Chambers: SME is Cisco's biggest opportunity

Networking's big daddy tells channel partners small business is the market to go for this year

John Chambers: We have to design products for the SMB market

Cisco chief executive John Chambers has told VARs the networking vendor will take the fight to its rivals across the board as it goes for the jugular of the small business market.

In his closing speech at this year's partner summit, held in San Francisco last week, the leader told attendees that his firm welcomed a highly competitive environment.

“We are the leader in every single major product area we have gone into,” he said. “If we do not have competition in each one of them, then the markets are not that good.”

He went on to stress the importance of Cisco's acquisitive strategy and drew particular attention to last year's video-focused buy-outs, which included Pure Digital Technologies and Tandberg.

“The acquisitions we have made in the last year were game-changers,” he said. “Our ability to go into market adjacencies should (continue to) go up by 20-30 per cent a year.”

He told partners that, as economies worldwide emerge from recession, the lower end of the market would be the most lucrative area for the channel this year.

“SMB is the biggest opportunity in this room - that is where the jobs will be created,” he said. “We have to design products (for that market).”

Chambers claimed all product and services design should be centred on customers' needs and desires.

“As people are still talking about routing and switching, we are talking about business transformation,” he said. “We have got to start with what is on the leaders' minds.”

The networking chief stressed the importance of the channel in achieving his vision of technological developments that can improve business, society and the world at large. He claimed the vendor's approach to resellers has changed dramatically over the years.

“We have gone from 80-90 per cent command and control to 80-90 per cent collaboration and teamwork,” he said. “Everything we should do together as a group is based on speed, the ability to scale and have flexibility. “