Cisco Case Study

CASE QUESTIONS - CISCO

1a. How did Cisco find itself in trouble with regard to its intended IT prior to Brad Boston's arrival? Prior to his arrival, Cisco had a decentralized approach to IT spending. Independent business groups were making decisions in functional silos. Each group had its own funds for IT, therefore, redundant applications such as CRM systems were created. This was a global issue as well as a localized issue. The Cisco philosophy regarding IT was simple: as long as someone was willing to pay for it, the IT department would work on whatever process/project specified. This is not only a waste of money, but it also creates problems when trying to work across teams. If two teams use two different processes to come up with the same information and communicate it differently, then they are going to have difficulties communicating.

b. Why didn't the single ERP System help the situation? The ERP system became somewhat obsolete since each business group created customized software applications that each had different interfaces. Also, business groups were inconsistent with their organizational definitions. Some units defined a shipment as the product moving from the manufacturer to the distributor, while others defined it as the distributor sending the product to the customer. This inconsistency caused the departments to create their software that would pull specific information as they defined it.

c. Why didn't this ensure more consistency? There was no consistency because the process was decentralized. The lack of consistency was inevitable considering the number of functional silos established with Cisco. As stated in the case, there was "no centralized group checking for conflict."

d. What was Brad Boston's solution to the problem? Brad Boston's solution was to create a centralized IT department that would oversee all IT spending. This department would have a standardized process for individual departmental projects. This would allow the company to keep outside contractors without incurring the added expenses of including them in Boston's headcount. It would also allow the departments to initiate projects but would ensure that these projects were not undermining the company's objectives and were not duplicating resources.

e. Does the CIO's amnesty program stand a good chance of uncovering most of Cisco's shadow IT projects? The amnesty program stood a chance of uncovering some of the Shadow IT projects, but not most of them. If departments felt that projects were critical enough to "sneak" around and implement on their own, it is unlikely that they would be willing to voluntarily give them up. The projects that would be turned over in the amnesty program would be petty projects that involve small amounts of time and money.