Enterprise IT at Cisco 2004 - Coursework Example

 Enterprise IT at Cisco (2004) 1 Introduction 1 IT Governance at Cisco 2 Role of BPOC (Business Process Operating Committee) 5 Considerations for Projects at Cisco 6 Conclusion 8 Works Cited 9 Enterprise IT at Cisco (2004) Introduction Cisco is a large company that has gone through many phases of success and achievement. While expanding their business functionalities and their business, they also have to go through some problems. The company is very large and is an international company and had employed thousands of employees for their business transactions. The company’s business is spread in many countries and regions. The company Cisco previously gave a little importance to IT and considered it as an overhead. After arrival of Peter Solvik as the CIO at Cisco, the status of IT at Cisco changed from an overhead as the central functionality of the company (McAfee, McFarlan and Wagonfeld 2007). ERP was developed for the company by Oracle. Peter Solvik brought positive changes in the company but after his leaving, many problems with the IT system were revealed. ERP was developed for limited functions such as inventory, finance and manufacturing but afterwards, many customized interfaces were developed and used with the same ERP (McAfee, McFarlan and Wagonfeld 2007). Due to these customized interfaces, there were problems concerning management of information and retrieval of information. There were many other problems related to additional or extra functional tools for the same tasks and no centralized system for planning and deciding. Moreover, there were problems related to the absence of a single database. Boston considered three projects for the company, which dealt to the problems of the company. He wanted to upgrade the ERP, to develop enterprise reporting and business information solution and to develop a single database (McAfee, McFarlan and Wagonfeld 2007). Every project needed time and financial backup from the company. BPOC was developed by the leaders of the company which included Boston and other influential leaders of the company for decision making, recommending and advising about important steps that the company should take. In taking decision about call center project that is prioritized by Boston, he needs the backup from BPOC and also he is required to make BPOC agree to his decision about the project. The project is very valuable for the company. Boston also requires the revealing of “Shadow IT” projects. IT Governance at Cisco Brad Boston was the new CIO at Cisco. Before him, Peter Solvik was the CIO at Cisco and he had been working with Cisco since 1993 (McAfee, McFarlan and Wagonfeld 2007). Before his arrival, IT was considered as an overhead of the company but he changed the status of IT department by taking such actions that were beneficial for the company in terms of IT development. Previously, IT was not considered as a separate and authentic part of Cisco but just an overhead of the company. In the year 1994, the IT systems of the company were going to be failed when Peter decided for an ERP system by Oracle. Within two years, the company’s technology shifted fully to ERP system. The ERP system was developed to assist in manufacturing and inventory based tasks (McAfee, McFarlan and Wagonfeld 2007). Cisco also developed internet and intranet for its working. Under the leadership of Peter, a website was developed for Cisco with the title Cisco.com. This site worked as a sales platform along with other business transactions for Cisco (McAfee, McFarlan and Wagonfeld 2007). Because of the website and other automated working systems of Cisco, the company was able to get a huge amount of revenue. Peter Solvik brought a positive change in the company with the help of increased IT reliance. The IT governance style of Peter was persuasive as it led the company towards a profitable situation. The company not only was able to gather more customers but was also able to expend its business functions on the basis of its increase of technology. The network at Cisco used both intranet and internet in terms of networking and for data transfer. Because of the IT governance of Peter Solvik, the company gained more status and was able to increase and expand its business. With the passage of time, Cisco suffered from some problems concerning its IT systems. At the end of 2001, Peter solvik left Cisco and Boston Brad joined as a CIO at Cisco. Boston was an experienced person in terms of IT as he has an experience of 25 years with large companies with a large IT staff (McAfee, McFarlan and Wagonfeld 2007). There were problems with Cisco’s internal IT systems after 2001. The engineers that Cisco was hiring for its projects were making customized tools but the results were not as expected. Another problem was that for one same task, there were many customized tools and for the all the tools, the company had to pay separately. There were multiple databases due to which, the details and information got conflicted. Because of all this processing, information retrieval became a hard task to perform. In addition, all the decisions related to IT were made with no centralized authority. There was no centralized planning due to which, there were problems concerning upgrading of ERP system. Another problem was that different departments of the company developed their own customized interfaces to get raw data with the help of ERP and in case of upgrading of ERP, many customized interfaces of users were required to be immobilized, which would create a problematic situation for the users of the system that had become habitual of the systems and interfaces (McAfee, McFarlan and Wagonfeld 2007). The problem with ERP system was that, it was designed for the functions of inventory, manufacturing and finance in the beginning but with the passage of time, many other functions of the company started using ERP system and added their own customized interfaces. Due to this change, the original ERP system was not in its initial position, it was very much transformed. In case of upgrading ERP system, all the newly added and customized data and details were required to be modified and moreover, the system required three more years along with a lot of finance from the company. Therefore, ERP system was no more a helpful system for the company according to Boston. Role of BPOC (Business Process Operating Committee) BPOC (Business Process Operating Committee) was established by the company in 2002. The Committee was formed from major leaders and influential persons of the functions of the company including Boston. Mainly, BPOC was a decision making group. BPOC was there to ensure a centralized planning. The BPOC takes decisions related to operational policy regarding enterprise. BPOC also takes decisions concerning taking initiatives in the whole company. It also takes decision regarding the development of business framework of the company (McAfee, McFarlan and Wagonfeld 2007). The committee also puts into effect the decisions concerning answerability and implementation. BPOC also provides recommendations related to expenditure of IT. BPOC was not only designed for IT department but for all the company functions and participated in all decisions regarding different projects of the company. It also worked as an advisory committee. The members of BPOC met twice each month for the discussion and analysis of priority based issues related to all functions of the company (McAfee, McFarlan and Wagonfeld 2007). The BPOC is really authoritative as it is formed by the inclusion of all the leaders and other influential persons of the company. The company considers the recommendations and decisions made by BPOC because of the authority and experience of the committee as a whole. The committee plays an influential role for the company of Cisco. It was formed to be as a supportive entity for management’s support in decision making and advices. Considerations for Projects at Cisco Boston prioritizes the call center project that is able to link the customers internationally. The call center project will work globally and calls from international customers will be handled with the system. It is said that the system will be efficient and authentic. This will be a customer interaction network that will help Cisco in its business proceedings. As far as my approval for the call center is concerned, I think that it should be approved by the administration of the company because it seems to help out the company and it also enables the company to attract more customers. The option of call center project involves some financial input but for all the projects that the company prioritizes, there will be inclusion of finance as no business can expand without any financial input. Financial expenditure is needed for this project but once, it is implemented, and the company will be benefited as it keeps the capacity of enabling the company to precede manifold in future. Boston is interested in prioritizing call center project because he is a person who has enough experience and skill concerning decisiveness related to implementation of the call center project. Boston knows that this project requires a large expenditure. Moreover, he is aware that there will be resistance from employees as well as some others members of the company such as stakeholders and employees. The stakeholders can feel problematic because they have to trust in the project and have to input a large amount for the project. The project can be sold to BPOC by running a pilot project. BPOC can agree to buy the project if they are shown a limited set of display from the developers of the call center project. The call center project is a challenge for Boston for let it be approved from BPOC and other functional members of the company. There should be a presentation arranged from the developer side in order to inform about the specifications and value of the project. There would be a requirement of arrangement of meetings in which, the decisions about the implementation of call center project will be discussed. Boston selected three big projects for Cisco which were crucial for the company. One was the upgrading of current ERP system that was working in the company. Second one was establishment of an enterprise reporting and business information solution for the company. The third and last one was a signal customer database or e-customer (McAfee, McFarlan and Wagonfeld 2007). Boston considered these projects as the most important as the current systems were creating in terms of management of the data and information. Boston considered upgrading of ERP system because the current ERP system was creating some problems related to the management of data and information. ERP system was developed for some of the functions of the company but with the passage of time, other functional departments of the company developed their own interfaces due to which, there were introduction of many customized tools and interfaces. Because of all this, there were problems related to the management of data. Enterprise reporting and business intelligence solution for the company was effective for the working of the company, so, Boston showed interest towards the implementation of the project. Lastly, a single database for customers was proposed by Boston because there were problems concerning information management. The information of customers was stored at different locations and not in any single database due to which, when the information about customers was required to be retrieved, there were problematic issues and difficulty. “Shadow IT” projects are the projects that are not disclosed fully to the management. There are many projects running ion Cisco that are very large. They are established on a smaller scale. The developers were involved in developing functional tools and these functional tools create problems for undercover or “Shadow IT” projects. Boston wanted to reveal all the “Shadow IT” projects because he wanted centralized planning and decision making for all functionalities of the company whether smaller or larger. Conclusion After analyzing the problems and strategies set by the company, Cisco, it is quite clear that the company requires some transformations in order to make things workable in the right sense. Boston’s thought of projects are going to prove helpful for the company. Currently, the company is in problematic status because of many of the previous strategies. Call center project should be approved and for its approval, Boston should take required steps. The company has to input some finance as it is very important for the betterment of the company. The company should go for the projects proposed by Boston. They will expend some amount and the results will be rewarding. Works Cited McAfee, Andrew; McFarlan, F. Warren and Wagonfeld, Alison Berkley. Enterprise IT at Cisco (2004). Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2007: 1-13. Read More