Cisco November sales meet estimates

Speaking today at his company’s annual analysts’ conference, Cisco CEO John Chambers reported that November sales met expectations. However, despite the good news, Chambers stressed that visibility is still low.

“Visibility is still very tight,” he said. “What you’re going to see us focused on is the available market.”

A big chunk of that focus will be placed upon the ILEC market. While Cisco has done well among foreign carriers and domestic IXCs and competitive carriers, the company must pay greater attention to domestic incumbents, Chambers said.

“We did not do a good job with the ILECS inside the U.S.,” he said. “One of the challenges that Bill [Nuti, Cisco’s senior vice president for worldwide service providers,] is focused on is how do you build that trust with the operational people.”

Given the tone of his presentation, Chambers believes that trust will be won in a time of transition. All carriers, he said, now realize they must wean themselves off voice revenue as end-users become more data-centric. As this happens, Web applications will change business processes and cultures.

“We’re going to figure out which applications have the staying power and which do not, and we’ll learn that over time,” said Chambers.