Cisco introduces START products for Gujarat SMBs

Cisco has deepened its commitment to Gujarat with the launch of Cisco START- a product portfolio specifically designed to help SMBs in Gujarat build their digital foundation and become globally competitive. This initiative is aligned with Cisco’s commitment to accelerate Gujarat’s digital transformation and showcase how digitization can fuel economic growth, world-class innovation, sustainable competitiveness, and prosperity.

A digitized state aims to drive GDP growth, create jobs and foster innovation, enhance research and education, stimulate entrepreneurship, accelerate business innovation, develop economic cluster initiatives, and support infrastructure. Towards that, Cisco is the leading technology partner helping states across India become digital hubs of innovation by building sophisticated and forward-thinking IT network ecosystems that allow for greater connectivity, productivity, and security.

With Gujarat looking to drive growth through digitization, SMBs have become an essential component of the journey as the state houses one of the largest concentration of SMEs in the country. Increasing high-speed broadband coverage, rising adoption of mobile devices, improving connectivity quality and networks are accelerating the growth of Gujarat’s SMB sector. However, SMBs face challenges such as access to right technology, lack of skill sets as well as high entry cost that limit their ability to scale and seize opportunities provided by digitization. An IDC’s survey of SMBs across India shows that the top three business priorities for SMBs are to reduce costs, gain operational efficiency, and improve productivity.

Cisco START aims to make it easy for SMBs and midmarket customers to embrace digitization by providing them with access to a suite of simple, secure and smart enterprise-class technologies, specifically tailored to their needs. More specifically, Cisco START delivers -

· The right-sized, right-priced solutions wherever they are on their digital journey

· Enhanced operations, services, and processes to reduce overheads and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

· Improved workforce productivity and innovation to meet the increased demands of today and the evolving opportunities of tomorrow

Sudhir Nayar, Managing Director, Commercial Sales, Cisco India & SAARC said, “We are excited to be a part of Gujarat’s digital journey and help further the government’s vision to create sustainable competitiveness and prosperity. SMBs are a key pillar of the economy and are a huge source of employment and innovation. SMBs have a much wider geographic footprint than large enterprises and are best placed to democratize the benefits of digitization. We launched Cisco START as a commitment to help SMBs adopt a digital-first mindset that can help them digitize, secure their business and stay ahead of the technology curve.”

SMB is the fastest growing segment for Cisco in India. In the last one year, Cisco has on-boarded over 5,000 new SMB customers, out of which over 300 customers are from Gujarat.