Cisco saw orders for its cloud contact centre portfolio triple in its last quarter, CEO Chuck Robbins has revealed.
Robbins was speaking as Cisco revealed quarterly numbers that saw overall revenue rise 16 percent year on year, but collaboration sales fall 12 percent.
Declining sales in the collaboration unit has been a recurring theme of recent quarters, but the contact centre has proved to be a silver lining.
Robbins also revealed that the collaboration drop has led to a change in approach, which has seen Cisco start to bundle Webex in with its other SKUs.
“This past quarter, we had very strong order growth in collaboration,” he said. “We had positive order growth in security as well.”
“So, for collab to be showing positive order growth, [it’s] really a by-product of the suites and leading with calling as the lead part of the suite.
“Then [there’s] also a big focus on cloud contact centre, which grew triple digits last quarter from an orders perspective. So, those are the things that we’re trying to do.”
Collaboration Turnaround
The collaboration sector experienced a decline primarily caused by reduced demand for products and meetings. There was some offset to this through the expansion of cloud-based calling and contact centres.
The growth in orders for collaboration and security has been positive, largely due to suites that include tools from these segments.
CEO Robbins believes that the best way forward is to sell these technologies via suites, and this is proof of that.
He has already provided a clear indication of what the collaboration suites will look like. Calling will take the lead part of the suite, with a strong focus on the cloud contact centre due to its growth in orders last quarter.
Future Guidance
With this new strategy factored in and weighed against its larger portfolio, Scott Herren, Chief Financial Officer of Cisco, provided the company’s guidance for the next quarter, Q1 2024, as well as for the whole year.
Anticipated Q1 revenue is $14.5-$14.7B, below Q4’s $15.2B. However, it’s still higher than Q3’s $14.6B, which was a 14% YoY increase.
Revenue projections for fiscal year 2024 range from 57 to 58.2 billion, exceeding last year’s earnings of 57 billion.
A Tricky Year
Like other big tech companies, Cisco has dealt with financial challenges, pandemic-related market changes, and layoffs due to internal restructuring.
The company announced a round of layoffs in November, resulting in the termination of 4,000 employees. The layoffs were partly aimed at rescuing the security and networking segment.
In January, the company carried on with its layoffs and let go of 700 additional employees.
Last month, Cisco was also alleged to have made further layoffs with business units, including Webex and Cisco Collaboration.
