Cisco Case Study Essay

b) Software programs combined with extensive customized programming updates / additions. The software and software customization industries both have numerous suppliers. However, given the complexity and uniqueness of such an information network, there are probably only a limited number of software and customization companies that can provide a carrier with a high quality system that is capable of smoothly integrating all the operation and customer service divisions. Furthermore, the switching costs have the potential to be extremely high because such a transfer could disrupt communication between the divisions, leading to poor quality service. In addition, the company would

1. At the start of the case, Cisco’s information systems are failing, yet no one steps forward to lead the effort to replace them. Why is this? Why were no managers eager to take on this project?

The reason 2013 intangible assets make up more of the total assets compared to 2013 intangible assets is due to the NDS acquisition that occurred in 2013

1a. How did Cisco find itself in trouble with regard to its intended IT prior to Brad Boston's arrival?

Completed research for several high dollar organizational systems and programs to identify best vendors, software, and resources needed to replace outdated technology or underperforming vendor services. Also administered as the lead implementation coordinator on behalf of the organization to provide oversight of vendor milestone deliveries and implementation.

1. Study the networked supply chain concept as implemented by Cisco. What are its strengths and weaknesses?

The ERP information management system consolidates all of the healthcare organization's operation into one simple, easy to use system by eliminating redundancy and decreasing repeated keying of the same information into multi-information systems so the organization can better process and manage information throughout the organization. In most healthcare organizations, the ERP information management system is used for finance, quality, inventory management, and procurement (Brooks, August 28, 2013) (Langabeer II & Helton, 2016).

The overall complication rates of ERCP in published trails vary from 4% to 15.9% with procedure-related mortality ranging from 0% to 1%. (Cheng et al., 2006).

Bombardier is the world’s only manufacturer of both planes and trains, it is present in more then 60 countries and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Both Bombardier Aerospace & Bombardier transportation employ over 70 000 and posted a revenue of over 18.3 billion in the fiscal year ended December 31,2011.

You will not be able to design new systems successfully without understanding the culture, politics, and structure of the organization. Culture is the fundamental set of assumptions, values and ways of doing things, that is accepted by most at the company. Parts of an org's culture can be found embedded in their information systems. If this changes and has a negative effect on the overall culture, much resistance will be found. For example, my employer currently doesn't monitor email usage, but if they began to do it many would feel untrusted and would resist the change. Politics within an organization is the head of the conflict line. So many perspectives, conflicts and compromises are given when it comes to information systems. As people in organizations occupy different positions at various levels and with different specialties, each has a naturally varied opinion of

The CIO might also have been influenced by the IT productivity paradox, which states that little or no performance effects are associated with increasing IT expenditures (e.g. Grover et al., 1998). The original solution was that all of the main functional areas are allowed to make their own decisions regarding the application and timing of the move from the old to the new application. By giving autonomy to the functional areas, conflicts associated with centrally mandated changes are avoided and the functional areas will also be allowed to pursue their independent initiatives, while reducing the risk of implementation project failure (Olson, 2004). Unfortunately, the functional areas showed resistance to change and Cisco's legacy environment started to deteriorate. As a result, on one day the Cisco's database was corrupted and business shut down for two whole days. It was now clear that the autonomous approach did not work and that a different approach was needed: the implementation of an ERP system.

The  focus  of  the  Board’s  decisions   was on the attainment of educational goals, and in the enhancement of the research reputation of the university. Success measures for educational initiatives were normally expressed in terms of student achievements, enrollments, and applications to the university. Success measures for research efforts were counts of the numbers of articles published and research grants received. Financial measures of success, when they were used at all, mainly comprised summaries of budgeted expenditures versus actual expenditures. With his MBA training and long business experience, Allen Carpenter found these traditional methods of project evaluation incomplete at  best,  and  superficial  at  worst.  Carpenter  had  set  out  to  change  the  approach,  and  largely  he   had succeeded. Now the university evaluated educational and research initiatives more like a

Systems integration is concerned and driven by the need to enable various isolated systems or components to be interconnected and act as one interconnected system while still ensuring the subsystems function as required. Businesses such as comp group enlist the expertise of consulting firms in this case Consco to advise the phases of the project.

Communicating between departments is extremely important for many businesses regardless if they are small startup or a fortune 500 company. Different forms of Software are key to this communication. A very specific system that has proven to do this the best is Enterprise Resource Planning, also known as ERP. Enterprise Resource Planning Systems integrate business management along with technology. There are many different areas and functions of an ERP system that include; Manufacturing, Finance, Human Resources, Accounts Payable, and Accounts Receivable. ERP systems have been known to save organizations time and money in many different ways. Although ERP systems have helped businesses integrate their multiple systems into one system there are also many disadvantages of ERP systems that businesses must be known before purchasing.

Page eight of the case begins to outline some of the challenges that the HP-Cisco alliance had already faced concerning the sale of joint products. For example, we learn that at HP, Cisco products did not count towards a sales representative’s quota and this resulted in a decline in sales of Cisco equipment by HP sales representatives. Further, if HP or Cisco sales staff had to master not only their parent company product line,