Cisco Systems - The Supply Chain Story
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Cisco – The Networked Supply Chain Contd...
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In 1985, the company started a customer support site through which customers could download software over FTP1 and also upgrade the downloaded software. It also provided technical support through e-mail to its customers. In 1990, Cisco installed a bug report database on its site. The database contained information about potential software problems to help customers and developers.
The system allowed customers to find out whether a specific problem was unique, and if not, how other customers had solved that problem. By 1991, Cisco's support center was receiving around 3,000 calls a month. This figure increased to 12,000 by 1992. In order to deal with the large volume of transactions, the company built a customer support system on its website.
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TABLE I
CISCO – THE MILESTONES
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YEAR |
EVENTS |
| 1984 |
Founded in a living room by the husband-wife team of Sandy Lerner and Len Bosack. Router used for the first time to move information from one network to another. |
| 1990 |
Cisco goes public. |
| 1992 |
Plans a global supply network; outsources manufacturing and distribution. |
| 1993 |
Acquires Crescendo, a low end LAN switch maker for $ 100 million. |
| 1994 |
Launches Cisco Connection Online website. |
| 1995 |
John Chambers becomes the CEO and accelerates the acquisition strategy by acquiring four companies in the same year. |
| 1996 |
Cisco moves into the WAN switch market, acquires Startcom for $ 4.5 billion |
| 1997 |
Cisco starts its global direct fulfillment system. Products are directly shipped by third party logistics partners from the manufacturer to the customer |
| 1998 |
Cisco prepares to become a single vendor servicing the network arena. Enters into alliances with integration partners like KPMG and IBM to provide solutions. |
Source: ICMR
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