馬來西亞Cisco業務增長

Government, Real Estate and Small and Medium Business Segments Driving Cisco’s Growth in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – 26 February 2008 – Cisco® today said that its growth in Malaysia is being driven by the government, real estate and small and medium business (SMB) segments. It is also seeing good growth from service providers and other large enterprises. The company recently reported worldwide revenues of US$9.8 billion for Q2 FY 2008 for the period ended January 26, 2008. This represented a year-on-year growth of 16.5 per cent over Q2 FY 2007.

While the company does not report revenue by geography, product bookings in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, grew by around 23 per cent year-on-year with good balance across the enterprise, service provider and commercial customer segments. Cisco’s product bookings in Malaysia for Q2 FY 2008 was also strong, with double digit year-on-year growth.

Malaysia continues to be of strategic importance to Cisco’s operations in Asia Pacific. In a business update briefing held today, Kumaran Singaram, Managing Director of Cisco Malaysia said that Cisco Malaysia will focus more on the government, real estate and SMB sectors as they provide Cisco with a genuine opportunity to contribute to the country’s economic growth.

Cisco has been working with both Federal and State Government agencies to discover ways in which information and communications technologies (ICT) can be used to achieve the objectives outlined in the Ninth Malaysia Plan. Key areas include supporting connected government initiatives and driving broadband enablement in the country.

“Cisco has technology solutions that are designed specifically to increase productivity and efficiency of the public sector, enhance public safety and drive change in the country’s education infrastructure. Cisco’s Connected Healthcare solutions, for example, can be used to enhance the nation’s medical grid network” he said.

The real estate sector is another key focus area for Cisco as the construction industry continues to be a pillar of the Malaysian economy. The Cisco Connected Real Estate solution seeks to transform the way real estate is developed, used and managed. Cisco feels that with Internet Protocol (IP) being implemented as the fourth utility – after electricity, gas and water – real estate developers in Malaysia are ready to move from a business model based solely on space to one that is based on the provision of services.

“In the past year, we have seen a lot of investment in smart city developments such as the Iskandar Development Region, Northern Corridor Economic Region and the East Coast Economic Region. Successful cities of the future consider the network as another basic infrastructure that has to be designed into the plans from the beginning,” said Kumaran. “The various elements of utilities, commercial buildings, residential, public spaces, hotels and retail need to be connected to enable improved collaboration, security, management, mobility and productivity.”

The third focus area for Cisco is the SMB sector and this is based on their contribution to national gross domestic product (GDP). In countries like Korea, Taiwan and Japan, SMBs accounts for nearly 50 to 75 per cent of the GDP. In Malaysia, SMBs contributed 35 per cent to the nation’s GDP in 2006 and are expected to make an increased contribution of 37 per cent to the national GDP by the year 2010.

“The SMB segment in Malaysia is fast-growing and extends across almost all industries. SMBs can benefit from ICT as much as larger companies can but they do require technology solutions that fit their needs. Cisco has been investing in developing more tailored products and also, on expanding our channel partner base to reach the SMBs more effectively. We now have 32 SMB Select partners in Malaysia and continue to look for more resellers to join the program,” according to Kumaran.

SMB Select is a specialised certification which Cisco developed for resellers in the SMB space. Cisco has around 500 Select partners across Asia-Pacific currently.

Cisco has also taken a major step to expand its reach in Malaysia by establishing an office in East Malaysia to better support the government, SMBs and its partners there.

“Cisco delivered another solid fiscal quarter driven largely by our ability to provide customers enhanced capabilities through highly customised networking solutions that provides them with a platform for competitive differentiation. The company will continue to introduce emerging technologies into the marketplace to drive future growth,” said Kumaran.

“We are headed into a new era in networking that we define as the second phase of the Internet. This phase will be driven by collaboration and Web 2.0 technologies and will become an increasingly influential market trend for businesses.”

To further reinforce its technology leadership and deepen penetration into the Government, SMB and real estate sectors, Cisco will soon be bringing a mobile showcase of emerging world-class networking technologies to Malaysia. The mobile solutions showcase, the Cisco Express-Network on Wheels, was built at a cost in excess of US$1 million, and is scheduled to roll into Malaysia in March. It will tour the nation over a six-week period.