Teaming with Industry Innovators, Cisco Delivers Workforce Solution That Increases Productivity and Cost Savings
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- March 30, 1999 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced a new Internet-based solution that helps organizations improve strategic competitiveness by transforming paper-based and repetitive operations into online processes, such as purchasing, expense reporting, training, and sales support. By doing so, an organization's workforce can more effectively focus on value-added activities that increase productivity and improve cost savings. A critical component of the Cisco Workforce Optimization solution is an integrated network architecture that allows organizations to realize the full performance and productivity benefits of Internet-based applications.
As part of this Workforce Optimization solution, Cisco has formed partnerships with best-in-class application vendors and systems integrators to deliver a complete solution. The Internet-based application vendors for this initial offering are Ariba for online procurement, Extensity for online expense reporting, Oblix for managing and provisioning corporate services, and PeopleSoft for human resources foundation systems. In addition, Cisco has teamed with Ernst & Young and KPMG to offer customers critical business process reengineering and systems integration capabilities. All of these partners have selected Cisco as their strategic networking vendor. Together, Cisco and these partners provide an integrated offering that enables organizations to rapidly realize the complete business benefits of this solution.
"One of Cisco's greatest competitive advantages created is its ability to function faster than other companies in our industry and to share information to empower our employees. Cisco's use of web-based technology is a key enabler in optimizing our workforce capability," says Barbara Beck, senior vice president of human resources at Cisco. "The financial impact of using workforce optimization applications at Cisco now exceeds $50 million annually through expense reduction and cost savings. Cisco also has the added benefit of significantly increasing its employee productivity and its employees' ability to contribute in a meaningful way."
"At Merrill Lynch we turned to Cisco as a case model in deploying our own web-based employee services applications," said Joan Bader, first vice president at Merrill Lynch, Inc. "Based on their successful implementation and experience with Internet technologies, we believe Cisco offered an excellent example of how to best utilize the Internet for similar strategic business advantage. By learning about Cisco's real-world experience, in conjunction with their Internet-based networking model, we've been able to move quickly in building our own world-class intranet and deploying Internet-based applications with immediate results."
Easier, Faster, Less Costly, More Secure - Running Better on Cisco
Four best-in-class application vendors-Ariba, Extensity, Oblix, and PeopleSoft-are working jointly with Cisco to optimize the performance and functionality of their products on a Cisco network. These vendors will also leverage Cisco's networking services such as quality of service, policy management, and network security capabilities, which allow organizations to prioritize network traffic from specific applications and users, as well as enhance end-to-end security.Leveraging the Power of the Internet - Critical Ingredients of Any Solution
A key component of any Internet-based solution should include a roadmap that translates business objectives into an Internet-based strategy. The Cisco solution provides tools and best practices to develop this roadmap. Consulting partners provide critical business process re-engineering and systems integration services to achieve a high-quality implementation of Internet applications. Finally, Cisco provides a network foundation that is highly scalable, reliable, secure, and optimized to support Internet-based applications.Customers are already seeing tangible benefits of this solution. "The ability of Cisco to bring the appropriate business and technology experts to the detailed workshop they held for us brought immediate results to our project," said Stephanie Vilalta, IT project manager at Texas Instruments, Inc. "As a result, Texas Instruments now has the right vision and plan defined, and we are rapidly moving towards our new model. It is important to TI's success in these efforts to have Cisco as an ongoing advisor as we bring this new vision to reality."
Additional Internet Powered Solutions from Cisco
In 1999, Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group, led by Vice President Sue Bostrom, has unveiled two business solutions based on the Internet-Workforce Optimization solution, and Internet Commerce solution. The latter helps companies rapidly build Internet sites for online business transactions. Other Internet powered solutions for Customer Care and Supply Chain Management will be announced later this year.Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet.Cisco, Cisco IOS, Cisco Systems and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.