CSCO: Cisco Selects India as Site for the Cisco Globalization Center

Cisco® today announced the next stage of its globalization strategy with the selection of India as the site for its globalization center, called "Cisco Globalization Center East." In addition, the company announced the appointment of Wim Elfrink to Chief Globalization Officer (CGO). The announcement was made by John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems, on the first day of his two-day visit to India. In addition to the role of CGO, Elfrink will retain the position of Senior Vice President of Customer Advocacy, reporting to John Chambers. Elfrink will relocate to Bangalore, India, in January 2007.

"Cisco chose India as the location from which to expand its globalization vision because India has a highly skilled workforce, supportive government, innovative customers and world-class partners that already have global capabilities," said John Chambers. "As one of Cisco's most respected leaders, Wim represents the next evolution of leadership for our global development strategy. Under Wim's leadership, Cisco will lead the market transition being driven out of India with our talented employees and partners across the globe to meet the needs of customers on every continent in the world."

As a multi-national corporation that today operates in over 120 countries, Cisco's globalization strategy represents an evolution in traditional business models by delivering an enhanced customer and partner experience on a 24-hour basis. This strategy is enabled by Cisco's Internet-based business model and its suite of collaborative solutions including Unified Communications and Cisco TelePresence. These solutions allow Cisco to transcend physical location and optimize the diverse talents and skills of the company's employees and partners around the globe in a seamless manner in order to reach more customers when and where they prefer. This integrated and global business approach has begun to touch nearly every facet of the company's operations and create a new way to deliver information, products and services.

Elfrink, who joined Cisco in 1997, has served as Senior Vice President of Customer Advocacy since 2000. The Customer Advocacy organization includes three businesses - Technical Services, Remote Operations Services and Advanced Services - which form Cisco Services. Cisco Services is focused on accelerating customer success with Cisco networking technology and applications. Under Elfrink's leadership, Cisco has delivered award-winning customer support that is world class and an industry best practice.

"For Cisco, globalization is about the potential to transform industries on a global scale by extending new business models to our ecosystem of innovative customers and partners," said Elfrink. "Cisco's globalization strategy, which takes advantage of collaboration technologies, will radically change how people interact and share information, and is a bold step in reshaping the way companies approach the global marketplace."

Cisco first established operations in India in 1995 and today employs over 2000 people in the country in its Global R&D center in Bangalore and sales offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkatta, Pune, Hyderabad and Colombo, Sri Lanka. In October 2005, John Chambers announced a $1.1 billion investment in India, highlighting the growing importance of the Indian market in the global economy.