are focusing on the Saarc countries and have our local teams there. Hyderabad and Ahmedabad look very promising. We do focus on having round-table meetings with partners regularly as they can speak their mind.

Revathi Raghavan/DQ Channels
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in