Cisco Implementation of ERP
because of the lack of communication across functional teams. The ERP implementation went through several stages, with changes made and inputs given by many people from many departments.
2. The source of IT solution, the amount of money and the resources allocated to make the IT decisions, and the placement of IT implementation on the list of company goals all are proof points as to how important IT is to Cisco’s strategy.
IT proves to be so important to Cisco’s strategy that they turn to Oracle for solutions. Rather than fixing their current UNIX-based software, Cisco’s ‘significant growth prospects convinced’ the CIO that they needed a change and they look to outsource to another company that specializes in IT solutions. Although no company had ever solved a problem the size of Cisco’s, IT solution provided by the outside vendor needed to be in line with the growth (80% annually at that point) that Cisco was experiencing and projecting.
The amount of money spent on the Oracle package selected also proves the importance of IT to Cisco’s growth strategy. Not only did Cisco ‘pull people out of business that they absolutely did not want to give up’ for the first round of developing an ERP project team, they went back a second time and ‘again the team sought out the best for inclusion in the project.’ This shows that Cisco dedicated its best employees and took them away from their ‘real jobs’ to be part of the IT department for a while therefore reallocating is most valuable resources. The amount of money ($15 million) that the team asked for was almost frightening to ask for. It would not have been requested if IT were not critical.
Third piece of evidence that IT is one of the most, if not the most, important contributions to Cisco’s Strategy is the placement of the ERP Implementation on the Company Goal List. The first year, it was in the top 7 company wide goals. By year two, it was the number one priority, as ‘ERP project status became the number one agenda item for weekly executive staff meetings.’
3. Pete Solvik’s role as CIO was actually more similar to a CEO as he had to manage all areas of the company as they pertained to IT. Rather than just look after the Information department of Cisco, Solvik was responsible for the finance, marketing, manufacturing, etc areas response to the new ERP system. Solvik approached the problem of the ERP implementation with caution, but as soon as the failures in the current system were apparent, the approach became much more aggressive. Managing this project involved managing consultants, outsourced vendors, and internal teams of managers and superiors. He took a very decentralized approach to the role as evident in his choice of team members.