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"We Will Leverage on Our Leadership in Switching,"

author-image
VoicenData Bureau
New Update

https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/vnd/media/post_attachments/4473263b926c6ca3c71a4c2d4cc9666f6f0dbe4785635fb926e9c267ec01145d.gif (24856 bytes) border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4">Gary Workman, president,

Asia-Pacific operations, Cabletron Systems.

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To spearhead its growth in

Asia-Pacific, Cabletron Systems has appointed
COLOR="#016077">Gary Workman as the president of

operations in the region. As the head of the management team, he is responsible for

defining, developing, and implementing business strategies for Cabletron in the

Asia-Pacific region. Soon after taking over charge, in his first interview with any Indian

press, Workman spoke to
Satya Prakash Singh SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">about Cabletron’s overall strategy for Asia-Pacific in

general and India in particular. Excerpts ... face="Times New Roman"> 

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What

will be your role as president, Asia-Pacific?

Cabletron

is world famous for its intelligent switching and enterprise network management solutions.

With all the changes and opportunities in the networking industry, I am excited to join

Cabletron.

My objective in this role is simple: build

on Cabletron’s success and continue to grow the business in Asia-Pacific. In 1999, we

intend to strengthen Cabletron’s channel policy in Asia-Pacific and duplicate the

success the company has had with services in the US, to provide a higher level of support

for all our enterprise customers in the region.
COLOR="#016077">

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Cabletron India aspires to

be the #1 networking company by the year 2001. How do you plan to achieve this?
SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">

We are

already #1, according to IDC reports, in switching in India. The switching market in India

is the most important market today as it is growing at greater than 50 percent. With our

SmartSwitch router range of WAN products, we plan to aggressively capture a significant

portion of the WAN market. We are also increasing our focus on the network management

market to add to the networking hardware revenues. Also, this year, we have grown at

greater than 80 percent each quarter as compared to the corresponding quarters of the

previous year. The significant contributor to this has been our relationship with Compaq

and specifically the revenue from Digital networking products. I am confident that we will

accomplish our vision of being the
numero

uno
networking company in India going by the current growth trends.
SIZE="2" COLOR="#016077">

Over the past one year, Cabletron India has taken a lot of

initiatives in terms of having a "proof-of-concept-centre and training centre"

and "spectrum development centre", etc. Are you going to have a 100-percent

Indian subsidiary in India in order to further your commitment?
SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">

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Yes, we are definitely planning for the

formation of an 100-percent subsidiary during the financial year 2000. We will make

strategic investments required to be the number one player in the Indian networking

industry. We have a good opportunity to achieve this as we are the #2 vendor in the first

year of our full-fledged operations. As I mentioned earlier, we are also first in

switching and we will leverage on this leadership.
COLOR="#016077">

face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">We are definitely going to protect our

leadership in the LAN switching market with adequate investments. At the same time, our

world-wide focus on the WAN market will ensure us bring in additional investments required

for India specifically.

It seems Indian

networking market is going to be dominated by Cisco and Cabletron. But, Cisco is on an

advantageous position on the internetworking front. How do you plan to address this issue?
color="#000000">

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Yes, it is encouraging to note

that our only competitor in India is Cisco. We are already ahead of Cisco in switching.

With a renewed channel strategy and aggressive focus on WAN, telecom, ISPs, and network

management, we are going to overtake Cisco.

With Internet proliferation on the cards,

where do you want to put your investments in: LAN or WAN?
color="#000000">

We are definitely going to

protect our leadership in the LAN switching market with adequate investments. At the same

time, our world-wide focus on the WAN market will ensure us bring in additional

investments required for India specifically. Our investments in the "proof-of-concept

and training centre" and "spectrum development centre" are some of the

strategic investments already made for capturing market share in WAN and NMS markets. We

will also add more competitive and cost-effective products in the WAN space.
COLOR="#016077">

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What is Cabletron’s position in

other parts of Asia-Pacific?

In most markets in Asia-Pacific,

we are a very strong player. In some countries, economies have been struggling and it is

very difficult to comment about our strengths there. But I can say that we are growing

very rapidly in most countries with right focus on right markets.
COLOR="#016077">

How do you compare the Indian networking

market with that of China?

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Obviously, China and India are

the two biggest markets for us in Asia-Pacific. On the technology and the installed base

curve, I would say that China would be slightly higher than India. But, I would believe

that in the next two to five years, we would be having a greater opportunity in India than

in China. We will continue to make a lot more investments in both the markets. All I can

say is that India is catching up with China very rapidly and I am very bullish about

opportunities in India.

Global trends indicate that convergence

is driving the acquisition of datacom companies by telecom companies. Lucent acquiring

Ascend is a case in point. What are your comments? Do you think convergence will take off

in the near future?

Convergence of voice, data, and

video makes a lot of sense. But, commercial applications of convergence hold key to the

success of this technology. Making money out of this is critical.
COLOR="#016077">

Over the last one year, Cabletron has

acquired five companies in order to expand its product range. Are there any more merger

and acquisitions in the offing?

If we

believe that we have the right companies and right technologies in front of us, we will

continue to grow aggressively by making acquisitions
face="Times New Roman" size="2">.

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