Cisco is an IT company which sells hardware components that enables the internet to be fully functional, reliable, and independent. Cisco's main product is routers, which control how information flows across the internet. .
Back in 1993, Cisco was a $500 million company that utilized a "Unix based software package to support its core transactions processing" (Austin, Nolan & Cotteleer). Peter Slovick, the new CIO of Cisco, realized that that package Cisco was currently using would not be nearly sufficient for the tremendous growth that Cisco was anticipating. However, Mr. Slovick preferred not to invest in an ERP solution, instead he let "each functional area make its own decision regarding the application and timing of its move" (Austin, Nolan & Cotteleer). Mr. Solvick was wary about the expenditures that an ERP solution would incur. Mr. Slovick wanted all functional areas to make their own financial considerations while still realizing that the overall budget was the concern of the IT department, ergo, Mr. Slovick himself. Mr. Slovick's trepidation about an ERP solution was born out of fear. He did not wish the company or himself to be involved in such a "mega-project" that ERP implementations inevitably become. .
Instead Mr. Slovick's decision to "let each functional area make its own decision regarding the application and timing of its move" proved to be a mistake (Austin, Nolan, & Cotteleer). Instead of making the difficult decisions each function chose instead to remain status quo. It was apparent that nobody wished to "rock the boat" even though the needed IT upgrade was obvious. Therefore, no change was made until the system crashed and the need for an upgrade could no longer be ignored.
I believe that these different functions did nothing when it was apparent that something needed to happen because they were concerned about their jobs as evidenced by Mr. Randy Pond statements "Okay, manufacturing wants to spend $5 or $6 million dollars to buy a package and by the way it will take a year or more to get in, was too much to justify.
