Cisco

Introduction

Cisco systems Inc. was founded by two computer scientists at Stanford University in 1984, to develop and manufacture networking systems. There was a problem of machines on local networks not able to communicate easily with machines outside that network at the beginning, but later other problems came up as a result of expansion/growth like difficulty in control, inadequate employees. As an approach to overcome these problems, Cisco developed innovative technologies like multi-protocol routers, internet services, systems Network Architecture, etc. By 1990, Cisco went public, and by the end of fiscal year 2000, Cisco become a worldwide leader in networking hardware, software, and services; growing to over 40,000 employees, and with annual revenue of $23.8 billion.

What made Cisco quickly become a worldwide leader? The answer is "Incentive system that focused on customer satisfaction".

How? Majorly three factors have contributed to this success, technological innovations, decentralized management system, and employees.

Cisco has developed Technological innovations such as routing, LAN-switching, WAN-switching, Cisco IOS Software, etc.

IT infrastructure was both sophisticated and integrated across the company. It integrated its three main stake holders, customers, employees, and partners. Most of the corporate information was available to its employees and shared relevant information with suppliers and customers. Cisco aimed at promoting effective communication systems to enable quick information flow for immediate decisions to be made. The system combined three main connections:

* Cisco Connection Online (CCO). Spending time with a customer is a high priority than anything else; it is valued, recognized, and rewarded. This helped in having customer transact much of their business on line which saved the company considerable amount of time and money.

* Cisco Employee Connection (CEC). The company was able to give its employees the content it wanted them to have, along with the content the employees wanted to have.

* Manufacturing Connection Online (MCO). This allowed Cisco's partners