Date:15/09/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/09/15/stories/2004091501860700.htm

Back Leasing arm, new biz units — Cisco aggressive on Indian market

Our Bureau

Mr Ranganath Salgame

Bangalore , Sept. 14

NETWORK equipment vendor Cisco Systems has announced the launch of its leasing arm - - Cisco Capital - - in the Indian market on Tuesday. Cisco Capital will offer leasing and financial services to customers and channel partners in India, said Mr Ranganath Salgame, President, Cisco (India and SAARC).

"The new entity will serve as an added incentive for customers by helping them lease equipment such as routers, switches and related services," Mr Salgame told a press conference here on Tuesday. However, he refused to divulge details on Cisco Capital's tie-ups with financial institutions and the quantum of capital it had committed to the Indian market.

Announcing Cisco's new strategy to drive the next wave of growth in the Indian market, Mr Salgame said the company has formed four separate vertical business units to focus on key segments of IT services, enterprises, services providers and the government. "These new business units will have separate profit and loss accounts, engineering staff and go-to-market strategy," he added.

The IT services business unit will focus on software development and IT- enabled services firms, while the enterprise unit will focus on banking, manufacturing, small and medium businesses and the education sector.

The service provider business unit will focus on broadband, corporate data services and 3G Mobile wireless space while the business unit focussing on government and defence will target the e-governance initiative and defence communication infrastructure.

"India is a strategic market which is witnessing unprecedented growth. We want to be present here in a big way during this phase," he said, adding that the company would bring in its complete portfolio of products to the market here.

Cisco has recently set up its customer services wing dedicated to offer expertise in network design and implementation as well as technical support and professional services for management of technology infrastructure, Mr Salgame said. "The idea is not to compete with our service partners, but to bring in our service expertise into the Indian market," he said.

Mr Salgame also said that Cisco would be expanding its network academy initiative in the country, through which the company offers online course content and help set up networking labs in education institutes and universities. Cisco has 150 networking academies across 20 States.