Enterprise-wide upgrade of platform for manufacturing and finance data improves productivity and architectural foundation and eases enhancements.

In a massive undertaking, Cisco IT upgraded its entire manufacturing and finance infrastructure to the Oracle 11i platform over a three-day holiday weekend.

Upgrading to Oracle 11i was a companywide priority. With an out-of-date enterprisewide data platform, Cisco IT recognized that future developments of enterprise solutions might be severely compromised. Support costs were also steadily increasing because integrating enhancements with the older Oracle software version was time-consuming and difficult. The up-front definition of strong governance and metrics management, multiple end-to-end test cycles, and exhaustive reviews of business and systems readiness resulted in an extremely smooth go-live event. Benefits of upgrading to Oracle 11i included:

  • Increased productivity: The upgrade played a vital role in the company’s initiative to become a process-focused enterprise and enabled system-level capabilities across functional areas.
  • Architectural soundness: The new data platform employs a three-tier architecture with a thin-client model for ease of use and support. Built-in redundancy, active-active server configurations, enhanced load balancing, and disaster recovery solutions provide a solid foundation for the future.
  • Ease of enhancement: With an up-to-date business software platform, Cisco departments can take advantage of process and technology improvements as soon as they become available.

Read the ERP Manufacturing and Finance Case Study