Cisco India launches initiative to help SMBs build digital foundation

Cisco India Wednesday launched its new version of 'Cisco Start' to help Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) in Tamil Nadu build their digital foundation and become globally competitive. 

The company chose Tamil Nadu, particularly Coimbatore, to launch this version, as the state was a major SMB hub and contributes about nine per cent to the GDP, Managing Director, Commercial Sales, Cisco India and Saarc, Sudhir Nayar told reporters here. 

The initiative was 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, he said. 

The nearly 2.18 lakh SMBs in sectors like automobiles, IT, engineering and e-commerce can make good profit by using the product, investing 70 million USD per year, as 70 per cent of small and medium enterprises are offline now, Nayar said, By using this enhanced Start, the SMBs can add 10 per cent more to GDP, he said. 

Cisco, a global company, which launched the earlier Start version in 10 cities of India in 2017, has 30,000 customers, which will be increased to 90,000 in the next three years, by adding 20 SMB customers every day, he said.

(With inputs from agencies.)