|
 It came, it saw and it conquered. CSA 2007 measured CIO satisfaction
among networking vendors for the first time and Cisco emerged as the most
popular choice by a mile. It further reiterates Cisco's claim as the
networking king in India; barring its credit mechanism, Cisco is more popular
than all other network vendors on all parameters.
|
|
|
Networking
Vendor Ranks |
|
Brands |
Rank
'07 |
|
Cisco |
1 |
|
D-Link/ Foundry |
2 |
|
Nortel |
3 |
|
3 Com |
4 |
|
|
| This category is being
introduced this year, hence there are no historical comparisons |
Its main challenge in satisfying Indian CIOs would be to match
or excel the high standards set by itself. Other vendors like D-Link or Nortel
can now only dream of emulating Cisco's popularity, and that too on only
certain issues.
Amidst all this euphoria, Cisco still needs to be careful on the
pricing and commercial front; though not emphatically perceptible, there is
still a whiff of discontent among CIOs with respect to Cisco about the clarity
of its pricing contracts and credit facilities. Taking advantage, D-Link is
gradually improving on the value for money front. And having a more popular
credit regime than Cisco could be little solace for Nortel, most of whose
overtures seem to be repulsed by Indian CIOs.
|
Networking
Products: Satisfaction Scores |
|
Networking Products |
Industry |
D-Link/ Foundry |
Nortel |
3 Com |
Cisco |
|
Product (100) |
86.2 |
84.6 |
82.8 |
81.6 |
90.0 |
|
Pre Sales & Marketing
(82) |
84.3 |
83.0 |
81.1 |
82.9 |
86.6 |
|
Price & Commercial
(88) |
82.7 |
82.7 |
79.7 |
79.4 |
84.4 |
|
Delivery &
Installation (72) |
82.8 |
82.9 |
81.0 |
78.9 |
84.5 |
|
Post Sales Service (90) |
82.5 |
81.8 |
79.7 |
79.1 |
85.0 |
|
Base: 584 CIOs |
| How
satisfied are CIOs with their networking vendors on five key parameters?
The table lists scores derived from CIO responses to a range of
questions. Figures in brackets indicate relative importance of the
parameters as stated by respondents. Figures in blue represent the
maximum and in red the minimum in each category. |
|
Networking
Products: The Top Two Parameters |
|
Product |
Industry |
D-Link/ Foundry |
Nortel |
3Com |
Cisco |
|
Overall Product
Reliability |
87.7 |
86.5 |
85.0 |
82.8 |
91.3 |
|
Overall Product
Functionality |
85.8 |
83.8 |
82.7 |
80.8 |
90.0 |
|
Convenience in operation
& adoption of the product |
85.4 |
83.9 |
81.2 |
81.5 |
89.0 |
|
Post-Sales Service |
|
Responsive-always
available for technical queries |
84.4 |
83.8 |
81.5 |
79.7 |
87.0 |
|
Expertise of the vendor to
resolve problem |
82.1 |
81.3 |
81.1 |
78.2 |
84.6 |
|
Availability of spare
parts |
81.2 |
80.2 |
78.1 |
79.0 |
83.5 |
|
Interaction with service
team |
82.6 |
82.0 |
78.5 |
79.5 |
85.2 |
Note:
The satisfaction scores are on a 100-point scale with 100 indicating the
highest degree of satisfaction-very
satisfied
Base: 584 CIOs
Product and post-sales service emerge as the two most importance
derivatives of satisfaction. All CIOs strongly vouch for Cisco across all
parameters in the first appearance of networking category in CSA. D-Link
comes a distant second in most parameters, while 3Com and Nortel have much
catching up to do to gain customer confidence |
Apart from products, post sales service issues count very high
among CIO satisfaction parameters for networking vendors. Vendor ability to
answer technical queries, their expertise to solve problems, availability of
spare equipment or quality of interaction with the services team matter very
high with CIOs, especially those coming from the government and the services
sector that are witnessing mega networking projects. Right now it's a
one-horse race in the overall networking ecosystem; but as is often the drawback
of a monopolistic regime, the apparent lack of competition could undermine the
overall growth of the market.
|
'Indian
organizations are willing to pay for that value'
-Ranajoy Punja, VP,
Cisco India |
|
How hard, or how easy, is it to
satisfy an Indian CIO?
To be honest, the Indian CIO is like his overseas counterparts. Quite
like the CIOs from other developed countries, the requirements, business
needs, importance of networking infrastructure for business management,
etc are very much the same across different geographies.
What are the new customer service
initiatives being undertaken by you?
At Cisco, our key focus areas are to offer complete solutions to our
customers. To that end, we are very much focused on understanding
customer needs and striving to meet those expectations. So, it is not
just the product, the features and the function, It is really about
providing complete end-to-end solution, which includes implementation,
service, and support. We spend a lot of time and effort working closely
with our partners, especially the system integrators, as more often they
are the ones who provide post sales support to customers.
What according to you are the
uniqueness and challenges of the Indian market?
On the road to being a global force, the need for Indian businesses to
compete in the global market has erupted in quite a short time. So there
is a lot of catching up that needs to be done. Fortunately for India
there is no issue of legacy infrastructure, so Indian companies can
learn from the experiences of global players and deploy and architect a
solution that is really cutting-edge and the latest solution available.
This rapid speed of
adoption leads to challenges as well. Implementing the best solution in
the shortest span of time is the biggest challenge faced by companies
across business verticals.
Indian companies are known to be
price sensitive, how are they waking up to concepts like SLAs, QoS, RoI,
etc?
Traditionally, Indian players were indeed price sensitive but that trait
has changed over the past few years. It is also dependent on the market
segment, for instance, large organizations are like any other customers
in the world. They see the value of complete end-to-end solutions, of a
business partner, and how it impacts their business. I can assure you
that Indian organizations are willing to pay for that value, if you can
prove it to them. As you move down to the SMB and lower business
segments, it does become more price sensitive but even there we are
beginning to see the value of complete solution, product solution, post
sales support, etc.
Have you internalized pre-sales
marketing and post-sales support?
Yes. While the go-to-market was verticalized, we continue to be strong
at individual functional groups like sales, services and channels.. For
instance, when we come up with any product launch for the telecom
industry, it is preceded by marketing, channel support, service
requirements, etc.
What would you term as Cisco's
USP vis-à-vis the competition?
The biggest one is that we provide complete solution for a customer's
communication needs reducing their total TCO. IP telephony, networking,
routing, switching, etc, the entire architecture is taken into account.
Thus, I can summarize it as a complete architectural approach ranging
from hardware to software, which no other player is able to offer in the
marketplace. |
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