Mr Pramodh Menon is the President of the Partner Business Group at Cisco Systems (India) Pvt Ltd.

He is responsible for Cisco's partner-led business in the sub-continent as well as in the SAARC region.

Speaking to Business Line at the Cisco Partnership Summit in San Diego, he elaborates on the networking major's India strategy, their partner acquisition plans and businesses in India and SAARC.

Below are the edited excerpts:

How many partners does Cisco have in India?

We track partners through the term active partners. Active partners are those who do business with us every quarter on a regular basis. Today there are 1,600 partners.

So how many partners do you intend to acquire by the year end?

We don't have a target number. We will do a capacity planning on a city-by-city basis. We have identified the addressable markets in 30 cities. Some of these cities do not have a very high demand profile. So we have to ensure that we do not crowd out our existing partners or end up having over capacities.

It is safe to assume that we are adding around 200-300 active partners every year.

How many cities do you have presence in and what are the cities where you are looking to expand your presence into?

Our billing is across 150 cities but our polarisation is across the top 30. The top six cities still form a big chunk of our revenues.

One of our key strategies is city expansion where we move from the top six to the next 14 and then the lower 10 cities. We will cover these by March 2013.

Some of the cities we will be expanding into include Surat, Ludhiana and most of the tier-II and tier-III cities.

What is your partner growth strategy?

We have a fairly evolved framework which slot partners in three categories – large, medium and small based on their potential. Our strategy to acquire partners by focussing on those not just having the ability to deliver in the market place but even those who are not fully aligned with Cisco.

As city expansion is a key component, we increase our revenue footprints across multiple cities. Each of the cities has local partners who give us revenues. Incidentally, our product profiles are changing. As products evolve we need to get new partners.

So any preferences in choosing partners?

We also look for partners that have complimentary assets which help us. In data centre for example, we will be biased to have partners who will have virtualisation capacities. The growth is going to come from adding partners but not just by volumes. What we look at is the differentiated capability of these partners; in terms of their customer access or their technology capabilities.

What is the status of the small business segment and its growth potential?

Small business is growing at 300 per cent per annum over the last three years. It's really a hot market.

What is Cisco's strategy here?

One is our products are very relevant in that market (small business segment) than ever in the past. There are Cisco products retailing for $30 (Rs 1,500).

That is totally a volume game. You got to ensure that the offering is right. We have seen that working.

The cable set top box is one example. We know that there is a huge momentum in the segment and the products were built for that market.

So are you looking for emerging market specific products including those relevant to India?

Absolutely. We have around 7,000 engineers in Bangalore and it is a mandate as to how to make products more relevant to emerging markets.

Which SAARC nations are you focussed on?

Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are the big two markets. We have direct presence in both these geographies. Bangladesh we opened a direct office last year. We have fairly large teams and around 100-120 partners there. And Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives are the other countries that make SAARC.

>abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in

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