CISCO SYSTEMS

Section – ‘A’ | Group - 7

 1. What was the model for IT Management in Cisco prior to January, 1994? What
were the weaknesses of that model?

Model for IT Management : UNIX-based legacy software package that included

financial,manufacturing & order entry systems.

Weaknesses of the model:

1. The model was unable to provide the degree of redundancy,reliability and

maintainability that was required.
2. No feature of making changes to the application in order to meet business needs.
3. The model had become too much complex,slow & customized.
4. The model was not ideal for a $1 Billion company that Cisco was.
 2. Why did Pete Solvik initially want to avoid an ERP solution? What was done to
address the concerns of Solvik and Redfield regarding ERP projects?
Reasons to avoid an ERP Solution:

1. Solvik wanted each department/function to come up with its own requirements and decision regarding the
application required.
2. Solvik also left the decision to the departments of the timing of the implementation & budgetary decisions related
to it.
3. He was concerned with the scale & size of ERP projects will become while implementing.

Following actions were taken to address the concerns:

1. Making an executable schedule of implementation & making the ERP project a top priority for the whole
company.
2. People were retrained in accordance to the ERP System in order to avoid alot of customization.
3. The whole ERP was to be implemented in one go instead of completing it in phases.
3. Why do many general / functional managers resist Information Systems such as
ERP? Why wasn't anyone willing to volunteer to lead the ERP project?

1. Managers have concerns that ERP implementation most of the times become mega
project.
2. They feared losing customization and reliability from projects
3. These systems are complex and installing them requires large instalments of money,
time and expertise
4. Companies fail to reconcile the technological imperatives of the Enterprise system
with the business needs of the enterprise itself
5. It pushes the company towards full integration even when a certain degree of
business-unit segregation may be in its best interests
6. It pushes a company towards generic processes even when customized processes
may be a source of competitive advantage
 4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of 'big-bang' ERP implementation
approach?
Advantages
1) Single integrated replacement for all
applications
2) Consumes less time to complete the process
3) Increased flexibility and better resource
utilization
4) Uniformity and efficiency will increase
5) Because it is a manufacturing company,
tying up with Oracle which had better
manufacturing capability than other vendors
proved beneficial for Cisco
Disadvantages
1) It will not allow a lot of customization
2) It was expensive to implement
3) People need to be trained to suit the new
work culture
4) There were huge number of business
processes that the software could not support
5) Oracle package would not adequately
support the after sales support needs of the
company
5. Was Cisco smart or lucky with the ERP implementation project? Why was there a
performance dip after cutting over to the ERP system?
Cisco was plain lucky with the erp implementation project. At first the system proved to
be disturbingly unstable. There was a problem with the hardware architecture and sizing.
Some things were seriously broken at big data volumes and Cisco had a huge database.
They did not test the system with a big enough database attached to it. Instead they had
run individual processes sequentially rather than at same time. Also, only partially loaded
database was used. When all processes were running together over a fully converted
dabatase, system lacked the capacity to process the required load. This led to a
performance dip of Cisco. But then they worked very hard for really long hours to get it
stabilized and they were successful. Initially they were not smart enough to test in the
right way but they were lucky over to get over this problem.
6. During ERP implementation, what did Cisco emphasis on: Speed and Action OR
Analysis and Planning? What is the justification?
Speed and Action
● Implementation was done in phases as priority
Reasons: through “rapid iterative prototyping” (Conference
room Pilots) prior to Big Bang
● There was shutdown for 2 days in Jan 1994, due ● The phases based rollout helps in recovering and
to failure in legacy systems tracking the errors and overall progress precisely
● Immediate requirements for change
● Need for flexible and scalable solution
● Buying individual packages was not effective

Action Plan:

● Assembled team in Feb 1994 (Cisco, Oracle,

KPMG and decided the need for erp solution
based on big bang in 9 months

“Okay, manufacturing wants to spend $5 or $6 million

dollars to buy a package and by the way it will take a year or
more to get in.’ was too much to justify.”- Randy Pond