Nuzoo week in review

Cisco’s revenue boost

Cisco says its total revenue for Q4 “exceeded expectations” as it continues to battle supply chain challenges.

The networking giant’s latest trading update shows its fourth quarter and fiscal year results for the period ended 30 July 2022.

While the company matched its quarterly revenue from a year ago of $13.1bn, it beat analyst projections of $12.73bn.

CRN UK reported that Cisco concluded the fiscal year with revenue of $51.6bn - up three percent year over year - and a non-GAAP net income of $3.4bn.

“We had a strong end to our fiscal year thanks to our Q4 performance,” Chuck Robbins, chair and CEO of Cisco, said.

“Our teams executed well in the midst of an incredibly dynamic environment, resulting in the highest full year non-GAAP earnings per share in the history of the company.”

Robbins added that full-year product order and backlog are at “record highs” and reflect “strong demand”.

Product revenue performance was led by growth in end-to-end security (up 20 percent), optimised application experiences (up eight percent), and collaboration (up two percent).

Cisco also reported annualised recurring revenue at $22.9bn in Q4, up eight per cent year over year.

TD Synnex’s reorganisation

Distribution giant TD Synnex just announced some drastic personnel changes, starting with the exit of two top executives. Industry veterans Sammy Kinlaw and Chun Lee are leaving the company, reported Channel Futures this week. The pair oversaw the distributor’s North America CommunitySolv partner community organization.

Their departures are part of a company restructuring plan that moves oversight of the communities from the marketing team to sales. Under this plan, Kaye McMillan, vice president of sales development, will now head TD Synnex’s Communities team. Her title is vice president of partner communities and sales development.

“Sammy Kinlaw set [TD Synnex] up for future success by reviving the communities strategy and embracing true partner forward-thinking communities,” Janet Schijns, CEO, JS Group, told the publication. “The decision to move this into sales is simply a logical next step in the evolution of the communities for TD Synnex. [It is also a] testimony to both Sammy and Chun’s success in getting the communities strategy working for TD Synnex.”

SonicWall’s new CEO

CRN US this week reported on the changing of the guard at SonicWall. Bob VanKirk, the company’s chief revenue officer has taken over from Bill Conner, who had served as chief executive at the company since it was spun off from Dell Technologies in 2016.

Though Conner remains at the company as its new executive chairman of the board, both Conner and VanKirk made it clear in an interview with CRN that VanKirk will be responsible for the day-to-day operations at the 1,600-employee SonicWall.

“I’m still working but transitioning to just doing less day to day,” said Conner, who described his new position as that of a strategic advisor to VanKirk, a longtime friend and work colleague of Conner’s

Among the topics the two have been discussing of late: the company’s products lineup, and organic and inorganic sales growth.

In other words, there are possible acquisitions on the horizon for SonicWall, which is majority owned by private equity firm Francisco Partners. Elliot Management is a minority owner.

One thing is also clear: SonicWall intends to keep its traditionally strong channel partnerships – 17,000 of them in all – as strong as possible.

“We are 100 percent channel,” said VanKirk, noting he’s spent the past few weeks meeting with partners and company personnel as he settles into his new CEO role.