ENTERPRISE IT AT CISCO CASE ANALYSIS: ADITYA RAMANI 31st Mar 2015

Situation (2004):
At the time of the case CISCO was one of the leading developers of networking and communication products
With the arrival of a new CIO, Brad Boston, CISCO’s IT department had undergone a transformation from a decentralized structure to a more centralized structure. A formal committee called the Business Process Operating Company was set up for approving IT projects.
The primary reason for this shift was that the CIO believed the IT department could be innovative and at the same time reduce redundancy.
The CIO’s current challenge is to ensure that strategic projects are approved through the BPOC committee while at the same time ensuring that their employee’s entrepreneurial spirit is not damaged. This fine balance is what Brad Boston is aiming for.
A particular example of such a project is what is currently on the table at the time of the case – the implementation of a state of the art customer interaction facility that would centralize all calls from CISCO’s global call center.

Challenges of CISCO’s Internal Organization Structure Change:
CISCO’s transition to a horizontal process oriented organization will prove to be challenging
CISCO’s employees currently remain in their respective functional teams, process orientation could prove to be confusing to these employees. This change could also cause concern for employees as they might be accountable to multiple teams