Invitalia English Version

Cisco Systems opened its Italian branch in 1994; in 15 years Cisco Italy has grown up from 12 to nearly 700 people in five offices: Vimercate (Milan) the Italian headquarter, Rome, Turin, Padua and Monza, where is located the Cisco Photonics R&D laboratory created after the acquisition of Pirelli Sistemi Ottici (December 1999).

Cisco Italy is a player in the technological development of the Country supporting businesses (carriers, service providers, small and medium businesses) to create intelligent network infrastructures. We have a strong relationship also with Public Sector, helping administrations of every size to better serve Italian citizens and transform the e-government processes.
Our effort in Italy is huge and specially focused on IT skills development, through the training of highly skilled professionals, able to manage, use and develop advanced technologies in our Country. Examples of these activities are the R&D Centre Cisco Photonics, our cooperation with Universities on R&D projects and our Cisco Networking Academy Program, created to help foster access to education and professional opportunities around the world.

Cisco Networking Academy Program is dedicated to providing students with the education and resources they need to design, build, and maintain computer networks. In Italy, the program was launched in 1997; in our Country today there are 300 academies, with about 10.000 students who. These students are people that will be able to create, manage and improve the networking technologies of the future: this is our contribution to close the skills gap in professional IT sector and it is another example of our willingness contribution to our Country's development, helping to create a human capital made of skilled persons that will be able to face the technology transitions and the challenges of the future.
Cisco has in Italy one of the most extended network of Partners: we invest in their training with a broad range of dedicated programs for certifications and specialization, and we collaborate with them also delivering specialized services and financial solutions.
The most recent investment effort we made in our Country is the creation of Cisco Business Collaboration Centre, also known as "Customer Briefing Centre" opened on March 9th 2009.

How has the Italian market evolved during your presence here? (strengths and weaknesses)

In fifteen years we have lived through the transformation of Italian market going through the Internet age-new economy development and "bubble" of 2001. The arrival of the IP network gave a big boost to the Italian technology market, opening opportunities for Italian companies, and citizens, to interact with the world.
At the beginning of the 21st Century we also saw many examples of innovative companies that leveraged the new technologies to provide new high value services (i.e. IP innovative service providers).
Unfortunately, infrastructural investments (including some advanced fibre optic broadband deployment) have not been fully leveraged to provide high value applications and services the applications and services that can generate value. We see now Italy is as a Country looking for growth and improvement, but still with low overall investment rate in technology.
Further Low insufficient broadband penetration, limited use of technology and service offered impacted our Country competitiveness and slowed down innovation; we often found areas of low quality connections with difficulty to find the way to collaborate for creating a next generation network infrastructure.
Broadband is the ticket for entry to participate in the world economy: it enables collaboration, innovation and operational excellence, and is a key competition factor.

What does Italy represent for Cisco activities?

Our goal in Italy is not just investing for developing our business: the Our attention to business development is strictly linked to the attention for the development of growth opportunities in the Country. Italy is the third most important Country in Europe for Cisco Corporation, and a Country on which the company has great focus. We have been collaborating for a long time on e-government projects and on education.
Italy also hosts the leading global Research and Development Centre dedicated to optical networks, Cisco Photonics; Located in Monza, Cisco Photonics opened in year 2000; it has more than 200 researchers it and is a constant source of innovative solutions.
Cisco invests in creating opportunities for businesses and public administrations, helping them to understand the advantages and potential of technologies. In particular, we believe in collaboration technologies as the key factor to leverage productivity and efficiency: that is why we opened on March 9th 2009 at Vimercate headquarters our Cisco Business Collaboration Centre, a place to experience collaboration solution and a meeting place for research , business and public organization.
We also valorised innovation through our partnerships with IT companies, also in form of shareholding, as with Italtel, of which we have a 18% equity stake.
Cisco also valorises innovative entrepreneurial initiatives in different way; the company has many partnership with IT companies, also in the form of shareholding, as happened with the industrial operation that led Cisco to acquire a 18% equity stake in Italtel.

What are the opportunities the Italian market offers your industry in the next future? What are the segments with the best growth prospects?

The Italian market still presents has gaps in terms of innovation, technology presence and use. (i.e. only 50% of families have a Computer at home, and only 43% have internet access). This is true, not only in the consumer area but also in the enterprise and public administration environment.

On one hand, this gap, combined with the current limited level of IT investments versus most advanced economies (only 2.2% on average), represents a key issue for IT companies, which operate in a smaller and less dynamic market. On the other hand, however, this technology delay opens major market opportunities to provide new advanced solutions that can boost the competitiveness and growth of dynamic players.
In order to move on this path of modernization and innovation, major market opportunities will open for all those (digitalization, network society), the technology -systems that can provide efficiency and improved customer interaction (access to market, clients), will have major market opportunities,. We see a major potential for ), such as Collaboration technologies (Unified communication, TelePresence) for remote and mobility working), Video technologies (IPTV and Business video), Data Centre (virtualization, consolidation and energy optimization), Green technologies (energy savings), and Business Intelligence-ERP applications. All these technologies and solutions, have a major need and enabler: a strong, advanced, flexible, scalable and secure network. That is why thee Network as the platform, with the power of feeding every device and application, will be the major biggest area of opportunity, and the strategic element for our Country competitiveness looking forward.

How do you judge your relationship with the public institutions in Italy including Invitalia?

We created a strong relationship with Italian public institutions, adopting since our first move into the Country an approach based both on delivering solutions and on delivering advise and assistance in understanding technologies and their impact on public sector. We also contributed to the creation of IT skills in public sector, activating Networking Academy courses in many public organizations.
Our willingness to contribute to the general development of our Country is also a fact that helped us to have the trust of local and central administration. We think that all ICT players should act like this, helping to bridge the gap between the innovation plans and the ability to choose the right technologies and solutions to fulfil the objectives. In this particular situation of economic and social crisis, we strongly recommend public institutions not to stop their renovation plans and technology investments: not only because technology can help to save money and improve productivity, but also because a technology gap would be a serious problem for growth and competition in the future.
Public sector can be the starter of a revolution for Italy. Its technological innovation is a key factor: strong IT infrastructures, e-government services, digitalization of bureaucratic processes, education (for only 17% of Italian families do continuously use the web in Italy) create a favourable environment for private sector investments. In an economic turmoil like this, modernizing administration is needed to modernize the whole economy.
Italian Government believes in this approach too, as demonstrated by the launch of the E-Gov 2012 Plan. The need of a radical change towards modernity was invoked by the Prime Minister Mr. Silvio Berlusconi himself, at the opening ceremony of Cisco Business Collaboration Centre.
Mr. Berlusconi acknowledged us as one of the major players for the digital future of our Country and fully understood the value of "excellence - making" and of technological innovation of our initiative. At the opening ceremony we also had the privilege to host the Minister of Education and Research Ms. Mariastella Gelmini and the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Roberto Maroni.

What are your perspectives for future growth in Italy?

Cisco believes in Italian Market and sees opportunities of growth in many different ways. Technology in Italy is less developed than in other European countries and the economy suffers of the "two-speed" problem, separating Northern Italy regions from Southern Italy. This is a challenge but also an opportunity: it means that we can contribute to accomplish the needed change. Further Italian business is structured around Small and Medium Business companies (few very large global companies) that require efficiency, innovation and speed, to be able to compete with major companies around the world. Therefore, the Network, and the collaborative technologies, are a major opportunity for every Italian company to cover their gap in terms of productivity, competitiveness, and speed up a sustainable growth.