News

Cisco Forms Internet Business Group

• By Scott Bekker
• 12/15/1998

Cisco has instituted an IBSG Knowledge Transfer program to enable multiple vendors to assist in implementing Web-based solutions for customers.

Early participants of the pilot program include consulting firms Cambridge Technology Partners, Ernst & Young and KPMG. Through the IBSG Knowledge Transfer program, Cisco is sharing practices with these companies about its own Internet-based business methodologies and applications. In turn, these companies have selected Cisco as their strategic networking vendor in deploying Internet business solutions and are incorporating Cisco methodologies into their own consulting practice groups and services offerings.

"To be successful in today's fiercely competitive marketplace, businesses need an edge," states chief information officer Peter Solvik. "At Cisco, Internet-based business applications continue to provide that competitive edge and we are committed to assisting our customers do the same."

"There is no longer any doubt that e-commerce is a viable and necessary way of conducting business," says Kathryn Dzubeck, executive vice president of analyst firm Communication Network Architects Inc. "Every corporation must look for the means of integrating this business reality into its basic IT infrastructure," she says.

The IBSG is using several techniques in developing and deploying Internet solutions to customers, developers and consultants. Methods include face-to-face customer advisory sessions, multivendor-sponsored seminar series, and training sessions on Internet-powered solution frameworks. The frameworks include detailed case studies, white papers, reference network architectures, and recommended best practices for implementing Internet-based applications in areas such as employee services, Internet commerce, customer care, and supply chain management. --Brian Ploskina, Assistant Editor