I’ve had customers who have not renewed their subscriptions. I thinks this is big big problem for the next couple of years. compulsory “attach” of a license when selling a box (which then included in the Cisco “software” and “renewable” number reported to Wall street) is not the same as selling license on its own merits. We don’t think like a software business does. I foresee a lot of layoffs when the numbers do not add up in the next year or two. Hope I’m wrong. We need to bring in new senior software people into Cisco and think differently and appoint CTO. Shame because I think network really can be transformative but we need to market that message differently and more simply. We try to be all things to all peoples and it not works. Cisco can be great again but needs to think differently.
5 replies (most recent on top)
Business transformation and digital transformation. Execu-speak buzzwords that are meaningless. When your title is this you know it is a total bogus role.
The "cliff" is real. Look at the hustle to appoint a CxO in charge of "transformation". Heard recently that the expectation is that revenue from subscriptions ... erm ... recurring revenue will increase by around 50% by 2025. I'm glad I was muted because I nearly hurt myself laughing. We force marched customers to by subscriptions when buying boxes and almost every one I talked to thought this was usury. Now those subscriptions are expiring and with MM's "great" Customer Success organisation MIA (did they actually ever do anything?) now TS gets to take his turn at bat but since he still reports to MM I don't expect much will come of it.
Cisco is the Credit Suisse of the tech industry…
Worked in renewals and quit because of this “cliff” in the near future. I did not want to be at the center of this when sh-t hits the fan.
The issue is the transition to this model. Sales was pushed to sell more software versus hardware one year back and that failed for two reasons - 1. the systems to support the effort did work. 2. Cisco still needed the revenue from the hardware to report to the street. We(Cisco) are putting a lot of effort into financial modeling to improve the stock price....not sure how that helps those without much stock.