Cisco’s Chuck Robbins Eyes 10% Of Global Revenues From India In 5-10 Years

U.S. tech giant Cisco is betting big on digitisation initiatives in India and its over 10,000-strong local team here to drive growth, with the country expected to account for 10 per cent of its global revenues in the next few years, its CEO Chuck Robbins has said.

Speaking to PTI, Robbins said: "We have seen very balanced growth across India over the last several years...When we really started some of our initiatives 3-4 years ago, it (India) was a small percentage of our business. But, it has been growing rapidly and I think over the next 5 to 10 years, India should easily become 10 percent of our revenues, there is no reason it shouldn't. And maybe even more".

He did not comment on the current contribution from the Indian market as the company does not break out country-specific revenue numbers.

For FY2018, the company's global revenue grew three percent to $49.3 billion.

Previously, Robbins has said India is among Cisco's largest markets along with countries like the US, Japan and China.

In India, Cisco is witnessing strong growth in its software business as well as security vertical. It is also aiming for a 3x growth in its small and medium businesses (SMB), where it added 5,000 new customers in 12 months. The company has over 10,000 people in India, including engineering and sales.

"...the adoption of technology, the remaining broadband build out that needs to occur and the understanding of technology is applied on top of that, the 5G roll out. I mean all of these things are going to continue to be contributors of growth for us (in India)...Any of those things if they change, could impact that (growth)," he said.

Asked about key elements that are driving growth for Cisco in India, Robbins said it is on account of three things -- the belief in power of technology - both by government and private sector, acceleration in Cisco's innovation efforts in the country; and its strong local team.

"And so, when you have all those things going well, and a strong economy to boost (operations), then that's what you get is good growth and that's what we have seen here (India)," he said.

Talking about Cisco's vision for 5G technology, Robbins said its team in India will play a key role - both as a market and supplier for the new-generation technology that promises faster Internet speeds and better connectivity between devices.

"The resources we have in India, particularly engineering resources, operate across every aspect of our technology portfolio... people (here are) working on a lot of the software capabilities that will enable architecture for 5G, enable service delivery, and also enable us to really be able to guarantee quality of service for some of these applications. And there is also work going on the hardware aspect," he said.