CISCO REITERATES SUPPORT TO FG OVER SMES DEVELOPMENT
Cisco Systems, (a technology firm) has resolved to work with the Federal Government on how small and medium scale enterprises, SMEs could be assisted in the area of technology so that they could contribute significantly to the growth of the country's gross domestic product.
General manager, Emerging Markets at Cisco, Carlos Marques who gave the commitment in Sun City hotel, Sun City, South Africa venue of Cisco Expo 2011 hinted that Nigeria is a huge country with great potentialities .While stressing that the firm would work with the new Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, to see how the SME sector of the country could be assisted.
According to him, absence of technology deployment to business is one major problem confronting the SME sub-sector of the nation's economy. He said Cisco will work with the new ministry to explore ways of assisting the growth of SMEs which he said is very significant to the growth of the nation.
'Cisco will work with the new ICT ministry to explore ways of assisting the SMEs in Nigeria, although it may take some time to begin to see result owing to the size of the country'.
Earlier on, Cisco had unveiled a new technology, the Jabber WebEx which it said will redefine client experience in the area of video, voice and conferencing yet with security of customers' data in the cloud.
Global Collaboration Solutions, Cisco, Michael Smith, who spoke at the launch, said Jabber will enable more business collaboration, adding that the innovation can be added to G-mail application and use other cloud based services. He said Cisco is giving its customers opportunity to choose.
He further disclosed that Jabber will allow people to share to share things like agenda before meetings are convened, adding that it is 'a new innovative meeting space, messaging presence so that people can pass comments.'
Due for shipping next year, Smith said it has already struck a deal with Nigeria's leading major communication operator, MTN, to bring the unique service to customers in the country. He said the new experience will allow a maximum of three meeting participants with voice over internet (VOIP) audio, standard and high definition video, IM presence, desktop sharing with a 25o megabytes (MB) storage capacity.
Cisco made headlines earlier this year with a pledge to remove $1 billion in expenses by the end of its fiscal 2012, and that's just one of the big moves Cisco's made in a year of big-ticket product launches, curious statements from John Chambers, its chairman and CEO, a series of major investments in the Cisco channel, and a downsizing that's supposedly going to leave Cisco slimmer and easier to do business with.
Cisco's ongoing corporate restructuring has been routinely described by Cisco executives as a simplification strategy-cutting headcount, removing decision-by-committee leadership, and refocusing the firm on core priorities like routing, switching, video and data centre, away from distractions like its ill-fated Flip video camera.
Analysts say one very strategic move of the firm was the consolidation of its former nine global sales theaters to three: Americas; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China (APJC). Americas is the largest of the three, responsible for about 50 percent of Cisco's $43 billion annual revenue pie.