Cisco Systems: Using the Web for Internal Efficiency - Essay Example

Therefore, customer satisfaction is extremely important, and I have defined it among the performance variables. The list of possible performance variables alongside with corresponding measures for delivering the ordered products to the customers is as follows: Customer satisfaction (number of repetitive purchases, proportion of returns or reclamations to the total sales, subjective customer satisfaction index measured through the periodical survey of the customers sample etc.); Monitoring the achievements of the sales targets plays a valuable role in the managerial assessment of the previously conducted planning, the execution of the tasks, and as well in the early diagnosis of the emerging trends in the company's external environment.

The corresponding performance variables and performance measures are: Speed of the processing and actuality of the information (lag of time between the actual sales and update of the information in the system, time required to process the information, possibility of performing different queries and generating specific reports automatically). Having effectively conducted the information and process integration, Cisco Systems was in position to take advantage of self-sourcing and outsourcing opportunities and gain flexibility in order to better address the needs of its target market.

However, the current level of integration poses several potential threats, including the possibility of future disintermediation given the semi-direct connections between the company suppliers and its customers and decreasing level of control over the suppliers' performance. A possible way for Cisco Systems to become more integrated than it already is would be establishing the company extranet to facilitate and regulate the communication with its numerous suppliers.Another company I want to refer to has started in very different position but after a series of steps was able to reach approximately the same as Cisco level of integration.

Right after formation of PBM Plastics, the plastic bottle liners manufacturer operating in Virginia, in July 2000 its biggest asset was the acquired state-of-art production technology. The IT technology in use by that time, though streamlining some of the business processes, imposed great limitations in terms of quality, time and cost. In particular, for the purpose of quality management PBM Plastics used control systems without analysis or reporting functions, which partially caused excessive defect rates.

The importance of quality control for