Cisco: Application Messaging ROI Development

Cisco Application Messaging and ROI Case Study

Background

Cisco Systems, Inc. is a worldwide leader in networking equipment, with over 35 years’ experience bringing Internet Protocol based (IP) networking to business, education, government, and home networks.

Business Problem

Cisco was launching a new series of products in an ambitious new initiative called the Application-Oriented Network (AON). With the AON product line, for the first time Cisco was embedding application messaging functionality, normally the realm of middleware software, directly into the network. As this was a new area for Cisco, the AON team sought assistance in crisply articulating the business value proposition of AON and building a series of ROI tools to tell the return on investment story to a prospective customer.

Solution

Callan Consulting started by performing a situation assessment, interviewing experts knowledgeable about application messaging and the business value of embedding it into the IP network. Callan Consulting worked with Cisco to identify several viable use cases for AON technology, including general application messaging, RFID deployment, and branch office application hosting.

Based on the information gathered in the situation assessment, Callan Consulting built three separate ROI models, one for each use case, and validated them with additional expert interviews. These validation interviews were performed both with internal Cisco experts and with early adopter AON customers. In addition, Callan Consulting developed a set of sales tools to tell the ROI messaging associated with the ROI models, including a customer-facing white paper and a sales presentation.

Results

The AON marketing team rolled out the new return on investment story and ROI model to the sales team, and they were well received. Callan Consulting supported this roll-out, performing training sessions for the sales team and even participating in Cisco briefings on the AON value proposition to major industry analysts.

Client Feedback

“Great project! Callan’s economic models can easily be used in sales engagements, which is a breath of fresh air compared to what you typically see from vendors.”