CISCO EPR IMPLEMENTATION HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL TEAM IMPLEMENTATION CISCO PROJECT BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEM

1. Cisco system-implementing ERP
case study

2. Summary of the problem
Despite the fact that the role of information systems is seldom challenged in terms of its
crucial meaning for enabling companies’ growth, it is always hard to implement a novel,
which regards information systems. Basic components of information systems are
hardware, software, communication and data resources.(Bocij et al, 2009, 43) The
importance of aligning the development of information systems with business growth
cannot be underestimated. (Curtis & Cobham, 2008) So, expected and desired growth
of Cisco called forth the necessity to get away from trying to modernize existing UNIX-
based software package and come up with a new far-reaching project, aiming at
meeting existing ERP challenges, adding capacity to the system and fulfilling the
promise of supporting the rapid growth.
The case study is not only about the way to implement ERP solution, but about the
challenge, which is connected with a necessity to make an important decision on
launching and implementing a totally new initiative against the background of lack of
time and pressure, associated with consequences of possible failure. Moreover, the
case is about dealing with people and choosing the right ones to get ideas
implemented. The analysis of case study is aimed at studying all the points of ERP
project’s implementation approach, why the project was successful and whether the

3. success was called forth by the implementation team being ‘smart’ or lucky’ or
combination of both.
Pre-Analysis of the study
As far as it was already mentioned in ‘Summary of the problem’ subsection, the study is
focused on the way a new ERP system was introduced in Cisco. It was decided that it
was more advantageous to launch a single integrated replacement of all the
applications at Cisco, instead of making investments into trying to unite different
projects, run in different functional areas. After having defined the way to perform
necessary changes, managers had to select people, who will join the decision-
implementing team. Here specific attention should be paid to team selection policies.
Selection policies were also crucial in terms of selecting vendor, whose product will be
used in the company. The next stage included setting up the budget and schedule for
implementing a change. It is worth mentioning that a formal economic justification for
the costs incurred in the project was not done. After having gone through all
aforementioned stages …
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