Cisco touts future boom

Success can be fleeting and after spending such a prolonged length of time dominating the networking landscaping, it is important that Cisco plots its next market moves competently.

Transitioning its business towards the next IT cash cow is something the vendor giant has been doing globally in recent years. On local shores Cisco has a new man at the helm in the form of Les Williamson, who was previously client director for Cisco’s Telstra business.

Earlier this month Brisbane was the host city for the vendor’s Networkers 2007 event and CRN was in attendance to run the rule over its local plans
and future direction under the Williamson stewardship.

VP overview
The event opened with delegates attending a keynote presentation from Cisco’s charismatic senior vice president, Howard Charney, who charted the rise and impact of the Internet.

“In the last 25 years the Internet has come from being a fringe technology to being integral. The Internet is transforming every sector of the economy,” he said.
Charney said the Internet fosters collaboration and is the critical infrastructure of the age we live in.

“IT and the Internet is the fifth great technological revolution of modern times.”

Looking forward, Charney believes that despite the Internet’s already vital role in society, it will continue to be used to develop innovative solutions to solve the challenges ahead.
CRN was able to grab some one-on-one time with Williamson to discuss his plans in his new role and where the channel fits into Cisco’s progress across the entire A/NZ region.

Speaking openly about his plans at the vendor, Williamson classed Cisco A/NZ as being in “fantastic operational shape”.

Public sector and SMB aims
Williamson highlighted two key focuses for Cisco in A/NZ – the public sector vertical and the SMB space.

“The public sector is a true vertical and we will be creating some specific value proposition capability around the public sector. We have some key channel partners who are particularity au fait with public sector needs.”

Williamson said Cisco’s key focus is not only on growing the current business in the public sector, but it is also about getting more links into a wider public sector agenda.

“The national agenda is really going to be the focus of our advanced public sector vertical. This has national channel implications, rather than just being targeted for say Canberra.”
Williamson was keen to underline the importance of the channel’s role when it comes to lower end sales.

“We are opening up that SMB market by offering some of the solutions that were traditionally at the high or medium end of town that are now being realised in the smaller end of the market,” he said.

With Cisco making so much noise around its SMB plans, it can’t go unnoticed that the vendor already has a lower-end operation in the form of its Linksys division. However Williamson was quick to explain how the vendor manages the balance.

“We’ve seen very healthy growth in Australia for the Linksys product and that product range is getting larger. We expect to see that growth continue across Australia and New Zealand. It is a separate link of business, but we have a very close link with my peer in Australia,” explained Williamson.

“With our product range there is overlap there, but it’s about letting the market choose. A consumer getting up to the higher end of SMB networking might be more comfortable with the Linksys interface and doing it themselves, whereas a traditional enterprise that does not want to know too much about it will probably stick with the Cisco range. We have no internal conflicts about where those product ranges are going.”

Technology focus
Highlighting important technologies for the vendor across A/NZ, Williamson outlined three leading technologies: Unified Communications, data centres and video.

“You will see a number of partners and exhibitors [at Networkers 2007] have already embraced those technologies. It’s about up skilling partners in those new technologies whist also offering incentives through our Solution Incentive Program (SIP) which rewards end-to-end channel fulfilment,” he said.

“The message to the resellers is get engaged and get skilled up round some of these capabilities that had traditionally been seen more as medium and upper end offerings. I think it is a great opportunity to expand the market.”

Williamson said there is an expectation that partners will gain competencies across the board in order to favourably represent the solution they are providing and that Cisco is on hand with education and training.

“It’s about knowing about the whole vertical stack: the network, the software, the application, software-as-a-service tie-in, as apposed to just knowing about the switching and routing. This enables partners to have a more end-to-end competency stack, rather than being specialised in a particular area.”

Williamson insisted that developing skills in these new technology areas is not a huge leap for its partner base.

“It’s certainly a different skills set. It’s about knowing more about capabilities as apposed to just focusing on say the network play. However it’s not in our interest to be leaving a reseller base behind through leap frogs in technology, that’s why we have the focus on skills, education and training. We wouldn’t be going to market if we didn’t think the reseller base was adopting these skills and capabilities.”

Being Green
Cisco did not just use Networkers to push its forthcoming focus and latest technologies. It was also keen to underline its dedication to the increasingly important Green agenda.

“At a macro level I think a company with the size and reach of Cisco should be having commentary and real action around those [Green] issues,” said Williamson. “We reach into a lot of people’s businesses, so I think it is upon Cisco within A/NZ to have those sorts of statements and back it up. I’m not putting us up to say we are going to be the number one environmentalist in ICT, but we are certainly going to take innovative approaches in those areas. I think the environment will always be sustained as a social discussion.”

Expanding on Cisco’s Green agenda, Tony Wright, regional marketing manager at Cisco said the firm is committed to Green issues.

“We have calculated a 20 percent reduction in our emissions, which is equivalent to planting 17,000 trees. These are some really meaningful statistics.”

Wright also highlighted the advantages of Cisco using its TelePresence offering for internal meetings, and in turn reducing the amount of flight time Cisco employees have to undertake.

The year ahead
Looking ahead, Williamson simply stated that Cisco across Australia and New Zealand aims to maintain its overall operational performance.

“I’m keen to have the company adopting a broader purpose in what we do in every one of the areas of environment, in skills and in collaboration to name just a few. I’m really excited about the opportunities and the way we are developing as a company,” added Williamson.

Past performance is not an indicator of future success, however Cisco has the benefit of a virtually unmovable networking footprint. How the vendor leverages its advantageous position and whether it backs the IT industry’s next growth curve will dictate the vendor giant’s future success.