Las Vegas - A few years ago, network giant Cisco Systems, Inc. would have left Comdex to the computer vendors, but in the age of the Internet, Cisco's bread-and-butter products routers, hubs and switches - will be at the core of how all electronic devices interconnect in businesses and homes, said John Chambers, president and CEO of Cisco, in a keynote speech here yesterday.
Cisco is forecasting $15 billion to $20 billion worth of sales by 2000 as businesses, homes and schools hook up networked PCs and other devices to the Internet, Chambers said. In three years, every vendor at Comdex will have to have network connectivity for their products on display, he predicted.
"The Internet will change the way we live, play, work and learn," Chambers told a large crowd of Comdex/Fall '97 attendees this morning. Not only are businesses realizing the need to network with suppliers, partners and customers, home users and education officials also are ready to cash in on the networked world, he said.
The way forward for Cisco, Chambers said, is to partner with computer manufacturers, semiconductor companies, software developers and electronic device manufacturers to make sure that all hardware devices will be able to connect to the Internet and to each other. The company has made little secret of whose side its on, choosing to partner with Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., but this does not mean Cisco will make products that only work with the Windows/Intel platform, Chambers said. Connecting "unbelievably complex" networks based on heterogeneous hardware and software is Cisco's specialty, Chambers said.
"The more complex the networking market is, the better off we are," he said.
Companies that do not understand the importance of being networked to customers and business partners will ultimately suffer in the coming years, Chambers said. Traditional retailers must rethink the way they do business by offering value-added services to customers who actually come into the store instead of buying products online, Chambers said.
And it is not just businesses that need to put a lot of money and energy into networking. Educators need to get with the program and connect machines in the schools together over the Internet, Chambers added. Cisco, for its part, is pushing its Network Academies program that teaches high school students to install and maintain Cisco hardware, Chambers said.
Home users will not be far behind schools, he added. Many homes already have more than one PC, and the explosion of Internet devices in the home, such as set-top boxes and network computers, will only complicate matters, he said. Users will want to network all of the devices, with one source of high bandwidth shared by all of the machines, he said.
Right now, 85% of Cisco's revenues come from the corporate market - where it has surged ahead of competitors Bay Networks, Inc. and 3Com Corp. However, Cisco plans to focus more attention on the growing home and education markets in the next few years, Chambers said. The trend of more people working from home and in small businesses will drive the network requirements of these markets as well, he said.
But while Cisco now has a large lead in the network marketplace, it is not content to rest on its laurels, Chambers said. The company still views Bay, 3Com and Cabletron Systems, Inc. as formidable competitors, he said.
"We're the kind of company that makes [CEO and President of Intel] Andy Grove's paranoia look relaxed," Chambers joked, adding that he is not satisfied with Cisco's pace of growth and progress in any realm. To be even more successful, Cisco will need to become more nimble and quicker to get products on the market, he said.
At least one attendee was convinced by Chambers' vision.
"My boss wanted me to come back with a marketing plan, and I found it, the Internet is it," said Janine Schlador, senior account manager for Aries Technology, Inc., a computer manufacturer in Tempe, Ariz. Chambers really drove home how important the Internet will be for business, she said.
However, another attendee was less than thrilled with Chambers Internet-lauding speech.
"I didn't think anything he said was very new," said Robert Frommel, an intranet developer with the Sweden Post, the Swedish national postal carrier. "I had heard it all before and was a bit disappointed."
