Cisco Systems: Web-Enablement Case Study

Customer self- service: Cisco always treat their customers as the cornerstone of their business. Cisco website was the centerpiece of this strategy as cisco.com was an credible, encyclopedic , web based resource for the information and applications. cisco.com has been the customer’s destination to get answers for their questions, to find assistance to network problems, and to receive responsive, 24/7 customer service. In addition, in order to go globally, Cisco translated its website to 17 different languages for its international customers in nearly 68 countries. A statistical proof for the success that customer self - service achieved is that over than 80% of the company

After investing $15 million implementing an ERP system, Cisco spent the next two years investing $100 million in web-enablement initiatives. Why did they do that? How did standardized web protocols contribute to the success of these efforts?

When John Chambers assumed the CEO position, he outlined some very specific objectives for Cisco’s future success. His plans included creating a one-stop shop for business networks by creating a comprehensive product line, to make acquisitions an efficient business process, to create industry-wide software standards for networking, and to choose the right strategic partners. All of these efforts would change the way companies and industries operated by creating an infrastructure of networked voice, data and video.

Our Supply Chain Consultant will work with client organizations to improve their supply chain and logistics performance, reducing their cost structure and\or improving their capabilities. These improvements are realized through initiatives involving strategic planning, process re-engineering, and/or information technology implementation. Our Consultant will execute a wide range of projects which include: logistics network design, facility (plant or warehouse) rationalization, plant and warehouse design, operational assessment, technology/software selection and solution implementation. Typical project tasks will include data gathering, data analysis, process mapping, defining requirements, current situation or baseline establishment, alternative scenario creation and analysis.

In this project, we will be studying Canadian Tire Auto Services’ main supply chain strategies. Canadian Tire provides many automotive services for their clients with many locations across the countries. Our goal for this project will also be to look into Canadian Tire’s logistics operations, their process of supplier selection, and evaluation. We will also look to study their use of the latest IS/IT innovations. We will then conclude our project by realizing the importance of supply chain management integration, as well as, the challenges and practices within a global supply chain.

Due to the large quantity of freight and the long distance that it must travel to arrive to its destination exporters and importers alike have found logistic service providers essential to engage in international trade (Rodriguez, Comtois, Slack, 2013). While some Logistics service providers focus only on the area of transportation others specialize in freight consolidation, distribution management, and warehousing (Robinson, 2014). They have enough market knowledge, information and communication systems to offer supply chain solutions tailored to the specific needs of any company be it small or large (Rodriguez, Comtois, Slack,

– Scott Berinato, CIO August 01, 2001 There’s Cisco Before and Cisco After, and the two crossed paths, awkwardly, this past April. Cisco Before was CFO Larry Carter writing in April’s Harvard Business Review about the San Jose, Calif.-based company’s "virtual close" software. "We can literally close our books within hours," Carter boasted in the article. "More important, the decision makers who need to achieve sales targets, manage expenses and make daily tactical operating decisions now have real-time access to detailed operating data." Cisco’s decision makers possessed a

In the past, the customer service key role has been answering inquiries, processing purchase orders and expediting orders. Recently, we have invested a lot of effort to facilitate this transition by providing continuous product knowledge trainings and seminars. This change has helped us service our customers from a sales perspective.

Cisco Systems accomplished its management functions by integrating its networked system with hiring practices- many of the company’s skilled and talented employees, most of whom have a high level of education required for the specialized field of networking, are garnered from the internet.

Boston believed that “standardization has to be seen in the context of something that is gained.” (Glaser, p.33). There were many projects going on that didn’t benefit the business and needed to be put on pause. Boston’s highest priorities were to upgrade the Oracle ERP system, develop a single, master customer database and establish an enterprise reporting and BI solution. (Case study, p. 5). First, the upgrade would impact all the other systems that were added on and it needed to be done very carefully and strategically. Culture was a problem. The IT funding model needed to change because managers were used to doing what they wanted as far as what technology they were implementing. If they were going to standardize cross functionally, then they had to stop creating customized tools. Boston decided that the business units would no longer be in control of their own destinies and instead each needed to contribute resources to the larger good of the organization. (Case study, p. 6). Everyone needed to be accountable, even the corporate IT function that in the past would do whatever the business unit asked. Boston’s solution was to break down the allocation into three categories: infrastructure, application development and direct charge items. Corporate IT would control the infrastructure, keeping the business units in control of application development and direct-charge funds. (Case study, p. 6). Everyone needed to contribute to companywide initiatives. It

Their strategy is to focus on low-cost, high service logistics. To manage the logistics of the business they utilize the following systems; web-order system, warehouse management system, order processing system, warehouse control system and RIMMS a dynamic route optimizer solution from Descartes Systems.

Cisco is an abbreviation of San Francisco and founded in 1984. The founder is Leonard Bosack along with his wife Sandy. Its symbol illustrates us that it is built for human network. Its mission and goal is to shape the future of the Internet and create unprecedented value for customers, employees, investors, and ecosystem. Its vision is to change the way we work, live, play and learn. CISCO played more significant role on Internet development and provide infrastructure of the Internet. It provides broadest range of the solutions of Internet connectivity and offers tools to manage the Internet sites. It develops and sells networking products and related communications technology based on the Internet Protocol. It provides

Just because a customer desires certain functionality or a service from the network, does not necessarily mean it’s feasible or good for the entire network health. Halamka learned that he will be selective in the future and have Cisco evaluate and test whether or not new implementations will negatively impact the network.

(Bowersox, D.J., Closs, D.J., and Cooper, M.B. (2010). Supply Chain Logistics Management. (3rd Edition) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

According to Chambers, Cisco CEO, the company is all about the network not a single relationship. Their ultimate goal is to be a comprehensive Internet solutions provider. In order to achieve this goal, Cisco expanded both products and markets through employment of acquisition strategies and associated management structure adjustments. These are elaborated in the following sections.