Cisco deepened its commitment in Sri Lanka with the launch of Cisco START- a new initiative specifically designed to help Sri Lankan SMBs build their digital foundation and become globally competitive.
This initiative is a demonstration of Cisco’s commitment to accelerate Sri Lanka’s digital transformation and showcase how digitization can fuel economic growth, world-class innovation, sustainable competitiveness, and prosperity.
A digitized country 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.
High-speed broadband coverage, rising adoption of mobile devices, proliferation of data, improving quality of connectivity as well as the expansion of logistics services and networks are breaking the geographical market barriers for Sri Lankan businesses and opening up new opportunities.
Cisco recognises that Sri Lankan small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are a critical industry which will accelerate Sri Lanka ’s digitization and create vast opportunities for economic competitiveness and job creation.
SMBs and midmarket account for almost 52% of Sri Lanka’s GDP and employ a workforce of over a million people making it one of the most critical high-growth segments in the country. With Sri Lanka looking to drive growth through digitization, SMBs have become an essential component of the country’s digital transformation journey.
However, SMBs face challenges such as access to right technology, lack of skill sets as well as high entry cost that limit their ability to scale and seize opportunities provided by digitization.
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.
As part of Cisco’s commitment to accelerate Digital Sri Lanka and support skill development, Cisco Networking Academy is engaged with several leading universities, the government, and Sri Lanka’s defence establishments.
Sudhir Nayar, Managing Director, Commercial Sales, Cisco India & SAARC said: “Sri Lanka is an important market for Cisco. The launch of Cisco START demonstrates our commitment to accelerate digitization of SMBs in Sri Lanka. SMBs play a vital role in driving Sri Lanka’s growth in this digital world.”
He further added “Digitization has emerged as the most transformative means to ensure growth and balance the socio-economic divide. It creates economic competitiveness, employment, increases GDP, improves public services, and enhances the quality of life of citizens. In Sri Lanka, we are partnering with leading service providers, banks, healthcare providers, as well the government in their digitization efforts.”
He also said that digitalisation also helps to reduce corruption due to its transparency.
Cisco is also streamlining the processes and incentives for its vast partner and distributor network in Sri Lanka. Commenting on the topic, Mukundhan Manimandiran, Director, Cisco said “Cisco is a 100% partner-led company, and we have over 100 partners in Sri Lanka. They significantly expand Cisco’s customer reach around Sri Lanka and Maldives with innovative solutions and services based on Cisco technology.”
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