October 22, 2002

Cisco looks to hook smaller customers

CNet: Seeking to shore up declining revenue in its traditional markets, networking giant Cisco Systems says it is putting new emphasis on small and medium-sized businesses as customers.

The move may be counterintuitive for a company known best for creating the industrial-strength data routers that drive telecommunications networks. But the telecommunications market has yet to see signs of revival, and the huge companies to which Cisco sells corporate networking gear are seeing only anemic growth.

The networking giant is hardly looking to small business to replace the collapse of the once-strong telecommunications sector. But in its quest to slow its own financial bleeding, it is looking to make up ground wherever it can.

As a part of its new push, the company is developing a set of Web-based services that help potential customers assess their own network needs, or help other companies selling Cisco gear design a package of networking products for their own customers.

My spin:CISCO's got the name brand, srong reseller channel, often their products are bundled in computers already...sure - they can do this easily I think. HOWEVER - Linksys, Dlink, Netgear, INTEL and of course 3COM are very popular in the SMB networking space.

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