Cisco to open software development center in Taiwan

Taipei, Jan. 13 (CNA) Cisco Systems Inc., an American IT, networking and cybersecurity solutions provider, said on Wednesday that it will open a software development center in New Taipei's Linkou District, making the facility the first of its kind for the company in the Asia-Pacific region.

The software development center in northern Taiwan is scheduled to be inaugurated after the Lunar New Year holiday, which will end Feb. 16, George Chen (陳志惟), senior vice president of Cisco's Greater China operations and head of Cisco Taiwan, said at a news conference in which the U.S. tech giant released a workforce report.

Echoing Chen, Robert Feng (馮志良), chief technology officer of Cisco Taiwan, told reporters that the software development center will house tech start-ups from around the country.

With the assistance of his company's presence, these Taiwanese firms are expected to speed up their pace of product development, he added.

In the initial stage, Feng said, the software development center will be aimed at rolling out solutions for information security by integrating the resources of Cisco and the start-ups.

In the longer term, he went on, Cisco will team up with these start-ups to push for new applications in the global market.

According to Cisco, the company already operates similar software development centers in the U.S. and Europe.

Meanwhile, Chen said that when he assumed the post as head of Cisco Taiwan three years ago, the company had a workforce of about 60 in the country, a number that has now grown to more than 100, focusing on a wide range of areas such as information security, IT services and 5G networking.

Citing the workforce report, Chen said the year of 2020 presented a big challenge to enterprises in Taiwan and their employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to the company to have employees work from home.

After such an adjustment to curtail infections, however, Chen said, many employees in Taiwan said they have been very positive toward working remotely, as they have found they have been able to work more efficiently.

According to the workforce report, 49 percent of the employees polled said they got more energized while working from home, 39 percent of them said they became healthier and 37 percent said they became happier.

The workforce report showed that before the pandemic, only 7 percent of employees in Taiwan worked remotely.

Since the pandemic, 71 percent of them said online work has boosted their independence, 71 percent said they used teleconferencing more often than ever and 70 percent agreed that communications could be improved through new technology.

The report analyzed data collected from more than 14,000 employees in 14 markets in the Asia-Pacific region with remote working the focus of the questions asked, according to Cisco.