Global hardware networking giant Cisco is betting big on India’s Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Company is looking to increase its customer base from 30,000 to 90,000 over the next three years.
“We have about 30,000 SMEs customer in India and over the next three years we aim to triple this number to over 90, 000,” Nal Gollagunta, managing director, commercial sales, Cisco India and SAARC told TechObserver.in.
According to the multiple reports, there are 50 million SMEs in India. Out of which, only 2% are currently digital. So, there is tremendous interest of IT firms in SMEs modernisation in the country. “The opportunity is huge and it is for everyone,” said Gollagunta.
The networking major whose 20-30% business in India comes from SMEs sector said that surge in the penetration of 4G network in India led by telcos like Reliance Jio is opening up phenomenal opportunities across different verticals and success of e-commerce portal are encouraging SMEs to go digital. “Going forward our goal would be take this number to 50%,” said Gollagunta.
For SMEs, US-based tech firm is pushing wireless connectivity, security software and collaboration video solutions. “SME sector requirements and approach to IT is different from startups and big enterprises. Over the past five years, we have specifically focused on SME sector and have launched many solutions primarily aimed at them,” said Gollagunta.
Cisco sales its solution to SMEs both on perpetual license and pay-as-use model but in recent past there has been more demand for pay-per-use subscription.
