...Raymond Braselman Cisco Systems Case 1. Cisco’s management was very reluctant to significantly alter the structure of their IT system, even though the system was consistently failing. There were a few reasons for this reluctance. First, Pete Solvik, the CIO of Cisco at the time, was hesitant to even consider an ERP system in the first place, because he believed that each functional silo of Cisco should decide which applications it utilized (while also using common architecture and databases to accommodate the disparate systems, which complicated matters). Then, this attitude became pervasive among other managers, because most were concerned that implementing a large scale ERP system would disrupt business operations too drastically for such an implementation to be practical. 2. Once Cisco’s managers realized that their IT system needed a major overhaul, they became very focused and dedicated. One of the first aspects that led to the implementation’s success was convincing the Board of Directors of the need for an ERP system and to commit to the project, setting a “tone at the top” that established the project as a company-wide priority. This led to Cisco being able to develop an implementation team comprised of experts. From the beginning, Cisco leveraged the experience of others, and eventually prompted KPMG to become involved, not only during the actual implementation, but also throughout the drafting of the RFP and the consideration of different vendors...
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...John Morgridge joined Cisco as a CEO in the year 1988. The very first thing he notices in the organization was the lack of professional management team. Initiation for professional management team was the first kick off for the organization. Professional management is considered to be the foundation of any big organization and Cisco started with this thereby sticking with the fundamentals. The professional team clashed with the founders ending up them leaving the company and giving a free hand to Morgridge to handle the organization in a disciplined manner in terms of management. Cisco as an organization started off with a very positive note thereby centralizing the functional areas. Except product marketing and research and development all the other areas (finance, human resources, manufacturing, IT, customer support etc.) were centralized. Although the initial changes in the organization doesn’t claims to the success factor for future implementation, but yes it certainly add a bit to It thereby streamlining the management with a transparent and clear view to proceed. The company was doing extremely well after going public in 1990 and in 1993 reaching the $500 million target. From this it can be clearly seen that the company was in a rapid move to success from the moment it became public in 1990. Analyzing the requirements in the right stage and planning for it is the first initiation which stands for cisco’s success. The need was addressed with respect to the future growth...
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...Khosrow-Pour © 2009, IGI Global IGI PUBLISHING ITJ 4874 implementing “Customized” Erp in nine Months and within Budget Avimanyu Datta, Washington State University, USA Cisco systems: ExECutivE suMMary This case illustrates the importance of vendor selection, top management support, and team structuring in implementing a complex ERP system. While most organizations choose the de-facto brand as their product, Cisco and its consulting partner, KPMG, went against this perception and selected Oracle who was a newcomer in ERP business. For Oracle this was a golden opportunity to enter a market dominated by SAP and get its ERP modules litmus tested by an industry leader. Cisco on the other hand agreed to help Oracle to market its latest releases to potential customers, in lieu of the successful implementation. Oracle even allowed changing some of its modules to fit Cisco’s purposes. The implementation team comprised the best people from Cisco, KMPG and Oracle. To have the customized ERP up and running in nine months the team blended the robustness of sequential life cycle model with the flexibility of the iterative prototyping. [Article copies are available for purchase from InfoSci-on-Demand.com] Keywords: Cisco; Contract Negotiation; ERP Implementation; Information Systems Project Management; Oracle; Systems Development Lifecycle; Top Management Support orGanization BaCkGround Cisco Systems, Inc. was founded in 1984 by two computer scientists from Stanford University...
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...functional organization structure to scale without sacrificing control during high levels of growth - Install resource planning systems that smoothen company processes (don’t mirror old inefficient practices) - “Global Networked Companies” experience higher productivity and profitability - Standardization of Internet business solutions across functional areas leads to increased competitive advantage and shareholder value More in-depth Summary I. Cisco Systems Architecture: ERP and Web-enabled IT a. Company vision i. Pioneer ”New World Network” where voice calls are free over the Internet ii. Cisco = “Internet experts: the Global Internet Company” b. Company background i. Founded by two Stanford scientists in 1984 / went public in 1990 ii. Dominates “Internetworking” Market iii. March 27, 2000, Cisco overtook Microsoft as most valuable business on earth (market cap of $531 billion) iv. Cisco core technologies 1. Began with routers (what make the computer work) 2. Now challenging world of three independent proprietary networks 1. Phone networks (voice) 2. Local and wide area networks (data) 3. Broadcast networks (video) c. Industry Trends -> Digitization i. Digitization enables convergence of three networks...
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...the ERP project in the board of directors, he introduced the project to all the employees, so that employees of the company knew that the ongoing project was the highlight of the company, thereby it reduced the resistance to reform. Second, CISCO Systems, Inc. retained a centralized management of the functional organization structure to ensure a stable organizational basis for promoting a significant innovation. Third, a powerful elites team. The project team composed of excellent IT elites, and organization motivated them efficiently in order to make them respond to the challenges actively. Fourth, Strong sense of responsibility and strong support came from the partners. CISCO chose the larger and stronger companies to be the partners in order to reach the win-win situation. CISCO chose KPMG as the integrated partner was based on the company's experience talents who have excellent professional knowledge and rich experience. As Cisco’s ERP software vendors, Oracle Corporation has stronger production capacity than other vendors, it has the ability to meet the standard of Cisco’s implementation of ERP project; at the same time, Oracle made a commitment about the long-term development of software package function. Fifth, the company’s advanced management idea and efficient operation pattern. The team's implementation strategy employed a development technique referred to as "rapid iterative prototyping." 2) What were the most important things that Cisco managers...
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...Cisco Case Analysis Cisco is a company with a clear vision and an ambitious goal of becoming the global Internet expert. The company set its sights on challenging the norm of the time and working on making voice calls over the Internet free. Established in 1984 by two Stanford graduates, Cisco became the most valuable business on earth by March 2000. The company’s strategy is to provide a complete solutions offer to its customers through offering a wide product range and growing the business through acquisitions and business alliances. From its original core technology of routers, the company is now focusing in three independent networks of phone, local and wide area and broadcast networks. The turnaround point for the company was its database failure and forced two-day shutdown in 1994. This event highlighted the need to change company’s approach to systems replacement and the need to integrate all of company’s applications. The company decided to adopt new practices and retrain its staff rather than mirroring the “old and tried”. The decision was made to collaborate with Oracle to develop a single ERP solution to replace all current systems. The project was a success and was followed by replacement and standardization of all company’s platforms and applications worldwide. Further to this project, Cisco web-enabled all its applications, resulting in customer service, HR and supply chain efficiencies. Cisco’s success continues and is being made possible by its growth through...
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...Cisco Systems, Inc.: Implementing ERP [HBR case #699022] Reviews Cisco System's approach to implementing Oracle's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product. This case chronologically reviews the diverse, critical success factors and obstacles facing Cisco during its implementation. Cisco faced the need for information systems replacement based on its significant growth potential and its reliance on failing legacy systems. The discussion focuses on where management was particularly savvy in contrast to where it was the beneficiary of good fortune. Cisco was highly successful with its enterprise resource planning (ERP) effort. What accounts for this success? What were the most important things that Cisco did correctly? Cisco’s success is greatly attributed by its 100% dedication of their teams to complete this project. It started with the senior management team approval and support. This includes its core ERP team of 20 which expanded to 100 after the board approval. Also included is the Executive Steering committee which also worked countless hours to meet this deadline. Even the hardware vendor who was an executive sponsor probably had 30 people on site at one point. This big financially but it was a great reference for them. The core ERP team represented a cross section of Cisco’s business community who were experts in its field . They were very structured and organized dividing the large 100 team into 5 process area teams or ‘tracks’. Each track had a Cisco...
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...Routing the Path to End-To-End Communication An Analysis of Cisco Systems and how the use of Information Technology gave them a Competitive Advantage Mira Vissell ISM 158 Business Analysis Paper March 4th, 2004 Table of Contents Objective Section I: Industry Summary: An Analysis of Network Equipment Industry A. Industry Profile B. Competitive Strategies within the Industry C. Porter Model Evaluation of Industry Forces D. Globalization of the Industry E. Importance of Information Technology in the Industry Section II: Company Perspective: An Analysis of Cisco Systems A. Cisco Systems profile B. Market and Financial Performance C. Competitive Strategy Statement D. Significance of Information and Information Systems E. Strengths and Weaknesses of Cisco Section III: Structured Analysis of Information System Use A. Strategic Option Generator B. Roles, Roles and Relationships C. Redefine/define D. Significance of Telecommunications E. Success Factor Profile Section IV: A Final Analysis of the Success of Cisco Systems A. The Success of Business Strategy and IT used to Date B. The Effective Position of the Company for Future Performance Bibliography Objective The objective of this paper is to analyze how Cisco Systems gained competitive advantage in the networking industry through the use of information systems and key business strategies. ...
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...UniversityRobert W. Starinsky, InstructorWinter Quarter, 2004 | ERP Implementation Report of Findings and Recommendations CISCO Systems, Inc. Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Background and Scope 2 ERP Implementation scenario 2 Situation Analysis 3 Conclusion and Recommendations 4 Background and Scope Cisco System, Inc is a Computer Technologies company that was founded in 1984. The company’s primary product is the “router.” The router is hardware and software that control Intranet and Internet traffic. With the growth of the Internet, Cisco products became in high demand. In 1997 Cisco was ranked among the top five companies in return on revenues and on assets. Cisco has been classified in the same category of successful companies as Microsoft and Intel. With the growth of Cisco, their computer systems were unable to handle the increase volume. The Cisco legacy system was a Unix-Based software package that supported its operations of: Financial; Manufacturing; and Order Entry. The system lacked reliability and the ability to expand. Eventually in January 1994, Cisco’s legacy computer system malfunctioned corrupting Cisco’s central database. The company was practically shutdown for two days. As Cisco struggle to recovered from the major shutdown, the company realized that they needed to act quickly and elected to implement an ERP system. Little over a year later, Cisco successfully implemented an ERP system from Oracle. This report has been requested by...
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...Cisco Systems, Inc.: Implementing ERP Introduction Cisco Systems Inc. was founded in 1984 by two of Stanford University’s computer scientists. In 1990, a matter of just six years from the start-up date, Cisco became publically traded. With the massive growth of Internet Technologies, demand for Cisco products increased dramatically, resulting in Cisco dominating the marketplace. The contributing factor to Cisco’s dominating presence in the market is due to the company’s primary product, the “router”. This is a combination of hardware and software that acts as a traffic cop on the complex Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks that make up the internet as well as corporate intranets. TCP and IP networks provided a robust standard for routing messages between LANs and created the potential to connect all computers on an ever-larger Wide Area Network (WAN). Financially, the company experienced consistent growth from July 30, 1995 up until July 25 1998. Using figures provided in Exhibit 1 of the case study, it can be calculated that Net Sales increased a whopping 279% from 1995-1998. The year 1997 proved to be a milestone for the company. It was the first year for the company to feature on the Fortune 500 list. Cisco was ranked among the top five companies in return on revenues and return on assets. Some industry pundits predicted Cisco would be third dominating company alongside Microsoft and Intel, to shape the digital revolution. The reasoning...
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...Story Cisco Systems Inc. is a worldwide computer networking company based out of San Jose, California. From Cisco’s beginning they as a company aimed to connect all members of the supply chain. Cisco’s initial product was the router, which contained an operating software called Internet Operating System (IOS). This product launched Cisco as a company and led to their future goal of a completely integrated supply chain. The first integration, a customer support site, came a year after the router was launched and it allowed customers to download and upgrade software as well as technical support through e-mail. This support center continued to grow through the early nineties and was eventually replaced by a customer support system on their website. The customer support system was continually added to and by 1995 it included; company and product information, technical and customer support, and most importantly it introduced the ability to sell products and services online. Cisco’s main desire behind this system was to streamline the process of customer support and allow the information to more easily utilized. In 1996, Cisco implemented another Internet application called “Networked Strategy,” this introduced online order entry and allowed the information to flow through Cisco’s supply chain. The order information was sent to Cisco’s ERP system which in turn sent it out to the various suppliers and manufacturers, allowing for a very efficient process. Cisco continued...
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...| | Assignment: Enterprise IT at Cisco Case Write-Up | Summary: Enterprise IT at Cisco Systems is an interesting case that demonstrates what happens when a company’s IT infrastructure is decentralized. In the case of Cisco, the word decentralized was demonstrated in how the individual departments conducted business in their own ways and not in conjunction with other business functions. At one point, this approach was encouraged as it was believed to allow departments, and the people running them, the ability to avoid company politics, to ensure their priorities were met, and to encourage each department and individual the opportunity to be creative and innovative, which is a fundamental component of Cisco’s company style. Brad Boston, CIO of Cisco, believed that it was possible to retain that company attitude of innovation in a more centralized manner to decrease redundancy and formally integrate systems. While there was a great deal of pushback from employees, and the full centralization will take a great bit of time, Boston was making the best choices for the company. 1. How did Cisco find itself in such trouble with regard to its internal IT in 2001? Why didn’t the single ERP system help more? Why didn’t this ensure more consistency? As briefly mentioned above, Cisco found itself in such trouble as a result of allowing every department and employee operate freely and with little regard for what others were doing. As stated on page 4 of the case study, “Boston...
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...Cisco systems Architecture: ERP and Web-Enabled IT Case Introduction and Background and analysis of the Business Cisco Systems, a Global leading company that manufactures and markets Internet Protocol (IP) equipment, uses routers to send digital and voice data over the Internet. Founded in 1984 by three former Stanford University Students, Cisco first found early success by targeting Government agencies, Universities, and the Aerospace industry. In 1998, Cisco began targeting big businesses and other agencies. Cisco did their Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 1990. However, disagreement between founding partners led to two of the founding members parting ways with the company. In 1994, Cisco suffered another major setback: “Cisco’s legacy environment failed so dramatically that shortcomings of the existing systems could no long be ignored” (Nolan, 2005, p.4). However, after costly repairs and creating a brand new IT platform architecture, Cisco was able to recover and continued to move forward. Cisco immediately began expanding by acquiring smaller entities which expanded the company’s market share. In 1998, Cisco successfully reach the coveted $100 billion landmark. Over the next two years, Cisco continued to expand and “acquired more than 20 companies, including wireless network equipment maker Aironet. With a market capitalization exceeding $500 billion, Cisco enjoyed a turn as the world’s most valuable company in 2000” (Hoover, 2012, p.1.) Cisco’s product’s mix includes;...
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...Cisco Systems ERP – Case Study Andree Grecchi Hawai’i Pacific University 2/19/2014 IS 6005 Professor: Ken Rossi Table of Contents Who is Cisco? 2 Prehistorical Infrastructure 4 Seeking for a new start 4 Evaluation 6 Conclusion 7 References 8 Who is Cisco? Cisco is one of the most powerful and successful corporation in the IP network industry. In the fiscal 2013 their revenue totaled $48.6 billion and their Net Income was $10.0 billion (Cisco 2013 Annual Report). Cisco focuses on delivering products and services that consists in integrated networks for all forms of communication and IT. They provide their customers with an integrated architectural approach that gathers application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) software, hardware, and services. In December 1984 Cisco Systems Inc. was founded by two computer scientist at the Stanford University, Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, husband and wife. The two lovers wanted to communicate by email from their respective offices, but at the time different local area protocols communications didn’t exist. As a result the first multi-protocol router came out. Since then Cisco lead the networking market allowing “the transportation of voice, data and video within buildings, across campuses and around the world” (Cisco 2013 Annual Report. P.1). This is possible thanks to the routers, its core technology. A router is a device that joins multiple networks together, it allows the connection...
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...t Introduction: Event management is basically an organization responsible for conducting events like conference, product launch, seminars, ceremony etc as per the requirement of the customer. Basic task: Prepare event design, finding a site/place, arranging a food décor, pickups and accommodation, coordinating activities etc The number of task that would be undertaken would depend upon the size and theme of the event. Purpose: Is to put customer at ease by providing management services to customers like accommodation, sending invites, certificate distribution, setting up platform etc. The main focus of the company is to come up with the successful events without any hiccups and without consuming much of the customer’s time. Customers often lack the expertise and time to plan the event and thus hire event management companies to manage the event on their behalf so that they could solely focus on their work. Type of market: cooperate market and social market Cooperate market includes seminars, conferences, charities collection, trade show, company picnic, meeting of board members and stockholders Accounting market of events Profit margin, expenses and deal with customers for gain,(rent of place, service charges, one person serving for catering services, transportation charges, décor expenses tent reception, entertainment and accessories, printing charges, accommodation charges, contingency fund (if something went wrong then in that case we could use that fund...
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