Cisco’s Q1 2023 results have seen the company deliver its largest quarterly revenue in history.
During an investor call on November 16, Cisco reported revenue of $13.6bn for the first quarter, which is up six per cent year over year.
Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, also addressed reports that the company is “restructuring”, which could impact roughly 5% of its workforce, according to Reuters.
The company confirmed that the restructuring plan will begin in the second quarter of the fiscal year 2023 and will see some job losses.
Robbins commented:
“I would say that what we’re doing is rightsizing certain businesses.
“We’re really focused on resource moving into like in the enterprise networking space, accelerating our platform strategy.
“We will be making significant investments in security and beefing up our team there and the capacity to continue to innovate there.
“Those are important areas. And so, if you would understand, I’d prefer to wait and talk to our employees tomorrow about it.”
Cisco’s product revenue is up by 8 per cent; however, the company did see revenue fall on the collaboration side, which includes Webex by Cisco, of the organisation.
Scott Herren, Chief Financial Officer, Cisco, put the fall of two per cent down to a decline in meetings which has been partially offset by a growth in calling.
Collaboration revenue has been up and down for Cisco, with the company recently seeing its income fall for four consecutive quarters before it saw a slight growth in Q4 FY 2022.
Despite the slight fall in revenue during Q1, Robbins has committed to driving Webex forward and highlighted new partnerships with other companies as a way of doing so.
He added: “In collaboration, we announced more than 40 new innovations to power hybrid work and delivered exceptional customer experiences.
“We’re also committed to giving our customers more choice. An example of this is our partnership with Microsoft to bring Microsoft teams to Cisco meeting room devices.
“By doing this, we are driving interoperability and demonstrating our openness to meet our customer’s needs and provide greater flexibility.
“I actually am optimistic over the next 12 months about our collaboration portfolio. The team has done an amazing job. I truly believe that they built the best platform in the business.
“When you look at our devices and the interoperability that the team has been driving with the Microsoft interoperability, that is a huge thing from a customer perspective for us to give them that flexibility.”
Cisco’s partnership with Microsoft was announced during Microsoft’s Ignite event in October.
The companies revealed that Teams meetings would be available natively across Cisco meeting devices, allowing customers to make Teams their default meeting platform.
The first devices will be certified by early 2023, which include devices designed for small-to-large meeting room spaces: Cisco Room Kit Pro, Cisco Room Bar, and Cisco Board Pro 55-inch and 75-inch.
At its WebexOne 2022 event, Cisco announced updates to the Webex Suite, along with a new collaboration device and partnerships to help expand its collaboration footprint.
According to Cisco, the innovations have been designed to help customers navigate any challenges they face as offices reopen and give people flexibility over their working patterns.
The company has recently expanded its portfolio of specialisations which are available through the company’s partner program.
The solution specialisations are designed to showcase partner value to customers and highlight the different types of solutions that partners are selling in today’s market.
Cisco has put hybrid work at the forefront of its new specialisations, with four of the six new categories relating directly to hybrid work.
