Published: on 25 May 2012
By Goh Thean EU
KUALA LUMPUR: Cisco Systems Inc, the world's largest maker of computer-networking equipment, believes that local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have the potential to be its biggest revenue contributors in the Malaysian market over the medium to long term.
Currently, the company's biggest revenue generator is the enterprise segment.
"SMEs play a key role in the country's economy, so they certainly have the potential to be our largest revenue contributors one day, especially when they leverage on technologies to increase their competitiveness," said Yuri Wahab, managing director of Cisco Malaysia, in an interview with Business Times recently.
In Malaysia, SMEs make up more than 99 per cent of businesses, or over 567,480 establishments. They contribute some 40 per cent to the country's economy.
UC solutions, which for many years has been a technology that can only be enjoyed by the larger-sized companies, are now becoming more affordable for the SME market.
With Cisco's UC solutions, companies will be able to perform a high-quality video conference call on their fixed-line office phone, laptops, or even tablets. They are also able to share documents or presentation slides live via the UC solutions, without any interruption to the video conferencing experience.
Such solutions are useful when one wants to hold a meeting with its employees or clients from different location, simultaneously.
Yuri said that the increasing demand for UC solutions by SMEs are partly driven by the increasing competition as well as the improving broadband infrastructure in the country.
"The rolling out of high-speed broadband (HSBB) infrastructure as well as the improvement in wireless broadband coverage by the mobile operators, gives more companies the ability and better affordability to use UC solutions," he added.
Besides UC, another key trend that Cisco Malaysia is banking on is the growth in cloud services.
Reports indicated that adoption of cloud services in the US, which was at over 70 per cent in 2011, will grow to 98 per cent by 2015. While the adoption rate in Malaysia is not expected to be as high as what the US will be experiencing, its growth potential is undeniable.
Over the next few months, Cisco will be releasing a few new UC and cloud solutions for the SME market. These solutions will be marketed and sold via its partners, including Telekom Malaysia Bhd.
Cisco sells most of its products via its partners. It rarely serves customers direct - with a small number of the biggest clients being the exception.
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