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Spreadsheet for case #301-099

In a seven-year process, Cisco built its strategic I-Net. Beginning in 1994, Cisco completely replaced its back-office legacy systems. At that time, the company standardized Internet protocols. In addition, the company shifted strategic focus from IT back-office applications to front-office applications. After ERP (enterprise resource planning), the company spent the next two years electronically connecting with customers. A rewritten version of two earlier cases. A consolidated version of the Cisco Systems ERP and Cisco Systems Web-enablement cases. Designed to be taught in one class session (if two class sessions are available, it is recommended that Cisco ERP Systems be used for one session followed by Cisco Systems Web-enablement).

DPSC created and marketed a range of compliance software to banks. Nine months after DPSC was purchased by Netzee, Netzee was in financial trouble. Since Netzee had purchased DPSC, DPSC's founder felt that Netzee had not fully utilized the potential of DPSC. He wanted to share his assessment of the merger and thoughts on future strategy with the new Netzee chief executive officer.

With distributed computing, companies can save money by allocating tasks among all computers on their networks. New business applications may emerge, too. Intel's CTO discusses the opportunities and challenges.

eLance.com allowed buyers to find sellers for time-sensitive project work without limiting bids to sellers within the vicinity of the buyer's physical office. It was just finishing the beta test of its site which had facilitated over 30,000 transactions in the past year. eLance was in the midst of closing its second round of venture financing which would allow it to execute its plan to become the premier online global services marketplace. To do this, it needed to prevent disintermediation - instances when eLance buyers and sellers, after being introduced on the eLance site, decide to conduct future project-related transactions offline. This would prevent eLance from mediating these transactions and gaining revenue from them. eLance had already implemented several customer-focused onsite and offline features to deter disintermediation. The co-founder and vice-president of business development had to determine what incentives were needed to keep customers dealing with each other through the site rather than offline.

DoubleClick, Inc., with global headquarters in New York City and over 30 offices around the world, was a leading provider of comprehensive Internet advertising solutions for marketers and web publishers. It combined technology, media, and data expertise to centralize planning, execution, control, tracking, and reporting for online media companies. DoubleClick was able to track Internet users' surfing habits (but not the surfers' identities), allowing it to personalize ads for specific market groups. When DoubleClick announced it was merging with Abacus Direct, a direct marketing company with a database of consumer names, addresses, and retail purchasing habits of 90% of American households, it raised many privacy-related questions and concerns. Several Internet privacy activists had filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission after being informed by media sources that DoubleClick had the ability to divulge a person's identity by merging the databases of the two companies and matching the information in "cookies" with a surfer's profile. The president was confident that its internal practices were sound, but he wondered whether they would placate advertising clients afraid of consumer backlash, the concerns of Internet surfers, and the company's investors.

The value of the Internet lies in its connections, but some connections are more valuable than others. Which matter most? Reed's Law can tell you.

Data remains one of our most abundant yet underutilized resources. This article provides a holistic framework that will help companies maximize this resource. Outlines the elements necessary to transform data into knowledge and then into business results. Managers must understand that human elements--strategy, skills, culture--need to be attended to along with technology. Examines the experiences of over 20 companies that were successful in their data-to-knowledge efforts. Identifies the critical success factors that must be present in any data-to-knowledge initiative and offers advice for companies seeking to build a robust analytic capability.

Examines Adobe's battle with Microsoft to establish de facto standards in the emerging eBook space.

Why own your computer applications? You can rent just what you need, when you need it, from a new breed of application service provider.

Describes how Cisco web-enabled their ERP systems and developed the "front office" systems to electronically link to their customers and suppliers. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

This case looks at the issues facing a Hong Kong-based trading company, which links hundreds of factories in India and Asia with major customers like Gap and the Limited in Europe and in the United States. The company has recently launched a dot-com operation to allow its extraordinary network of factories in Asia to target much smaller retail chains in Asia and Europe than they were able to do before.

This case describes how eight entrepreneurs discover different opportunities for new businesses to exploit a single technological invention. The case focuses on the process of entrepreneurial discovery and its implications for the creation of new firms. Many of the teaching materials on entrepreneurship assume that entrepreneurs have already discovered an opportunity. While these materials provide useful information about the process of creating new enterprises, they miss the crucial first step in the entrepreneurial process: identifying an opportunity. The case illustrates the theoretical concept of the role of information in the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities. It can be used in a class on entrepreneurship or management of technology.

Computer simulations help companies determine how they'll optimize their use of the billions of software agents--shopbots and pricebots--that will increasingly become part of the Internet economy.

Here's a primer on XML, an Internet technology that's helping to shape the future of e-business.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Excellence at investing in and deploying IT isn't sufficient to achieve superior business performance: companies must also excel at collecting, organizing, and maintaining information and at getting their people to embrace the right behaviors and values for working with information. The authors present the results of a two-and-a-half-year international research project led by the Institute for Management Development. They show that senior managers view strong IT practices, competent management of information, and good information behaviors as components of one higher level idea--Information Orientation" or IO--which measures a company's capabilities to manage and use information effectively. IO is also a predictor of business performance. Among the guidelines: Focus your best IT resources on what makes you distinctive; actively manage all phases of the information life cycle; develop an explicit, focused view of the information necessary to run the business; and do not compromise on information integrity.

Supplements the (A) case.

Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand merged in July 1998, creating one of the world's largest full-service professional organizations. This case provides a study of how two major organizations are putting together a global knowledge base that would facilitate communication and coordination within the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) practice. Eventually, this knowledge base would be made available to PwC clients. Discusses the changes, issues, and challenges at PwC in building its Intranet, called KnowledgeCurve, a knowledge management system that incorporates all the assets (knowledge, people, skills) of the company to be utilized by the firm. In order for the organization to be successful, it is crucial for PwC to encourage the users to fully utilize the available resources and to contribute information to the KnowledgeCurve. At the time this case was written, PwC is in its initial stages of setting up its Global Knowledge Curve, which would ultimately serve the entire practice. The limitations in using the Global Knowledge Curve led to the creation of Knowledge Curve at each office level, which incorporates the knowledge base and information important to the local level.

Explores the implementation of a cutting-edge knowledge management system in a midsize, specialty chemical company. The initiative, begun in the early 1990s, has received several awards for its efforts. In early 1999, the company is experiencing severe price pressures in all of its key markets and has had to transfer its entire system to a new platform.

This article identifies the major enablers and inhibitors in the achievement of business-Information Technology (IT) alignment. Alignment involves the activities that management performs to achieve cohesive goals across the IT and functional (e.g., finance, marketing, manufacturing) organizations. Therefore, alignment addresses both how IT is in harmony with the business, and how the business should or could be in harmony with IT. IT requires strong support from senior management, good working relationships, strong leadership, appropriate prioritization, trust, and effective communication, as well as a thorough understanding of the business environment. This article develops a methodology that leverages the most important enablers and inhibitors to business-IT alignment.