Competition Analysis : Cisco Systems, Inc. Essay

Verizon has gone through many changes in the last few years. The communication industry is extremely competitive and this company would not have had a chance of forming at all, except for the government ordered breakup of AT&T in 1984. Their targeted areas of communication are cellular, paging and PCS services for corporate and individual customers. They have been trying to expand their business for corporate local goods and services.

“Networks are all around us. They are in our walls, in the air. At schools, hotels, hospitals, even coffee shops. Always there, always on…This power exists today. In our routers. In our switches... . (Cisco, n.d.)

- Processes - In many ways, Verizon is still three companies (Bell Atlantic, Nynex, and GTE). Although Verizon has consolidated and standardized some of their processes, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Doug Allred was Vice President of Customer Advocacy organization of the Cisco’s corporation. This organization was erected to consolidated all functions that directly touched the customer but sales to provide high-quality customer service. Since August 2001, the IT market turned down and brought severe challenges to Cisco as the company had to lay off 18% of its employees and reorganized its structure, transforming from decentralized organizational structure with three business units to centralized organization. However, these changes stabilized the volatile situation of the economy but threatened Cisco’s customer focus, a

Swagger Distribution’s networking illustration is showing a wired networking system for the company. As the diagram shows, the companies system is most important in the computer room. This is where most of the company’s connection begins. The internet, which is the WAN (Wide Area Network) is the beginning to the LAN (Local Area Network). This starts with the WAN coming into the computer room’s T1 Demarcation Router. The T1 Demarcation Router is then connected to the Main Router which has a connection to the Firewall as well as the Ethernet Switch. The Ethernet Switch then has a Fiber Optic cable connecting to the warehouse Remote Ethernet Switch. This allows

Cisco Systems, Inc. designs, made, and vends networking products based on the Internet Protocol equipment and facilities connected to the telecommunication and information technology business globally. Cisco Systems is controlling the market for these kind of equipment based on the IP protocol. The company manufactures and vends

“Verizon Communications Inc. (Verizon) is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services. Verizon’s wireline business, which includes the operations of the former MCI, provides telephone services, including voice, broadband data and video services, network access, nationwide long-distance and other communications products and

Verizon is a major telecommunication provider in the United States. The company is the market leader, with $110 billion revenue and $2.4 billion in profit (MSN Moneycentral, 2012). Verizon has steady revenue streams that are largely based on a subscription model. It has several business segments, including wireless (63.3% of revenues) and wireline (36.7%) (2011 Verizon Annual Report). Most of this report will therefore focus on the wireless business, not only because this is the largest business that the company operates but because it is a rapidly growing and evolving business as well, a function of the rapid pace of smartphone adoption in America.

1a. How did Cisco find itself in trouble with regard to its intended IT prior to Brad Boston's arrival?

The nature of the market structure and demand of Cisco Systems is its business market which contains fewer but larger companies. For Cisco Systems, this implies that even though they have fewer clients than other companies, they still have a good and profitable relationship with their clients. For the customers of Cisco Systems, this implies that they will receive better and faster service and products because they don’t have to compete for the attention and service of Cisco Systems.

Cisco Systems, Inc. is an IT company that specializes in the selling of networking and communication products and services. It is a B2B company where they sell its products primarily to large enterprises and telecommunications service providers, but it also markets products designed for small businesses and consumers such as routers, modems, and home network management software. The products and services aim to transport data, voice and video communication within buildings and campuses as well as around the globe. The services include routing, switching, home networking internet protocol telephony, optical networking, security,

Among all the competitors AT&T is the biggest competitor of Verizon, Verizon acquired “Alltel wireless” in beginning of year 2009 to overtake AT&T and become the largest wireless mobile network company in U.S.

In its 2012 annual report the company states “innovation in networks is the foundation for growth across the whole industry.” Therefore, Verizon has not only developed strong partnerships aimed at enhancing services; the company has also expanded into the digital healthcare industry, reduced reliance on energy usage, and will continue to expand vertically to other industries where their technologies can influence social change.

Verizon Communications formed by the merger of two big and successful companies, Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp., is the largest telecommunication company. The company serves large part of the market in United States. However the company faces certain strengths and weaknesses which affect the way company formulate its strategies.

1. Cisco suffered from inertia when an attempt was made to engage business management in selecting software for their individual areas, and/or agreeing to participate in the ERP implementation project. List and explain reasons why management would hesitate to become engaged in the IT process/project.