This initiative is aligned with Cisco’s commitment to accelerate Tamil Nadu’s digital transformation
Cisco deepened its commitment to Tamil Nadu with the launch of Cisco START – a product portfolio specifically designed to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) build their digital foundation and become globally competitive.
This initiative is aligned with Cisco’s commitment to accelerate Tamil Nadu’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.
The 4th largest Indian state in terms of size and the 2nd largest in terms of gross state domestic product (GSDP), the state also houses the maximum number of industrial clusters in the country. As Tamil Nadu is looking to drive growth through digitization and enabling policies, SMBs have become an essential component of the journey in the state. Tamil Nadu has one of the highest concentration of Small and medium enterprises in the country housing nearly 2.18 lakh SMBs across sectors like auto, information technology, engineering and e-commerce.
While increasing high-speed broadband coverage, rising adoption of mobile devices and improved connectivity are accelerating the growth of Tamil Nadu’s SMB sector, they face challenges in accessing the right technology, lack of skill sets as well as high entry cost that limit their ability to scale and seize opportunities. 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.
Sudhir Nayar, Managing Director, Commercial Sales, Cisco India & SAARC said, “Tamil Nadu is an important market for Cisco and the launch of Cisco START demonstrates our commitment to accelerate digitization of SMBs in the state. SMBs are a key pillar of the economy and having the right set of tools and solutions is a necessity for them to stay ahead in the digital era” he said
“At Cisco, we are committed to removing the barriers to adoption and providing small business with the digital tools they need to accelerate their growth. Digitizing the SMBs would amount to digitizing a major part of the nation’s economy. We want Tamil Nadu to be ahead of the digital curve, and take advantage of the opportunities it presents.” Sudhir added
Over the last one year, Cisco has on-boarded over 5,000 new SMB customers mainly driven by Cisco START which was launched in FY17.
