Cisco: It Fiasco Essay Example
Individual Case Write Up - Cisco 1. What is an ERP system? What does it do?
Enterprise Resource Planning systems are integrated software applications that assimilate internal and external information that is required to manage an organization efficiently and effectively. The system encompasses finance, accounting, manufacturing, sales, service, and customer relationship management and automates these activities with a unified software system. The main purpose of an ERP system is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions within an organization. ERP systems also aim to simplify the sales process by automating the entry requirements and making it easier for different business functions to access the information. The systems can run on a number of hardware or network configurations; however, they usually use a database as a warehouse for information. 2. At the start of the case, Cisco's information systems are failing, yet no one steps forward to lead the effort to replace them. Why is this? Why were no managers eager to take on this project?
At the beginning of the case, Cisco’s information systems were failing because they were experiencing exponential growth and the IT systems that were in place could not provide the reliability and maintenance for this magnitude of growth. Companies that experience this kind of growth usually make decisions based off the status quo and assume that what has worked in the past will continue to work going forward. In addition, with such sizable growth, implementing changes to the company’s information systems can have substantial effects on the continued success of the company, making any recommendation for change extremely daunting. Coupled with the fact that most people are change averse, no one wanted to run over the legacy systems Cisco already had in place so they just tried to continue to Band-Aid the issues with system replacements. Managers were not eager to take on this project
Enterprise Resource Planning systems are integrated software applications that assimilate internal and external information that is required to manage an organization efficiently and effectively. The system encompasses finance, accounting, manufacturing, sales, service, and customer relationship management and automates these activities with a unified software system. The main purpose of an ERP system is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions within an organization. ERP systems also aim to simplify the sales process by automating the entry requirements and making it easier for different business functions to access the information. The systems can run on a number of hardware or network configurations; however, they usually use a database as a warehouse for information. 2. At the start of the case, Cisco's information systems are failing, yet no one steps forward to lead the effort to replace them. Why is this? Why were no managers eager to take on this project?
At the beginning of the case, Cisco’s information systems were failing because they were experiencing exponential growth and the IT systems that were in place could not provide the reliability and maintenance for this magnitude of growth. Companies that experience this kind of growth usually make decisions based off the status quo and assume that what has worked in the past will continue to work going forward. In addition, with such sizable growth, implementing changes to the company’s information systems can have substantial effects on the continued success of the company, making any recommendation for change extremely daunting. Coupled with the fact that most people are change averse, no one wanted to run over the legacy systems Cisco already had in place so they just tried to continue to Band-Aid the issues with system replacements. Managers were not eager to take on this project