Cisco Case Study
1. Study the networked supply chain concept as implemented by Cisco. What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an IT company that specializes in the selling of networking and communication products and services. It is a B2B company where they sell its products primarily to large enterprises and telecommunications service providers, but it also markets products designed for small businesses and consumers such as routers, modems, and home network management software. The products and services aim to transport data, voice and video communication within buildings and campuses as well as around the globe. The services include routing, switching, home networking internet protocol telephony, optical networking, security, storage area networking, wireless technology, access, network management software and service. (Source from: Cisco Annual Report 2004)
Cisco’s Strengths
Cisco’s success in the network industry can be directly attributed to its ability to summon vision and action to continually sharpen its business model for long term success. In 1993, Cisco realised it future growth would put its current manufacturing capabilities. Difficulties to in scaling the all of its supply chain would limit its ability to grow profitably. The firm created a model for a global supply network where it outsourced it logistics and manufacturing creating a “single enterprise strategy” with supplier through information sharing. (Source from Cisco website: Supply Chain Management by Barbara Siverts). This strategy made Cisco to work more closely with suppliers in the new product information and ensured that the whole supply chain worked off as one central demand forecast.
Figure 1: Source from Cisco website: Supply Chain Management by Barbara Siverts
From the case study, it mentioned that in 1996, introduced a new Internet initiative called the “Networked Strategy”, the strengths of this initiative is to introduce a single scheme system that
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an IT company that specializes in the selling of networking and communication products and services. It is a B2B company where they sell its products primarily to large enterprises and telecommunications service providers, but it also markets products designed for small businesses and consumers such as routers, modems, and home network management software. The products and services aim to transport data, voice and video communication within buildings and campuses as well as around the globe. The services include routing, switching, home networking internet protocol telephony, optical networking, security, storage area networking, wireless technology, access, network management software and service. (Source from: Cisco Annual Report 2004)
Cisco’s Strengths
Cisco’s success in the network industry can be directly attributed to its ability to summon vision and action to continually sharpen its business model for long term success. In 1993, Cisco realised it future growth would put its current manufacturing capabilities. Difficulties to in scaling the all of its supply chain would limit its ability to grow profitably. The firm created a model for a global supply network where it outsourced it logistics and manufacturing creating a “single enterprise strategy” with supplier through information sharing. (Source from Cisco website: Supply Chain Management by Barbara Siverts). This strategy made Cisco to work more closely with suppliers in the new product information and ensured that the whole supply chain worked off as one central demand forecast.
Figure 1: Source from Cisco website: Supply Chain Management by Barbara Siverts
From the case study, it mentioned that in 1996, introduced a new Internet initiative called the “Networked Strategy”, the strengths of this initiative is to introduce a single scheme system that
Bibliography: Stanley, E., Lisa, M., and Jeffrey, A. (2007): Supply Chain Management, From Vision to Implementation, Pearson Education: New Jersey. Cisco Company Profile Annual Report (2004): [Online] Available from: http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac49/ac20/ac19/ar2004/profile.html [Accessed on June 19, 2011] Siverts, B., (2001): Supply Chain Management Scott, B., (2001): The Cisco Skid: CIO magazine, August 10, 2001. [Online] Available from: http://www.cio.com.au/article/51757/cisco_skid/ [Accessed on June 25, 2011] Business Intelligence (2001): Managing the e-Supply Chain, Case Study: Cisco Systems http://www.business-intelligence.co.uk/PDFdownloads/esupply/Cisco.pdf [Accessed on June 20, 2011] Berinato, S., (2001): What went wrong at Cisco Duffy, Jim., (2011): Cisco’s 3 biggest weaknesses: Network World [Online] Available from: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/050511-cisco-weaknesses.html?page=1 [Accessed on June 30, 2011] Cisco Systems Inc [Accessed on July 1, 2011]