CHICAGO (Industry Week SMART Manufacturing Show 2005) September 19, 2005 -- Cisco Systems, Inc., today announced, at Industry Week SMART Manufacturing Show, the Cisco® Demand Driven Supply Chain (DDSC) solution, which links business applications throughout the supply chain over Internet Protocol (IP). The second solution of the Cisco Intelligent Networked Manufacturing strategy, the DDSC solution enables customers to better integrate information and processes spanning the entire manufacturing workflow. By providing a highly secure visibility into the supply chain, customers can build in the flexibility needed in today's manufacturing world, meet expectations more efficiently, operate more profitably, and respond to market dynamics and mandates.

Cisco has teamed with D.W. Morgan to provide Fortune 1000 manufacturers supply-chain expertise and logistics planning with the Cisco DDSC solution. Together, D.W. Morgan's industry-leading expertise and Cisco Systems® world-class networking products and services allow companies to more effectively respond to customer demands and share that information in real-time in a highly secure environment with all partners in the development, sales and services of its products.

One such company, Adept Technologies, Inc., wanted to control costs and increase operational efficiency. The company needed to expand visibility throughout the supply chain to ensure availability of parts, minimize logistics and transportation costs, and maintain high customer service levels. To retain a focus on its core competencies and still achieve its growth and customer service goals, Adept decided to outsource its logistics and transportation management functions by working with D.W. Morgan and Cisco.

"This solution will let us converge worldwide resources to respond immediately to customer needs. We might connect a customer in China to a service person in Germany, who could dispatch the necessary part from a Singapore facility," said Lee Blake, vice president/general manager, Adept Services. "We know what parts are available, where they're located, where they're needed and how to ship them fast and cost-effectively."

"The days of individuals forecasting and reforecasting are coming to an end. Demand changes in a flash, and as supply chains become more outsourced and global, sensing these changes becomes tougher. The answer is the Cisco Demand Driven Supply Chain, a solution for real-time collaboration that helps ensure all links of the value chain are active participants," said Scott Westlake, Worldwide Manufacturing Industry Marketing Lead, Cisco Systems. "We are excited to be working with D.W. Morgan, one of the true leaders in the supply chain optimization services industry."

"What's needed to serve the new, all-powerful consumer is a new kind of supply system," said D.W. Morgan President David Morgan. "Morgan and Cisco provide exactly what's needed-an intelligent network in every sense of the word: networked hardware, networked communication and networked collaboration management with industry-leading security features. Whether you embrace this demand-driven supply chain or ignore it can determine whether you dominate your industry or go out of business in the years ahead."

"One key problem for many supply chains is the problem of integrating to smaller suppliers and customers. The Cisco supply-chain solution offers increased flexibility through some unique capabilities in this area. It provides a highly secure communication platform ready for the integration of services like RFID and IP Telephony," said Steve Banker, service director, supply chain management, ARC Advisory Group. "IP telephony can help to automate transactions with small suppliers. For example, a supplier can receive a voice-mail message that allows him to push one key to increase an order or another key to decline the opportunity. Moreover, as Cisco optimizes the network for supply-chain applications, customers can centrally deploy and manage upgrades without parachuting IT experts around the world."

The Cisco DDSC solution comprises the following products:

• Cisco Integrated Services Routers
• Cisco wireless LAN solutions
• Cisco integrated security solutions
• Cisco IP Communications and voice solutions

The D.W. Morgan Company helps companies optimize supply networks for the digitized, collaborative, global business environment, creating enormous cost efficiencies, new revenue sources and competitive advantages. By transforming the supply chain, manufacturers can more accurately anticipate and respond to customer needs, operate more cost-effectively, create a major competitive advantage and better manage changing financial compliance mandates.

The combined solutions and expertise help organizations:

• Feed real-time data about customer demand into the production and distribution process
• Gain visibility to actively eliminate blockages in a supply chain that can cause disruptions and delays
• Improve sales and order forecasting, manufacturing and distribution planning
• Spend less time and money on procurement
• Support virtualization and outsourcing of non-core activities without losing speed, visibility, control or quality