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?
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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