Cisco Case Study Mist

Cisco’s organizational culture

The organizational culture for Cisco is a centralized organization which was introduced by John Morgridge after being appointed in 1988 as the New CEO.  Morgridge thought that organizations in Silicon Valley embarked on quick decentralization which led to loss of control (Cotteleer, 1988).  In this structure only two departments were decentralized, which include research and development and product marketing. Other functions in the firm such as human resources, manufacturing m finance and customer support remained centralized.  The centralization of the firm involved the establishment of various teams which formed part of the organizational hierarchy and the flow of various leadership functions from the top executives to the lower technical workers who implemented the various functions.

The culture in this firm involves the use various print media for communication purpose.  The choice for print media involves targeting of various magazines, newspapers, and others like financial and business publications where the message is tailored for a specific target for every type of publication. The communication as a form of organizational culture indicates how information is shared across the various departments and among the executives, the IT departmental leaders, business and IT consultants and the various users (Cotteleer, 1988). To relay information to the various stakeholders the publications are printed specifically to target the right recipients.  In the publications of financial statements, a bottom line approach is stressed to target the employees and shareholders of the firm who need information about its performance.  Communication with the external stakeholders involves trade publications where the advance nature of products is shared along with reasoning that they are the best in the market (Albadri, 2013). In addition, radio and television are used since they can reach a broader audience. To facilitate general awareness about the firm , advertisement have been widely used  by Cisco , and  such activities involves the participation of the various members in the leadership structure beginning with the CEO to the technical IT Staff.  Culture is also embedded in the Cisco Systems product line where there is vast connectivity, which allows the firm to provide a very broad solutions line for data, video and voice transportation in the whole organization. Training of the various teams in the departments can also be deemed as being part of this culture.  An important aspect in the organizational culture can be seen in the production line where it is expected that products have to be certified and hence, the existence of various programs for product satisfaction. 

IT structure

The IT structure for Cisco is based on the Oracle ERP product which offers new and friendlier interface for various users. The system makes it possible for client to access application by the use of web browsers. If a client wishes to use the application in a data center, they have to install client software in their computers.  The use of Oracle product has allowed the redirection of traffic dynamically and automatically which aligns with increasing need for SAN’s storage in the industry.  With the possibility that many servers may be installed without a replacement of the existing system, the requirement for storage is being met (Cisco, 2009).  There are also various locations for disaster locations such as in North Carolina and California.

Problems and Key issues

In the implementation of ERO systems there were various problems which were involved, and a major one involved convincing the board that the project could not become uncontrollable hence provides results that are sub-standards, while another one involved convincing them about the need for it to be funded.  The technical problems involved the sizing and hardware of the ERP system and the ability for it to handle all the volume for the transaction needed in the Cisco environment. The first problem arose from the purchase of the system on the  basis of promised capability instead of the necessary configurations which are required in a Cisco environment. The second problems resulted from how testing process us done, where data is tested by Cisco individually and the used database were partly used. A common reason for the problems is that the motivation factors depended on the present legal system that was failing which made the implementation process to be done under the constraint of time.  Another key issue is that the team needed the participation of the business community for the implementation process to meet their business needs and   strong partners who could help in the selection process and implementation of the whole process.

Answers to the questions

Where team got lucky

The several areas where the team got lucky includes getting KPMG to be their partner, the approval of the project by the board and having a dedicated team that wished to see the success of the implementation.  KPMG was willing to come on board and to exploit an opportunity for building business around the process of putting in the application. Unlike other firms that wanted to which could have brought many “greenies”, KPMG brought with it experienced people from the industry which is what, Cisco needed at this point in time.   The implementation team was very motivated and was ready to take advantage of experience available in the industry for building as much knowledge and skills as possible. In addition, the team was also lucky because it did not face fierce opposition from the board in regard o the cost and feasibility of the implementation of the whole process. Facing such opposition could have resulted to lack of timely implementation and even lack of implementation due to lack of funding.

Possible cost of the project

Given the large number of employees involved, 2500 and the various contracts issued to Oracle and KPMG, the income for Cisco would have been about $20, million for the whole project, given that the system replacement had cost about $15million without  adding other miscellaneous expenses.

Capacity to carry out another project

The Cisco team could undertake such a project again if needed arose, since they had acquired enough experiences on challenges they would face and how to navigate them in order to gain full to complete it. The experiences range from how to carry out selection process and the best players or partners to involve in the whole process.

Alternative solutions

For the team to implement the project, it had to build hardware infrastructure for installing the applications and looking out for a sizing solution. An alternative could have been for the team to purchase the whole system – hardware – on the basis of specific and predetermined configuration required to meet the daily operations of the firm. For the purpose of testing the software the firm could have used larger size of data base other than the daily database that was being used.  This use of larger database for testing the applications would ensure that despite the volume of transactions and data, the software would not have run into problems. In addition, the team would reduce the number of days needed for the system to stabilize. However, this could mean that the implementation process would take longer than expected time.

Management recommendations

The priority for reviving Cisco was fixing and implementing the ERP system and this should have been embraced by the whole management team and the board.  The installation of the new information system would ensure that the rapid growth of the firm and meet the expectation of the board, the management and the implementation team.  Winning commitment from Oracle and KPMG played a lead role in ensuring the success of the implementation process and the experience of outside team helped in fixing the problem.

Conclusion

A hitch in the functional areas of Cisco systems led to the deterioration of operations of the Cisco and a system replacement needed to implement. For Cisco to gain its previous position of, an efficient ERP system had to be implemented so that operations and growth can be maintained. The ERP systems aimed at helping the firm to occupy its position in the market and serve the needs of the business community. There was need for testing the system using a large amount of data before it could be implemented to assess its sustainability.  By involving experienced experts and partners such as KPMG and Oracle , business needs will easily be met .

 

Reference

Cotteleer, M., (1988). Cisco Systems INCL: Implementing ERP. Boston: Harvard Business School.

Albadri, F. A. (2013). Cases on enterprise information systems and implementation stages: Learning from the Gulf. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference.150-152

Cisco, (2009).How Cisco IT Implemented Organizational Change and Advanced Services for Operational Success .