Cisco Systems - The Supply Chain Story

The Cco & Ics Initiatives Contd...

To get the most out of CCO, Cisco used intranets and extranets extensively. The extranet was used for communicating with suppliers, manufacturers, customers and resellers, while employees used the intranet for communicating about the status of orders. Thus, through an online information and communication system, Cisco linked suppliers, manufacturers, customers, resellers and employees seamlessly (Refer Figure III). However, some of Cisco's large customers were not able to access CCO because it did not connect seamlessly to their back-end or electronic data interchange systems.

FIGURE III
LINKING THE CISCO ENTERPRISE

Source: www.cisco.com

These firms, typically telecom equipment distributors or network operators, lacked the time to visit the supplier websites to order the equipment they needed. Cisco introduced the Integrated Commerce Solution (ICS) for these customers.

ICS provided a dedicated server fully integrated into the customers' or resellers' Intranet and back end ERP systems. It facilitated information exchange between Cisco and them, besides speeding up transactions.

It had all the e-commerce applications of CCO, with the additional capability of pulling order related data directly from Cisco's back end ERP systems online.

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Case Details

Case Code : ITSY001
Themes: EVA Financial concepts
Case Length : 5 Pages
Period : 1997-2001
Organization : L&T
Pub Date : 2002
Teaching Note : Available
Countries : India
Industry : Construction - Building Materials & Equipment, Financial Services

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