Thimaya Subaiya

Executive Vice President of Operations, Cisco

Search every verified Thimaya Subaiya interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Thimaya Subaiya, Executive Vice President of Operations at Cisco, has discussed the company’s approach to customer experience (CX) in interviews with eWEEK. In a 2022 conversation, he stated that the technology industry is “still getting started” in integrating CX into products, arguing that the focus has historically been on solutions rather than the customer’s overall experience. He described Cisco’s CX Cloud, an initiative that consolidates multiple customer dashboards into a single platform, which he said uses telemetry to predict network failures and provide automated remedial steps, while also offering access to human experts via chat or Webex. Subaiya emphasized that effective CX combines digital tools with human expertise, noting that customers value reassurance and immediate troubleshooting from specialists. In a 2021 interview, Subaiya traced the evolution of Cisco’s services organization into a customer experience group, highlighting the growing demand for services as a share of Cisco’s revenue. He said that digital transformation efforts, accelerated by the pandemic, have increased IT complexity and that talent is a key factor in managing this. He advocated for integrating digital and human interactions, stating that customers want both digital scale and a human touch. Subaiya also suggested that customer experience should be a company-wide theme rather than a single organizational function, calling it a cultural shift for businesses.