 Email, epost, emoney, epayment, echeck-in, etc. are not just the fascinating words, but surely represent a strongly changing lifestyle of human across the classes and masses. Being a vast country with a billion of population and having the potential to embrace the new trends, India is a big marketplace for the technology enablers and the vendors. Recently, John T. Chambers, Chairman & CEO of Cisco Systems, addressed the CII-CEOs Forum on “The Network as an Enabler for Life’s Experiences” in New Delhi and unveiled Cisco’s plans for India. We all remember Cisco announced US$1.1-billion investment in the Indian market last year, highlighting the growing importance of the Indian market in the global economy. Cisco as an extension has selected India as the site for its globalization center, called “Cisco Globalization Center East (CSG East)”. In addition, the company announced the appointment of Wim Elfrink as Chief Globalization Officer (CGO). During his recent two-day visit to India, John Chambers also announced the role of CGO that Elfrink will retain the position of Senior Vice-President of Customer Advocacy and will report to John Chambers. Elfrink will be relocated to Bangalore (India) in January 2007. “Cisco chose India as the location from which to expand its globalization vision because India has a highly skilled workforce, supportive government, innovative customers and world-class partners that already have global capabilities,” said John Chambers. “As one of Cisco’s most respected leaders, Wim Elfrink represents the next eglobal development strategy. Under the leadership of Wim Elfrink, Cisco will lead the market transition being driven out of India with our talented employees and partners across the globe to meet the needs of customers on every continent in the world.” Cisco’s globalization strategy represents an evolution in the traditional business models by delivering an enhanced customer and partner experience on a 24-hour basis. This strategy is enabled by Cisco’s Internet-based business model and its suite of collaborative solutions, including Unified Communications and Cisco TelePresence. These solutions allow Cisco to transcend physical location and optimize the diverse talents and skills of the company’s employees and partners around the globe in a seamless manner in order to reach more customers when and where they prefer. This integrated and global business approach has begun to touch nearly every facet of the company’s operations and create a new way to deliver information, products and services. “For Cisco, globalization is about the potential to transform industries on a global scale by extending new business models to our ecosystem of innovative customers and partners,” said Elfrink. “Cisco’s globalization strategy, which takes advantage of collaboration technologies, will radically change how people interact and share information, and is a bold step in reshaping the way companies approach the global marketplace,” he adds. Cisco to triple Its Workforce Cisco first established operations in India in 1995 and employs over 2,000 people in the country in its Global R&D Center in Bangalore and sales offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Colombo (Sri Lanka). And, now the company expects to triple its workforce in India over the next three to five years. John Chambers further discussed the company’s investment progress in India with the Hon’ble Minister of Communications and IT, Mr. Dayanidhi Maran. “India is a very important market for Cisco’s global growth strategy,” said Chambers. “With the strong support of its government, India is committed to economic growth and development with a focus on building out broadband infrastructure, fostering a first-class educational system and creating a favourable environment for innovation and partnership. Cisco is committed to its ongoing investment plan in India, as well as its partnership with the Indian government.” As per the break-up for the US$1.1-billion investment in the Indian market, Cisco has allocated US$50 million for a new R&D campus in Bangalore, which is expected to be completed by June 2007. These R&D activities continue to be complemented by the work done by Indian strategic partner companies. Also, Cisco is committed to investing in innovation in India and has allocated US$100 million towards venture capital investments in high-growth, early stage companies based in India. In the last year, Cisco invested US$5 million in Indiagames and Bharti Telesoft and expects to invest another US$25 to US$30 million over the next few months in the companies involved in broadband content and digital media. Cisco continues to expand its customer support operations in India and plans to invest US$100 million in growing its technical services capabilities, spare parts depots and channel development. Cisco recently established a 24x7 premium spare depot in Chandigarh. It has begun contributing products and services for rural connectivity and the development of a BSNL lab in Chennai and has allocated US$10 million towards these efforts. The company has also announced plans to launch a manufacturing pilot facility in Chennai. The facility initially will manufacture certain products for the domestic Indian market. In line with the company’s outsourced manufacturing model, Cisco has selected one of its global manufacturing partners, Foxconn, to work with the company on the facility. “Cisco’s growing investments across all its operation areas in India are a vindication of the increasingly self-sustaining ecosystem that the country provides for businesses to thrive and compete in a globalized economy. We welcome global IT majors such as Cisco that are committed to India’s economic development and provide greater opportunities for our people,” said Mr. Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communications and IT. Cisco’s TelePresence John Chambers offered a preview of how Cisco is leading the transition to a network-centric technology environment by combining its core strengths – Internet Protocol (IP) and Unified Communications services – to create a powerful intelligent communications platform to the CII-CEOs Forum attendees. Cisco’s new TelePresence solution creates unique “in-person” experiences between people, places and events. Chambers further added, “Networking is a strategic, high-impact communications requirement that is essential to drive business transformation and create real, sustainable competitive advantage. It is vital for emerging economies like India to take advantage of ICT networks to connect people and transform businesses in ways not previously possible.” To excel in today’s fast moving, global business environment, you have to interact and collaborate with co-workers, partners and customers all over the world at a moment’s notice. You need to continuously innovate and transform your business model to maintain your edge – and you need to plan ahead to respond rapidly to unexpected issues that impact business continuity. At the same time, much of the business is done based on the quality of the relationships you have with those you interact with most. Cisco TelePresence is an innovative new technology that combines rich audio, high-definition video and interactive elements to deliver a unique “in-person” experience-over the network. It is designed to bring users closer to the important people, places and events in their personal and professional lives. The first application, the Cisco TelePresence Meeting solution, creates a live, face-to-face meeting experience, empowering users to interact and collaborate like never before. Part of the Cisco Unified Communications collaboration portfolio, the Cisco TelePresence Meeting is a comprehensive solution, consisting of room systems, a high-definition multipoint video switching platform, the Cisco TelePresence Manager software, business-to-business connectivity and lifecycle services to plan, deploy and maintain the experience. To help companies acquire the Cisco TelePresence Meeting solution they need today without a major capital investment, Cisco Systems Capital Corporation offers a variety of financing programmes, including leasing options. Innovative, customized financing helps maximize cash flow, preserve capital budgets, gain tax advantages, reduce risk of obsolescence and retain the flexibility to easily upgrade technologies as needs evolve. The complete Cisco TelePresence Meeting solution including all products, services, subscriptions and maintenance can be bundled in one lease to provide one price point and one monthly lease payment. In the end... Additionally, Cisco is also supporting initiatives aimed at using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to stimulate economic and social development. “The use and application of ICT remains the most powerful engine for economic growth,” said Mr. Dayanidhi Maran seeing the efforts of Cisco for the Indian market. In the coming new year, India is poised to witness many positive changes as a result of such initiatives. volution of leadership for our |
Print this
Copyright varindia.com @1999-2012 All rights reserved. Disclaimer Privacy Statement Careers Forecast 2012 