Networked At Cisco
Center for eBusiness
Teaching Case #1
Sloan School of Management
20 July 2001
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Networked at Cisco
Lynn Reed’s pager went off again. Reed, a manager of an engineering group at Cisco,
was getting ready to meet with a manager from one of the automobile manufacturing companies,
the ninth outside manager that she had talked to this month. Many companies were eager to
learn about the information technology systems and business practices that Cisco had
implemented, systems and practices that had increased productivity and helped make Cisco a
highly-valued company. Cisco not only sold some of the key technologies that enabled the
Internet, but was also viewed as a leader in using these tools and in creating a complementary set
of business practices and culture. Even the recent downturn in Cisco’s business and the
subsequent layoffs had not decreased interest in Cisco.
Reed had an electrical engineering and computer science undergraduate degree and an
MBA from MIT. She had worked for large companies, including Hewlett-Packard and Sun
Microsystems, and for a start-up in Silicon Valley before coming to Cisco in mid-1999. As Reed
returned the page, she reflected how the existing systems and practices at Cisco had influenced
her work, and considered how these systems might be adopted by other firms in an effort to
transform their practices.
Background
Cisco Systems, Inc. was founded by two computer scientists at Stanford University in
1984 to develop and manufacture networking systems; Cisco went public in 1990.1 Until Cisco
introduced its first commercial router in 1986, machines on local networks had been unable to
communicate easily with machines outside of that network. The multi-protocol router allowed
geographically dispersed local networks of computers, often using different networking
protocols, to link together. Cisco quickly became a worldwide leader in networking hardware,
software, and services, growing to over 40,000 employees and annual revenues of $23.8 billion by
the end of 2000, although the downturn in the economy affected Cisco’s 2001 revenues and
forced Cisco to lay off nearly 14% of its employees. (See Exhibit 1 for a chart of revenue growth
and Exhibit 2 for a chart detailing the growth of the number of employees.)
1 Financial and product information is from the company web site (www.cisco.com) and its 2000 10-K.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Stephanie L. Woerner, Ph.D., SeeIT Project Manager, prepared this case with the help of George Herman,
Research Scientist, Center for Coordination Science, who organized and assembled the process descriptions.
This case is written for the purposes of management education rather than to illustrate or endorse any
particular management practice. Lynn Reed, the protagonist, is a composite of several employees; all other
people in this case are actual individuals. This case may be reproduced free of charge for educational
purposes provided the copyright statement appears on the copy.
Copyright ã 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.
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Cisco’s strategy was to be the supplier of choice in networking infrastructure. To achieve
that goal, Cisco developed and acquired a broad range of products and services that allowed
them to provide end-to-end networking solutions for their customers; in addition, many of
Cisco’s products could be easily upgraded or expanded, giving their customers the ability to
extend their networks as their needs changed. Cisco’s products and services included:
·
Routers
·
Switches
·
Network and Internet Access Products
·
Systems Network Architecture
·
Internet Services
·
Network Management Software
·
Customer Advocacy
The majority of Cisco’s products ran the IOS Software, a common networking software platform.
The IOS Software allowed customers to build networks that were flexible, scalable, reliable, and
secure.
Although Cisco developed many of its products in-house, often working closely with
customers to identify needs, it had acquired 63 companies since 1993 to fill gaps in its product
line, open up new distribution channels, or enter new markets. Cisco tended to look for
relatively small companies with a high proportion of engineers; in addition, as Mike Volpi,
Cisco’s Chief Strategy Officer, put it: “Cisco's strategy can be boiled down to five things. We look
at a company's vision; its short-term success with customers; its long-term strategy; the chemistry
of the people with ours; and its geographic proximity."2 Potential acquisitions were evaluated on
how well they “fit” with Cisco’s way of doing business, and acquisitions were called off if Cisco
management didn’t believe there was a fit between the companies. For example, the night before
the deal was set to close, Cisco halted the acquisition of Chipcom for this reason.3 When it
acquired companies, Cisco focused on retaining the talent in those companies while integrating
them into Cisco.
Cisco’s customer base was not concentrated in any one industry nor had any one
customer accounted for more than 10 percent of Cisco’s net sales. Cisco’s customers fell into one
of four categories:
· Enterprise: Generally large organizations with 500 or more employees with complex
networking needs, usually spanning multiple locations and types of computer systems.
Enterprise customers included corporations, government agencies, utilities, and
educational institutions.
· Service Providers: Organizations providing data, voice, and video communication
services to businesses and consumers. They included regional, national, and
international long distance telecommunications carriers, as well as Internet, cable, and
wireless service providers.
· Small/Medium-Sized Businesses: Businesses with fewer than 500 employees and a need
for networks of their own, as well as connection to the Internet and to business partners.
Because these customers generally were limited in their networking technology expertise,
Cisco attempted to provide products that were affordable and easy to install and use.
2 Henry Goldblatt, “Cisco’s Secrets,” Fortune, November 8, 1999, Vol. 140, No. 9, page 177-181.
3 Ibid.
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· Consumers: Individuals with a need for networking devices and services to connect
themselves to the Internet from within their homes. In addition, some advanced
consumers networked together a range of devices—including personal computer,
television, telephone, and fax—into an integrated personal network within their home.
They used regional carriers and Internet service providers for their Internet access.
“It’s All on the Web”
Making Information Available
In line with its business, Cisco used the Internet extensively, both internally and
externally, much more so than other firms where Reed had worked. Cisco saw itself as having an
“Internet Culture”; senior managers believed that this “Internet Culture” complemented and
amplified their technology investment and they worked hard to inculcate it in the organization.
Karen Horn, Director of Culture, said, “Going to the web is natural at Cisco. The Internet is the
answer to everything.”
The company had a long history of being responsive to customers—early on, one of the
founders had created a department of “customer advocacy”—and Cisco’s first foray into using
the web to disseminate information was customer-driven. Customers were allowed access to
Cisco’s internal web pages in order to get information about bug fixes.4 However, Cisco
engineers had become concerned that competitors were getting into the web site in order to get
more detailed information about Cisco products. In response, they supplemented the bug
information system with a recruiting system. Barbara Beck, retired Senior VP of Human
Resources and head of Human Resources from 1989 to 2001, recalled:
“We leveraged off the ability of our competitors’ engineers to get to our site
detailing the bug fixes. We figured if they could get through, then we could use
that opportunity to recruit them to work for Cisco. The engineers wrote a
program that allowed customers access to the bug fixes but shunted everyone
else to a site that posted job openings at Cisco. We put every job on the Internet.
It was a way to get access to clever people; we still look for people who can make
a difference.”
The web remained an important tool for customer service, and having customers transact
much of their business on-line saved the company a considerable amount of time and money.
Cisco calculated that the delivery time on orders had been reduced by five weeks and that the
order error rate had declined to under 2%, down from 33%. In fiscal year 2000, Cisco estimated
that self-service technical support saved the company $173 million; online customization of
software, $151 million; electronic software downloads, $118 million; and downloadable product
documentation, $64 million.
Another early application that Cisco migrated to the web was the employee directory. In
the company’s early years, it was hiring employees so fast that printed phone directories were
obsolete within months. The engineers created an on-line directory that quickly became used
throughout the company, making the printed directories superfluous. Putting the directory on-
line, however, provoked discussion about who should have access to what information and
which information was proprietary. Beck said: “We started having discussions around trust. For
4 Customers still had the ability to get bug fixes from the Cisco web site. Among other things, customers
could also configure and order their systems, and download specifications and operating instructions over
the web.
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instance, at that time, recruiters paid a lot of money for an organization chart. We decided the
reward was worth the risk that came with making information easily available.”
By the time Reed was hired at Cisco, the employee directory had moved beyond being an
application administered by the employees themselves to one that was centrally maintained; the
data in the directory was derived from the PeopleSoft system used for personnel administration;
thus, the employee information in the directory was accurate and timely. Besides personal
contact information (e-mail, phone, address), the employee directory included organizational
information, allowing the user to see where in the Cisco hierarchy an employee was located,
what the employee’s reporting chain looked like, and who reported to the employee. (See
Exhibit 3 for a screen shot of an employee directory record, and Exhibit 4 for a screen shot of a
reporting chain from an employee record.) Employees were able to change or update their own
contact information when they changed jobs or were given promotions. (See Exhibit 5 for the
user-editable fields.) In addition, the directory record also listed the employee number, an
indicator of how long an employee had been at Cisco (employee numbers had started with “1”
and were assigned in numerical order so that employees who had been hired early in Cisco’s
history had lower employee numbers).5
Reed found the employee directory very helpful for navigating Cisco’s large, growing,
and dynamic set of fellow employees. She was able to look up e-mail addresses, figure out who
reported to whom, and see what an employee looked like before she went off to meetings.
Information in the directory was continually updated, making the directory a useful tool to HR
for conducting organizational analyses; the directory showed the size of a manager’s reporting
organization, who was in the organization, where they were located, and job titles of the
employees (job titles at Cisco, for the most part, were standardized throughout the organization
and thus, indicated the employee’s level in the organization). During the recent downturn,
managers used the directory to help them plan the layoffs because it gave them a current
snapshot of the organization. Reed couldn’t count the number of times in a day that she referred
to the on-line directory because using it was second nature. In an average month, the employee
directory received 4 million hits.6
Cisco’s early decision to make information available was facilitated by the development
of the web. The internal web, or “intranet,”7 allowed Cisco to distribute company and employee
data globally, and at the same time to manage and control its use centrally. Rebecca Jacoby, Vice
President of Manufacturing Planning and Systems, said “The web places flexibility on the front
end where the customer or client sees it while maintaining the data in the background. It
preserves data integrity in a client-server environment which has typically not had that
integrity.” The web allowed Cisco employees, suppliers, and customers to get the information
they needed without compromising the data.
By mid-1999, Cisco had put most of its transactions and company information on the
web. Cisco restricted access to some information according to need (for instance, sales people
5Most employees at Cisco did not set up personal web pages; the employee directory seemed to capture
most of the personal data that employees found useful. In addition, the directory was quite easy to search
while there were no searching capabilities for personal web pages.
6 Cisco estimated each web directory inquiry was 5 seconds faster than a paper inquiry and that using the
web saved Cisco $0.07 per web directory inquiry.
7 An intranet is a private internal network within an organization. It operates like the Internet in that a web
browser and other network tools access the internal web pages and sites. Intranets are protected by
firewalls, which keep out unauthorized users. People on an intranet may also be connected to the Internet.
Related to a company intranet is the company extranet, a private network that connects an organization’s
customers and suppliers to the organization.
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had access to more specialized information than other employees did) but made much of the
company information generally available, in contrast to many other companies in the Bay Area.
Reed noted:
“It was intimidating in the beginning. All the information that you need to do
your job is on the web. Finding it, however, is sometimes a problem. You have
to know how to navigate and how to search. Very little of the information that
you need comes to you; you have to get it yourself. But it’s all on the web and it
can be liberating not to have to go to others with every question you have.”
Self-Service Environment
Cisco began migrating all of its human resource processes to the web in 1994. Some
processes took several months to migrate while others took up to a year. (See Exhibit 6 for a
timeline of the migration of human resource processes.) Other departments followed similar
patterns. By mid-1999, most of Cisco’s internal workforce applications had been implemented on
the web. Reed commented: “It’s a self-service environment at Cisco. You can do almost
everything yourself on-line. There’s software to schedule meetings, reserve conference rooms,
submit your travel expenses, and adjust your payroll deductions.” Mary de Wysocki, a senior
manager, commented, “This technology reduces headcount and creates productivity savings.
The use of a web-dependent environment, however, puts a lot of responsibility on the
employee.”
New Cisco employees were immediately thrust onto the web. All new employees started
on a Monday morning, spending that first day in a new-hire orientation, learning the systems in
place at Cisco and being told all of the necessary web sites to visit. The new-hire orientation was
an opportunity to show the new employees how work was done at Cisco and during the daylong
orientation there were presentations about all of the functional areas within Cisco, the technology
infrastructure, and the human resources site.
The human resources site on the Cisco intranet (known as the CEC—the Cisco Employee
Connection) was the first internal web site that most employees visited and thus was a good
introduction to Cisco’s commitment to automating its business processes: all human resource
paperwork was done on-line. (See Exhibit 7 for the employee toolkit section of the Cisco human
resource web page.) Even long-time employees continued to visit the human resources site. Not
only was it the site where all human resource forms were filled out, but it was also where
important information was located on the company intranet. Barbara Siverts, a manager and
long-time employee, noted the difference that the web had made to new employees: “When I
started, at new hire orientation we got a ‘cheat sheet’ that told us where to go to get things done
and who to talk to get important information. I kept that cheat sheet for years and then one day,
I noticed that I never referred to it because I could find everything on the web.”
Each department had an additional orientation for their own employees, and employees
were encouraged to go to orientations outside their department. Employees were assigned a
mentor in their department, and had a phone and a computer waiting for them in their cubicle by
the end of the day. Many employees were ready to start working the next day.
Workforce Applications
A suite of web-based workforce applications targeted toward managers gave managers
more information about their employees; at the same time, these applications put more human
resource responsibilities on managers. Many of the tasks that a manager needed to perform had
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been automated and linked into one screen, known as the “manager dashboard.”8 The
“Manager’s Toolkit” on the manager’s dashboard included:
· CafeReq – an on-line requisition tool
· CafeMOCHA – an on-line, paperless application for HR changes, including job
and pay changes, employee transfers, stock awards, termination, and all other
changes
· MAT – an export of the PeopleSoft database which allowed managers to see
salary ranges, as well as mean and median salaries for different employee
categories
· ePM – an appraisal tool that allowed managers to do on-line employee reviews
· CafeCAP – an application that allowed managers to award money and/or stock
instantly to their employees
· Web Letters – a tool for writing bonus letters and HR-type documents
· Insight – a head-count tool
· Span-of-Control – an application that calculates an employee’s span of control
· PTO Tracking – an application that allows managers to keep track of an
employee’s paid time off
· Universal Proxy – an application that allows a manager – going on vacation or
out on leave – to assign a proxy to operate selected portions of the “Manager’s
Toolkit” on his or her behalf
When managers reviewed their employees twice yearly, they were able to pull up, for
each employee, an account that included information about salary and bonuses, training classes
taken, vacation accrual, a job title history, any merit increases, and personal data. With these
tools, managers were able to assess employees individually and as a group. Reed noted “These
tools save a lot of time during employee evaluations. I can iteratively assess my employees as
individuals and as a group, and I can rely on the data to be current.”
Cisco found that these workforce applications saved money. Before these applications
were deployed, each Cisco manager spent nearly 120 hours each year reviewing his or her
employees and their compensation. Cisco estimated that each manager saved over 25 hours a
year using these web-based workforce tools, resulting in overall company savings of over $7
million.
The workforce applications not only changed the work of Cisco managers but also
transformed the role of Human Resources in the company. Kelly Lane, a Manager of Human
Resources, observed “HR is not doing as many transactional processes; these have been offloaded
to employees and managers. HR now acts more like business consultants, helping managers
with recruiting, selection, training, and building skills internally.” She went on: “The tools are a
product of our culture. Cisco has trust in its employees and has the belief that employees and
managers should have data, which should help them as they strive for results.”
8 A “dashboard” was a web site in the Cisco intranet targeted to specialized users. The web site displayed
links to useful internal web applications for that user. Cisco deployed a variety of dashboards; for example,
there was a dashboard for managers, one for employees, and one for human resource personnel.
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Client-Funded IT
Cisco used a model of client-funded IT whereby all IT initiatives were paid for by the
functional department (e.g. human resources, finance, manufacturing) instead of by a centralized
IT department. IT was not a stand-alone department but had relationships with all the functional
units in the company so that the IT employees had a dual reporting relationship, to the functional
department that they were part of and to the head of IT. The IT department promulgated
standards and oversaw the work but the functional department requested the work. Rebecca
Jacoby said, “All the major functions have IT partners. IT is part of the business; it’s integrated
with the business. The functional units include IT in their budgets and often IT is a reflection of
the business.”
This IT approach kept IT spending aligned with the goals of the business unit because the
business units always led the projects and over time the IT projects had become far more
disciplined and far more visionary. Business units got the systems they wanted to help run their
business more efficiently (within the realm of Cisco’s standards) but they had to pay for them
directly. This approach did not constrict spending on IT but did encourage careful thought about
how IT spending would affect the business unit and the company bottom-line. Cisco didn’t feel
the need to develop all of its IT applications in-house; if another company could provide a well-
written program that met Cisco’s needs for an acceptable price, Cisco would buy and deploy it.9
Management by Exception
The design of the employee workforce applications also affected Reed’s managerial
responsibilities. As part of her previous management jobs at other companies she often made
many administrative decisions, while at Cisco she found that the internal applications automated
many of the day-to-day management decisions. At Cisco, Reed observed, she was responsible for
making decisions about the exceptions rather than the rule.
Her experience with the travel reservation system and the expense system illustrated
when Reed’s managerial responsibilities came into play. The typical firm controlled its travel
expenses by focusing on the approval process: employees needed management approval before
taking a trip. Cisco had instead focused on the set-up process. (See Exhibit 8 for a comparison of
Cisco’s travel and expense systems to the systems used at a typical large company.)
Cisco allowed employees to book their own travel and select from any of the pre-
approved vendors for airlines, cars and lodging. As part of their effort to automate the travel and
the expense system, Cisco had entered into a partnership with American Express. All Cisco
employees were issued an American Express card.10 When employees needed to make a trip,
they went to the travel site – the Cisco Travel Network – on the company intranet, which was
administered by American Express Travel Services, and entered their travel destinations and the
dates they wanted to travel. The travel site displayed airline flights in order of price and airline
(Cisco had become partners with two airlines, a move that gave it preferential prices). Employees
then booked the flight on-line and it was charged to their American Express credit card. They
could do the same thing with hotel rooms. Employees used the American Express card for all of
their expenses while they were on the road. (See Exhibits 9-11 for examples of web pages seen
when booking a trip.)
9 For example, Cisco had bought and deployed Oracle database and financial software, PeopleSoft human
resource software, Ariba’s procurement system, Resumix, and Saba learning software.
10 Though Cisco deposited reimbursements into the employee’s American Express account, the cardholder,
not Cisco, was responsible for the bill.
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Reed never pre-approved her direct reports’ travel plans before they went out on the
road and she never had to authorize their travel expenses if they fell within Cisco guidelines. If,
however, one of her employees selected an airline, hotel, or car rental company not on the pre-
approved list of vendors (for example, he or she had frequent flier miles on a particular airline),
the choice was allowed to go through the system but the employee had to justify the decision and
an automated email was sent to Reed, who then had 48 hours to disapprove the off-the-list
choice. For the most part, as long as the exceptions cost about the same as the rule, managers
authorized the exceptions. If a manager did not make any decision within 48 hours, the
exception was considered approved.
The use of the American Express card also streamlined the reimbursement process. After
returning from a business trip, the employee went to the travel site on the company intranet.
Expense reports were also filed from this site, though with a different application known as
METRO. The credit card statements were on-line and the employee was able to “drag and drop”
line items that were business expenses from the statement to the expense report. As long as the
employee booked one of the least expensive flights on a partner airline, stayed in a hotel that had
a partnership arrangement with Cisco, and had other expenses such as cabs and meals that were
within the per diem guidelines set by Cisco, the expense report was automatically approved, with
an email sent automatically to the manager. Cisco then sent the expense reimbursement directly
to the American Express account. Cisco audited a random selection of expense reports, certain
expense categories, and any expense that fell out of the guidelines. For tax purposes, employees
had to put their receipts in an envelope and send them to Finance. If an employee’s expense
report was pulled for audit and the receipts for an expense report were not on-file, the auditors
put a hold on the employee’s expense reimbursements until all the supporting paperwork for the
expense report was filed.11 (See Exhibits 12-15 for examples of a complete expense report
submission.)
Managers at Cisco did not enter into the travel or expense process unless there were
exceptions. Many of the workforce applications operated in a similar fashion to the travel
expense system, although different guidelines were in effect for different categories of expenses.
For instance, Reed had to approve the purchase of all special office supplies and business cards
that her direct reports ordered (Cisco maintained supply closets with a standard set of office
supplies in each building).
Reed observed: “Cisco decentralizes many of the organizational activities. It’s this
decentralization coupled with good guidelines and good business processes that make it hard to
stray.” Donna Soave, a senior manager, said, “We like to have as little structure as possible in
order to encourage innovation, agility, and flexibility. You have to adhere to certain standards
but everything else you are empowered to do.”
Cisco found many organizational benefits associated with the implementation of these
types of applications:
· Reduced processing costs. For example, the average cost of an airline ticket
booked through the travel system was over $100 less than one booked by phone.
There were also fewer calls per travel transaction. The automated expense
system allowed Cisco to take advantage of timely payment and volume
discounts on its credit card transactions; expense transactions declined in cost
from $24 to $3 per transaction.
11 Cisco had three auditors to oversee the entire travel expense system.
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· Increased control. These applications made it possible to enforce Cisco’s policies
and guidelines automatically.
· Increased satisfaction. Employees liked having access to travel information at all
times, as well as being reimbursed quickly. Managers had more information
about the activities of their employees as well as a reduced workload because of
the “management by exception” policies. Employees such as auditors and travel
agents found that their workloads also decreased.
· Reduced cycle time. Fewer transactions needed reworking and outputs like
reimbursements and itineraries were available more quickly.
Heavy Use of E-Mail
One of the effects of working in a technology company that conducted most of its
internal and external business over the Internet and was located in a technology-oriented part of
the country was that employees communicated primarily via e-mail and voice mail. Reed
observed “I sometimes find it odd that instead of getting up and walking down the hall to talk to
someone, we use e-mail.”
The first thing that Reed did when she arrived at work was to check her e-mails and
voice mails. She might have as many as 30 e-mail messages and 5 voice mail message that had
come in overnight; receiving 60-70 e-mail messages a day was common. Cisco supplied every
employee with a laptop (which, along with a docking station and monitor, served as the desktop
system for many employees) and paid for home Internet access. Reed typically logged in to the
company intranet as soon as she got home.
The use of e-mail, however, did not seem to diminish the number of meetings that Reed
attended. Cisco used scheduling software that allowed others to schedule meetings with her and
occasionally Reed found her day filled with back-to-back meetings from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. At times
she believed that she spent too much time in formal meetings. Reed said, “I prefer casual face-to-
face interactions. They create rapport and build trust. Face-to-face interactions are not
discouraged here but there isn’t a lot of time for them.”
The Culture Badge
Cisco was not immune to the economic downturn that followed the dot-com crash in
April 2000. Cisco’s sales and growth in the next year dampened to the point that, in an effort to
cut costs, the company laid off 6,000 of its employees. Yet, even though Cisco’s revenues had
taken a tumble, managers and executives of other companies still came out to Silicon Valley to
learn how Cisco did business.
Reed had worked at other high-tech firms before coming to Cisco, and while Cisco used
information technology (IT) to a greater extent than many of those firms, Reed wondered if what
really distinguished Cisco from those firms was the company culture, something she felt was
very distinctive but hard to define.
She looked over her culture badge, which was one of the three badges issued to Cisco
employees. The security badge, used to gain entry into Cisco buildings, had identification
information and the employee’s photo on it. The second badge had the mission and values
printed on one side, and had the principles that senior management wanted to emphasize for the
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upcoming year, the key concepts that they saw as underlying the Cisco culture, imprinted on the
other.12 The third badge displayed the fiscal year goals, and noted the 3-5 year goals for the
company. (See Exhibit 16 for scans of the second and third badges.) Reed considered each
principle on the culture badge, wondering how what she thought of as the company principles
related to the culture she experienced on a daily basis.
“Open Communication”
Cisco made much of its corporate information available to its employees and shared
relevant information with suppliers and customers. Rebecca Jacoby observed, “We share much
more information than anyone thought was prudent.” Pete Solvik, Chief Information Officer,
said, “You give the employees themselves all the information. In a lot of companies, information
is power. At Cisco, information is empowerment. Technology clearly plays a big role in doing
this.”
The IT infrastructure was both sophisticated and integrated across the company (it also
integrated its partners into the network), and its implementation made transparency possible.
There were business rules codified in the IT infrastructure that described who got access to what
information. For instance, all Cisco employees had access to key metrics such as customer
satisfaction, overall revenue, and total costs, while more differentiated information was
restricted. Customers only had access to product information such as how to configure a router,
and suppliers were given access only to the sales data necessary for planning their inventory. For
the most part, however, Cisco gave out more rather than less information.
Making information available created opportunities for communication. For example,
the employee directory made all employee information available to all Cisco employees; the
employee directory record of John Chambers, the CEO, showed all of his contact and
organizational information and was no different than the employee directory record of the
average engineer. This gave Cisco employees the ability to contact anyone in the organization
that they needed to contact without having to go through managers or the chain of command.
Although information was generally available at Cisco, it was often undifferentiated in
terms of importance and usefulness. Reed commented “You don’t get context on the web.
There’s value in knowing who has the right information.” At times, it seemed that there was the
perception that if some information was useful, more information was better. Reed also noted
“Internally, Cisco doesn’t worry much about security and privacy.” Barbara Beck said, “Privacy
and security have not been issues because safeguards have been built into the system.” While
Cisco believed in transparency, Reed found that it was often hard to convince other companies
with whom she was working of the value of making organizational information widely available.
“Empowerment”
Cisco’s employees had great latitude in doing their jobs. Pete Solvik remarked, “The goal
of the IT is to empower the employee—to give them enough authority and access to information
to do their own thing.”
Cisco employees were expected to take initiative. For instance, customer satisfaction was
taken quite seriously. Reed said, “Employees are empowered to do right by Cisco and the
12 Senior management met each year to determine the items that would appear on the Culture badge for the
upcoming year. Culture badges were issued annually and often changed slightly from year to year. Cisco
management hoped that the Culture badge would help employees keep the principles in the forefront of
their minds when making decisions about the company and their work.
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customer. We are expected to make decisions that make the customer successful and we are
measured on the impact we have on customers.”
Taking initiative extended to deciding how one’s own work was to be done. Mary de
Wysocki said “Every quarter you are held to objectives. It is very measurable. You've got to be
able to lay out the scope, and how you will be held accountable. You really become better at
scoping a project, understanding the levels of commitment, the dependencies. In some ways, you
become a better planner.” Reed, however, noted about her work: “My goals have not been
explicitly reviewed. I’m an expert in my field and I know what has to be done. Quarterly goals
haven’t been necessary. However, people who are less savvy need more review.”
Many of the processes and systems that encouraged empowerment also gave the
employees the ability to be flexible in where and when they worked. For example, the company
issued laptops, implemented an intranet, and set up a wireless network so employees didn’t have
to plug in to work. Donna Soave commented, “Where you work is transparent,” and Barbara
Beck said, “We are trying to integrate the home, work, and family boundaries so that employees
can become more flexible in the times that they work. Employees can do work at home and can
take care of home issues at work.”
Empowerment carried costs. Reed observed, “There is the expectation that you will
work at home; I don’t like to but I do it. I have to be vicious about setting boundaries. It can be
hard to have a life.”
At work, there were also costs. Reed continued, “This is an intense, internally-focused
environment. There is a feeling of constant connection here. I hate my pager because it, not me,
manages my availability. People work long hours and don’t know how to say ‘no,’ although they
could, and Cisco throws money at them for working long hours. I would rather have the time
than the money. However, many employees hired in the last year13 are totally motivated by
compensation. A lot of them thought they were going to become rich in four or five years.”
Despite the costs, Reed believed employees were committed to the company. She said,
“For many employees, Cisco is their life. They are passionate and they achieve results.”
“Stretch Goals”
Setting and achieving goals were important at Cisco. Employees were held to a quarterly
set of objectives—goals that were meant to be visionary, specific, and measurable—and
employees were expected to achieve them. The goals that were set were the minimum and
employees were encouraged to “stretch beyond” or exceed them. Reed said, “It is a sink-or-swim
atmosphere. There are no excuses accepted for not planning or for procrastinating, although
saying you misjudged the scope of the project is allowed. The tight time frames do encourage
you to become a better planner.”
Employees at all levels were held accountable for achieving the goals that had been set.
Reed commented, “Managers also have to achieve; it is ‘up-or-out.’ We had a new executive in
my division who didn’t perform and he was gone within four months.”
Measurement was important in maintaining accountability and Reed noted, “We
measure everything.” Important overall measures were customer satisfaction and profit but the
13 Cisco doubled its employees from mid-1999 to the end of 2000 in an effort to deal with its sales growth.
Employees were given stock options as part of their compensation package; during that period, the
unemployment rate was low, Cisco’s stock price had reached record levels, and options were used as an
incentive to get people to join Cisco.
Networked at Cisco
12
IT system allowed Cisco to measure and track a number of other indicators. Pete Solvik
commented, “We measure people in a way that encourages them to have a laser-like focus on
things they can impact. We want our measures, metrics, and approach to be focused.”
Some measures were followed hourly (e.g. orders) others daily (e.g. expenses), weekly
(e.g. headcount), monthly (e.g. inventory turns), and quarterly (e.g. market share).14 Cisco’s
information was so readily available it could close its books in less than a day.15 While many
measures were available, Reed volunteered, “The link between the measures and succeeding here
is sometimes nebulous.”
“Teamwork”
Mary de Wysocki observed, “This is a community of individuals but we can only achieve
via teamwork and collaboration. Teams generate innovation at Cisco.” She went on, “But there
is no collaboration on the fly unless it is a win for all the parties involved. We collaborate if it is
in our MBOs16; then collaboration is part of the quarterly objectives.”
While Cisco used teams throughout the organization, individual success was also
important. Reed noted, “This is a very individualistic organization. You need to be competitive
and you have to know how to promote yourself.” Individuals were held to a tight set of
objectives and significant responsibility was put on the individual to articulate his or her
deliverables, identify the barriers to success, and manage expectations around those deliverables.
Although collaboration and teamwork were often the way that work got accomplished,
Reed remarked, “Collaboration tools are not extensively used at Cisco and while we could put
our work products on the web, we don’t necessarily do it. And there is no formal way to
specifically reward teamwork on an ongoing basis at Cisco.” Mary de Wysocki noted, “The
customer satisfaction score is one way that Cisco rewards teamwork. Bonuses are based on
customer satisfaction and if everyone is not doing their part, customer satisfaction will go down.
I can also use CAP awards17 to reward an individual or team that does an outstanding job.”
“Drive Change”
Cisco promoted fast-paced risk-taking. Decisions were made quickly, often with less
than total information. Cisco operated in an industry where innovations happened quickly and
spread rapidly. Barbara Beck said, “ We get 80% of the information that we need and then we go.
If we don’t take risks, we’ll get left behind.” Pete Solvik observed, “We believe in ‘ruthless
execution.’”
Agility, the ability to change direction rapidly, was prized. In order to test ideas,
employees often put together pilot projects that operated for several months and acted as
experiments. Cisco tried to make sure that its incentives encouraged that behavior. Reed
14 Tim Reason “The Class of 2000: Winners of the CFO Excellence Awards,” CFO, The Magazine for Senior
Financial Executives, October 2000.
15 The “virtual close,” as it is known, was quite a feat—completing a close in four days had previously been
considered superior. It took five years of examining and altering their businesses processes for Cisco to
achieve the “virtual close.”
16“MBOs” stands for “management by objectives” and is a shorthand for the objective or measurable goals
that an employee should meet within a given time period.
17CAP awards were instant cash awards ranging from $250 to $1000. A Cisco employee could be nominated
by anyone—employees, customers, or suppliers—for doing an outstanding job. The employee’s manager
would look over the nomination and if he or she agreed, the employee would receive a cash award within
48 hours.
Networked at Cisco
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commented, “Mistakes are made here and they don’t affect your career for life. The idea is to
develop the highest quality project within a limited time frame and then deploy it if it works and
get out soon if it doesn’t.” Donna Soave noted, “We learn from failures.” Time-to-market, rather
than perfect quality, often became the goal as errors could be fixed if the product or idea was a
success.
This emphasis on quick decision-making using limited information created discomfort
for some of the more recently hired employees. Sue Bostrom, Senior Vice President of Internet
Business Solutions, said, “People who are methodical, thoughtful, and analytical may not
necessarily fit at Cisco.”
“Frugality”
Cisco’s reputation for frugality dated back to its early years: The first CEO, John
Morgridge, was famous for his parsimony. For instance, he decreed that everyone in the
company would travel coach, an edict that still stood. Salesmen who had to travel to Asia
complained about the policy but Cisco continued to pay only for coach fares (employees didn’t
have to travel coach but did have to pay for the difference between coach and the upgrade).
Cisco encouraged frugality in many ways. Hung on the walls of the cafeteria and break
rooms were frugality tips (e.g. using a partner airline saved Cisco an average of $100 per ticket, or
booking conferences at a Cisco conference center rather than a hotel saved money). Cisco put
recycling bins in the conference rooms, break rooms, and cafeterias. The break rooms were
stocked with soft drinks and bottled water; bottled water, which was significantly cheaper than
soda, was a recent addition after an experiment showed that people were more likely to choose it
over soda, if given a choice. Frugality was even in evidence in the executive suite, which was
furnished with the same cubicles used in the rest of the Cisco offices. John Chambers, the CEO,
had a bit more room but his office surroundings were not luxurious.
The flat hierarchy (fewer than 5 levels) with large spans of control (10-20 reports per
manager was average and managers typically also had operating responsibilities) was another
indication of corporate frugality. Cisco was able to leverage its IT infrastructure to reduce
employee headcount. Reed noted, “Cisco is a lean company. They walk the talk.”
Another manifestation of frugality was Cisco’s embrace of hardware, software, and
networking protocol standards. Cisco used one make of personal computer, one make of server,
and one make of database software. No other products were supported or purchased. Reed said,
“Our CIO pushes standards ruthlessly.” Implementing a limited range of software and hardware
allowed the company to exploit economies of scale when purchasing, maintaining and
troubleshooting equipment and software.
The implementation of IT standards extended to acquisitions, and mandating
organization-wide consistency was instrumental in integrating the companies that Cisco
purchased. For instance, when Cisco acquired a company, it immediately moved the company
over to the Oracle database in use at Cisco; if the acquired company used a more advanced
version of Oracle than Cisco did, it was rolled back to the version that Cisco was using.
Cisco had implemented a variety of organizational standards as well. For instance,
Cisco’s buildings at its San Jose campus had similar exteriors, similar layouts inside, and the
same style of cubicles throughout. There were few signals that let people know what building
they were in or what floor they were on (maps were posted in stairwells and on the intranet).
Networked at Cisco
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Practicing frugality didn’t mean that Cisco didn’t spend money. It did, however, make
people aware of what they were buying and how those purchases could affect the bottom line.
Reed said, “It changes what you need and what you buy. You ask yourself if you really need that
item. When everyone is a stockholder, you don’t want to waste company money.”
“Quality Team”
Cisco tried to hire the top 10% of the employees that they interviewed and release the
bottom 5% annually. Reed described her colleagues: “Just about everyone with whom I’ve had
contact has been incredibly bright and very, very driven. It is truly amazing, considering the size
of the company.”
Cisco not only put effort into hiring good people, but also spent time and resources
training them. There was a comprehensive new-hire orientation, specialized training for
department like sales, and ongoing training for all employees. A Cisco employee, on average,
attended six training classes a year, a third of which were web-based. Reed noted, “In the long
run, I think the training provides a great return. It gives the employee the sense that you don't
have to wait to get things done because you know you have the tools to do it yourself.”
In Reed’s opinion, the careful selection process and the investment in training that Cisco
offered were practices that differed from those in other companies where she had worked. She
said, “I think this is a lean company with good management and excellent co-workers, and I’m
able to do interesting work here.”
“Trust/Fair/Integrity”
When asked about the principles that underpinned many of Cisco’s policies, employees
often mentioned trust. Pete Solvik said, “Empowerment, communication, innovation and risk
taking are clearly all big parts of our culture. And definitely trust and integrity. I don't think that
these are necessarily linked with technology.”
How much trust to give to employees was a topic of discussion early in Cisco’s history.
Barbara Beck talked about the decision to trust employees:
“We decided almost from the beginning that if we trusted our
employees, we were not going to create policies for the bottom .2% of the
employees that were out to screw the system. We were going to create
guidelines for managers to do the right thing, and we were going to give them
the context with which to make good decisions.
Once I hire an employee, I trust that individual has not joined this
company in order to steal from us; I trust that he or she will make the best
decision possible given the information about the context. I trust the employee
as an individual to do what's in the best interest of the company.”
The decision to trust employees laid the basis for relationships. Reed described how
trust worked between managers and their employees:
“My employees have got to think that we're supporting each other, that
we're all out to achieve that same goal. I think as the manager, I need to assume
that they are doing right by the customer. I'm going to make sure that I'm
providing my employees with the right information, the right support. But I also
have to give them enough room to execute. And I think an employee has to
assume that his or her manager is going to assign the right project, that the
Networked at Cisco
15
manager is rewarding him or her appropriately, and that the employee is getting
visibility, which is a reward these days as well. I do think this is a very trusting
environment.”
She then talked about how technology and trust related to each other, saying “Take the
Internet, it creates an opportunity for trust. No one's watching when you go. For example, we
trust people will work from their home and we provide tools to enable them to do so.”
“Market Transitions”
Donna Soave explained “Our emphasis on market transitions is defined as seizing
opportunities to gain market share during market transitions.” The economic downturn brought
about changes in how this was done at Cisco. Before the downturn, Pete Solvik noted, “Within
Cisco, there are some people that are looking at market disruptions and trends and directions,
absolutely. But is there a company-wide process around that? No.” Cisco had used customer
feedback and market intelligence as the basis for their decisionmaking. Mary de Wysocki said
about the slowdown “We were used to positive change. The global spending slowdown has
meant that we have to deal with negative change. We now do scenario planning.”
Besides becoming more aware of, and trying to take advantage of, changes in the market,
Cisco attempted to deal with market transitions in creative ways. For example, they laid off 6,000
employees in an effort to cut costs but offered those employees an option that allowed Cisco to
maintain ties. Employees who were laid off were given the opportunity to forego their severance
package and spend a year working for a nonprofit group already associated with Cisco. Cisco
would pay one-third of their salary, provide all of their benefits, and continue to give them their
stock option awards. Cisco hoped to be able to rehire many of these employees as soon as the
economy rebounded and many of the employees who took this option, hoped to be rehired at the
end of their nonprofit stint.18
In addition to being creative, Cisco executives attempted to communicate with those who
were to be laid off in a manner consistent with the way that they had communicated with
employees. They used the web to disseminate information and moved quickly to achieve their
goal. The company issued fair severance packages; a compensation consultant observed,
“Severance packages have been improving in recent years but Cisco’s generosity here is still way
ahead of the pack.”19
“No Technology Religion”
Cisco had “no technology religion” as the basis for its product development. They didn’t
build proprietary systems and offered a range of products and solutions to fit each customer's
needs. Many of their customers required integration of different technologies and the flexibility
to protect their legacy systems,20 while taking advantage of new technology.
The use of open and standard protocols drove Cisco to differentiate itself on dimensions
other than product features. Other companies could build competing products using the same
protocols (the protocols were industry standards) and customers were able to compare
18 Kemba J. Dunham, “Employers Seek Ways to Lure Back Laid-Off Workers When Times Improve,” Wall
Street Journal, B1, June 19, 2001.
19 Penelope Patsuris, “Cisco Sets the Stage for Severance,” Forbes.com, April 18, 2001
20 www.computerwords.com defines a legacy system as a system in which a company has invested
considerable time and money. An important feature of newer systems is the ability to work with these older
systems.
Networked at Cisco
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equipment choices because of the standardization. Although customers valued consistency and
standards, Cisco had to offer its customers something above and beyond a standardized product
that fit their needs.
“Customer Success”
Pete Solvik said, “We are customer obsessed. I fundamentally believe that if we did
nothing else but listen, react, and serve the customer, we would be successful. Here at Cisco,
spending time with a customer is a higher priority than anything else. It is valued, it is
recognized, and it is rewarded.” He reported that Cisco did almost no strategic planning but
instead focused on serving customers. He went on, “We use technology to measure and track
our interactions with customers. We’ve been able to increase the amount of customer contact by
using the web, and our investment in IT is correlated to customer satisfaction.” Many of Cisco’s
employees had bonus plans that were based, in part, on measures of customer satisfaction.21
There was an expectation of limitless availability when it came to serving a customer.
Employees were expected to drop what they were doing and make room on their schedule when
a customer had a problem or was seeking advice. Reed remarked, “There is an expectation of
responsiveness here and not being responsive can hold you back.”
Customers seemed to appreciate the focus. A system administrator at one of Cisco’s
customers reported “Cisco’s IT really supports customer service. If you call customer support with
your equipment serial numbers, you will get immediate information about your equipment.” He
added “Cisco also responds quickly to its customers in other ways. One day, a router failed and the
network went down. I called Cisco and reported it. Their offices were only a couple of miles away
and within an hour, they had put a new router in a van and driven it over.”
Transforming a Firm’s Business Practices
Reed put down her culture badge. She reflected that a focus on customer success was
part of the Cisco way of doing things and that her upcoming meeting with the automobile
executive was an example of how Cisco employees tried to help their customers succeed. As
Reed got ready for her meeting, she pondered how other companies might implement
applications similar to those used at Cisco. Cisco’s successful use of IT to transform its own
business was not just a result of its technology choices. Cisco was committed to putting as much
information and as many business processes on the web as made economic and organizational
sense, yet they didn’t rush. Barbara Beck said, “You can’t just ‘webify’ systems, you have to set
them up carefully. You have to think systematically and ask “What are we trying to do?’
Mistakes are made when we don’t think this way.”
Cisco had the IT capacity and competency to implement any number of internal IT
applications. Yet Reed was unsure of what contributed to successful use of such applications:
technical expertise, the funding model or adherence to company principles. Reed asked herself,
“What resources would another company have to have and what would they have to do to
successfully implement these types of systems and transform their business practices?”
21 The Senior Management Incentive Plan for fiscal year 2001, for example, was based on measures of
individual performance, company performance, customer satisfaction, and company strategic performance.
Bonuses for senior managers were targeted to be 40%-60% of base salary. For more information, see Cisco’s
2000 10-K.
Networked at Cisco
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Exhibit 1
Cisco Revenue Growth: FY1993-EFY2001
Cisco Net Sales, in millions of dollars, FY1993-EFY2001
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
FY1993
FY1994
FY1995
FY1996
FY1997
FY1998
FY1999
FY2000
Est FY2001
Cisco operates on a July 1- June 30 fiscal year.
FY2001 revenues are estimated, based on a June 14, 2001 research report from Morgan Stanley
Dean Witter.
Networked at Cisco
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Exhibit 2
Cisco Employee Growth: FY1995-EFY2001
Cisco, Number of Employees, FY1995-EFY2001
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
FY1995
FY1996
FY1997
FY1998
FY1999
FY2000
Est FY2001
Cisco operates on a July 1- June 30 fiscal year.
FY2001 numbers are estimates, and reflect the layoffs. At the time of the layoffs, in April 2001,
Cisco had 44,000 employees. 6,000 of those employees were subsequently laid off.
Networked at Cisco
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Exhibit 3
Cisco Employee Directory: Employee Record
In the Quick Search function of the Employee Directory, several fields are searched with one
entry, and wild-card searches are automatic:
· First Name
· Last Name
· Nickname
· User ID
· Phone Number
In the Advanced Search function, all fields can be searched, and several fields can be searched at
once.Wild-card searches are not assumed.
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxx
xxxxx
*Note: Dummy data has been added where private information was reported.
In the employee record, the employee’s basic reporting structure is represented. By clicking on
the “Reports” button, you can see the employee’s basic reporting structure represented with the
ability to drill down for each report in a new browser window. (See Exhibit 4 for a screen shot of
part of a reporting chain.)
Networked at Cisco
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Exhibit 4
Cisco Employee Directory: Employee Record Reporting Chain
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xx
xxx
xxxx
xx
x
xxxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xx
xxx
xxxx
xx
x
xxxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xx
xxx
xxxx
xx
x
xxxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xxx
xxx
xxx
xxx
x
xxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xx
xxx
xxxx
xx
x
xxxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xxx
xxx
xxx
xxx
x
xxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xx
xxx
xxxx
xx
x
xxxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xxx
xxx
xxx
xxx
x
xxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xx
xxx
xxxx
xx
x
xxxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xx
xxx
xxxx
xx
x
xxxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xx
xxx
xxxx
xx
x
xxxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xx
xxx
xxxx
xx
x
xxxx
xxxxx
x
xxx
xxxx
xx
xxx
xxxx
xx
x
xxxx
xxxxx
x
xx
xxxx
xx xxxxxx
xxx
x
xxx
*Note: In this record, only part of the reporting chain is displayed.
*Note: Information includes phone numbers and links to email. Dummy data has been filled in
to protect the privacy of the individuals.
Cisco uses this format in lieu of an organization chart; it is not a matrix management structure.
Note that you can drill-down for each report through new browser windows.
Networked at Cisco
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Exhibit 5
Cisco Employee Directory: User-Editable Fields
· User-editable fields are kept to a minimum.
· The employee directory is not the database of record.
· User authentication is required for modification.
Networked at Cisco
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Exhibit 6 Timeline
of
Cisco Human Resource Processes Migration to the Web
Month
Year
Human Resource Process
Implemented
Implemented
1994
WebViper enables web-based lookup of
employee information
November
1995
Benefits Open Enrollment enabled
1996
WebViper to Directory launch
January
1996
24/7 availability of Web Benefits system
March
1996
MAT Version 1 (Client Server)
April
1996
Employee stock information on the web
August
1996
Address change form is put on the web-auto
interfaces to HR system
December
1996
PeopleSoft Implementation begins
February
1997
Metro (Travel & Expense system)
April
1997
MAT is web-enabled via Citrix for the U.S.
October
1997
PeopleSoft goes live on the global system
December
1997
Café Req goes live in limited usage
April
1998
MAT goes global
December
1998
First version of CAFÉ CAP on-line
March
1999
CAFÉ CAP released for all U.S. on Plexus
work flow
May
1999
PeopleSoft upgraded to Version 7.5
August
1999
Benefits system converted to Healtheon ASP
Ecosystem partner
October
1999
WebLetters streamlines letter distribution
process
December
1999
MOCHA project begins
March
2000
Metro II (Extensity) EMEA launch
November
2000
MOCHA goes live
December
2000
Span of Control application
March
2001
ePM (performance management)
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Exhibit 7
Cisco Employee Connection: Employee Toolkit on Human Resources Web Page
Networked at Cisco
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Exhibit 8
Travel and Expense Reimbursement Process
A typical process at a large firm would involve the 7 steps listed in the table below.
Typical
Cisco
Guidelines, budgets
Guidelines, budgets, pre-
Set-up
approved vendors
Employee calls company
Employee books own travel
Propose travel
travel agency
online
Approve travel
Manager approves in advance Only if not on the vendor list
Advances, employee credit
Company credit card
Travel
card
Paper submission to manager
Online, with receipts in
Request reimbursement
parallel
Approve reimbursement
Manager
Only if outside guidelines
Reimburse
Company pays employee
Company pays credit card
Note that the typical firm controlled its expenses by focusing on the approval process while Cisco
focused on the set-up.
Typical bus
u i
s ness
s
s tr
t avel and reimburse
s ment p
t rocess
s
Set up
Pr
P opose
os
Approve
ov
Re
R quest
ques
Approve
tr
t avel
v s
el ys
y t
s em
Trav
Tr e
av l
Re
R imburse
tem
s
trave
v l
tr
t avel
av
reimbur
im
se
s .
reim
i bu
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bu s
r e.
Performed b
f
y:
y
Mgm
g t
m
Em
E ployee
m
Manage
nag r
Emp
m loyee’s
Empl
m oyee
oy
Manager
Che
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ck
and tr
and t avel
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n cr di
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rd
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on
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fo s
rm
empl
em oyee
Cisco busi
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a el land re
an
imbu
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m nt
n pr
p oc
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Set up
Pr
P opose
os
Re
R quest
ques
tr
t avel
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el ys
y t
s em
Trav
Tr e
av l
Ex
Re
R imburse
tem
s
trave
v l
E
reimbur
im
se
s .
x
c
c
e
e
p
Performed b
f
y:
y
p
t
t
i
ti
o
oi
n
Mgm
g t
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Em
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m
n
Emp
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l
s
Empl
m oyee
oy
s
s
Cis
Ci co to
s
o
on
o -line
-line
o
n
n
bus
u i
s ness
i
cr
ness edit
edi car
t
d on
o -line
n
l
AmE
Am x
l
l
y
ly
efault approval
efault approv
efault approval
efault approv
D
D
Approve
Approve
ov
reim
i bu
m r
bu s
r e.
tr
t avel
av
Manager
Mana
Man ge
g r
Networked at Cisco
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Exhibit 9
Cisco Travel System: Flight Selection
Original
rigin
choice is price
c
d
hoice is price
System the
y
n
stem the offers more f
rs mo
rug
u al options
al option
Employee is originally presented with a set of flights. Cost is set when flight is selected. Once a
flight is selected, the system then presents cheaper options.
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Exhibit 10
Cisco Travel System: Hotel Search
Once a flight has been selected, the system asks the employee if car or hotel reservations are
needed. The system also presents notes about the hotel confirmation process.
Search
S
for
earch
H
for O
H TEL
by name, add
by
r
name, add ess or
near
nea es
e t Cisco
t Cisco Office
Ci
C sc
s o main sites
and r
and emote loca
e
t
mote loca ion
o s
are bui
are bu lt into CT
n
N as
to CT
referenc
e
e points
ferenc
Special cancellation policies will be noted in the results, along with room rates, distance from the
airport to the hotel, and whether each hotel listed is a Cisco preferred provider.
Networked at Cisco
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Exhibit 11
Cisco Travel System: Payment Page
When lo
When
w
lo est far
est
e
far
is not
is no chose
ch
n
ose
empl
emp oyees are
y
Cred
Cre it card
it ca
da
d ta
ees are
ta
ta
For rese
res rvin
rv g
in ca
c r/h
r/ ot
o e
t l
requ
req ired to
docume
do
nt reaso
cume
n
nt reaso
Em
E ployee
ploy c
ee a
c n choo
n
se
choo
to PURC
to PU
H
RC AS
A E
S or
SAVE DA
SA
TA
VE DA
as t
TA
emp
m late
Networked at Cisco
28
Exhibit 12
Cisco Expense System: Example of a Listing of Expense Reports for an Employee
Networked at Cisco
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Exhibit 13
Cisco Expense System: Example of an Expense Report
Networked at Cisco
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Exhibit 14
Cisco Expense System: Example of Expense Report Status and Audit Flags
No
N te
o th
te e
th
e Audi
A
t Flags
g .
Rand
Ra
om indi
n c
di a
c tes
a
th
tes at th
th
e
at th ex
e
pe
ex n
pe s
n e
s
report
o wa
w s
a r
s an
a domly pul
y
l
pul ed for
o audit.
Other ca
c t
a egories
ri o
es f aud
u it in
i c
n lude Au
to
t
and Policy
Po
.
licy
Networked at Cisco
31
Exhibit 15
Cisco Expense System: Manager Notification of an Expense Report Submission
From: metro@cisco.com [mailto:metro@cisco.com]
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2001 11:41 PM
To: MANAGER @cisco.com
Subject: Notification of Expense Report Submission (XXXX)
*** DO NOT reply to this email. If you have questions or concerns then
please
FORWARD this message to metro@cisco.com or call the METRO
hotline at (408) 527-2000 ***
Expense Report Number : XXXX
Department Charged : 070132
Employee Name : XXXX
Start Date : 13-MAY-2001 End Date : 18-MAY-2001
Expense Amount : $88.05
Purpose : May VPN Expenses
Policy Errors :
No policy errors
Message : The Expense Report has been submitted for the above
Employee. If you'd like to view this Expense Report, click on the URL
below. If you have questions or do not want this report to be processed
for payment, please contact a local METRO Application Analyst as soon as
possible. US- (408) 527-2000 or email metro@cisco.com Canada-(416)
306-7179 or (416) 306-7137 or email metro-can@cisco.com Australia-
email oz-syd-payables@cisco.com
http://expenses/FinAdm/Travel/METRO/cgi-bin/mr.cgi?E=ddormine01015
[MANAGER]
Networked at Cisco
32
Exhibit 16
Cisco FY 2001 Badges
The Vision and Culture images comprise one of the three badges issued to employees and the
FY2001 Initiatives and Goals images comprise a second badge. The third badge, not shown here,
is the security badge containing individual employee information.
