Cisco was an early leader in adopting innovative techniques and technologies to service customers. Its ability to harness information technology to streamline its own business made it a leading-edge e-business.
The company used email to communicate with customers as early as 1984. Once the Internet was deregulated in 1993, Cisco adopted the Internet to process and service orders, solve technical problems, support customers, integrate manufacturing and distribution, and streamline employee services.
Neither Cisco, nor the members of the Cisco team have looked back since. In 1995 John Chambers assumed the helm as CEO and John Morgridge moved up to chair the board. During the last five years of the twentieth century, Cisco continued to grow at an average rate of over 40 percent a year, eclipsed the market cap of even GE and Microsoft in 2000, and acquired more than 70 companies to further develop and expand its market presence, product offerings, technological expertise, and headcount (see Exhibit 4). Along the way, Cisco reinvented itself as an e-business, saving more than $800 million a year ($350 million of which was attributed to the Cisco Connection Online16), a sizable portion of their 2000 net earnings of $2.6 billion.