The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Amitabh Passi - UBS - Analyst
: Bill, while we wait for people to queue for questions, I wanted to touch on the organizational aspects that you talked about. Give us
an appreciation of what's changed, or what had to change at Cisco, given some of the architectural shifts you're helping your
customers strive for?
And then I think related to that I wanted to understand what sorts of conversations are you having with your customer base? What
sorts of advice are you giving them on the organizational side? And what sorts of changes are you seeing there? So both a Cisco
perspective and then a customer perspective?
Question: Amitabh Passi - UBS - Analyst
: Excellent and then just quickly on Verizon. I think just when many had forgot on Cisco had an optical business you bagged a pretty
significant win along with Ciena at Verizon.
Help us understand what do you think helped Cisco secure that win? What were your key differentiators in ensuring that win at
Verizon?
Question: Amitabh Passi - UBS - Analyst
: Excellent. Dina, can we check if we have any questions in the queue?
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Question: Amitabh Passi - UBS - Analyst
: Bill, maybe just on margins and profitability at a higher level. We know what generally the profitability levels are for some of the
pure play transport vendors in the market, call them the low to mid 40% gross margin range.
When we look at your platforms like the NCS4K that integrates some WDM and some packet, should we expect your margins to be
comparable to some of the transport players? Should it be higher than the transport players but maybe lower than your routing
platforms? Just any rough sense you can give us in terms of how to think about profitability?
Question: Amitabh Passi - UBS - Analyst
: Got it. How about the rest of the portfolio? You also, to some degree, have had a -- let's call it a vertically integrated approach. Your
own transceiver modules, you do your own custom silicon. Just maybe some appreciation of how you see the transceiver road map
for Cisco, and then how relevant are ASICs still as part of the Cisco portfolio, and as a differentiation for Cisco?
Question: Amitabh Passi - UBS - Analyst
: Bill, I think we have maybe about six minutes, maybe just a quick question on the market opportunity set. I think there was some
sense that Verizon may have been one of the last major RFPs to be awarded within the context of metro build-outs for converged
packet-optical systems. Just your sense, how do you see the opportunity set evolving, both domestically in the US, internationally
and where do you see web scale players fitting in, in this evolution?
Question: Amitabh Passi - UBS - Analyst
: Excellent. Dina, let's do one quick last poll. We're almost out of time if there are any questions?
Question: Tejas Venkatesh - UBS - Analyst
: Thank you for taking my question. I was curious, Bill, can you talk a little bit about the competitive environment? When you go into
accounts pitching the NCS4K, who do you come across most often?
Question: Amitabh Passi - UBS - Analyst
: Bill, Marilyn, I think we're actually two minutes over time. I really, really wanted to thank you for taking the time. I thought I would
only take 45 minutes, but I realize I took 62 minutes, so thanks again.
Question: Amitabh Passi - UBS - Analyst
: My pleasure, thank you.
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