Cisco Systems is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco's networking solutions connect people, computing devices and computer networks, allowing people to access or transfer information without regard to differences in time, place or type of computer system.

Cisco provides end-to-end networking solutions that customers use to build a unified information infrastructure of their own, or to connect to someone else's network. An end-to-end networking solution is one that provides a common architecture that delivers consistent network services to all users. The broader the range of network services, the more capabilities a network can provide to users connected to it.

Cisco's offers the industry's broadest range of hardware products used to form information networks or give people access to those networks; Cisco IOS® software, which provides network services and enables networked applications; expertise in network design and implementation; and technical support and professional services to maintain and optimise network operations. Cisco is unique in its ability to provide all these elements, either by itself or together with partners.

Cisco sells its products in approximately 115 countries through a direct sales force, distributors, value-added resellers and system integrators. Cisco has headquarters in San Jose, CA and more than 225 sales and support offices in 75 countries.

In contrast to many technology companies, Cisco does not take a rigid approach that favors one technology over the alternatives and imposes it on customers as the only answer.  Cisco's philosophy is to listen to customer requests, monitor all technological alternatives, and provide customers with a range of options from which to choose. Cisco develops its products and solutions around widely accepted industry standards. In some instances, technologies developed by Cisco have become industry standards themselves.

Every day, Cisco and its customers are proving that networking and the Internet can fundamentally and profitably change the way companies do business. Cisco describes this change in the "Global Networked Business" model. A Global Networked Business is an enterprise, of any size, that strategically uses information and communications to build a network of strong, interactive relationships with all its key constituencies.

The Global Networked Business model leverages the network for competitive advantage by opening up the corporate information infrastructure to all key constituencies. The Global Networked Business model employs a self-help model of information access that is more efficient and responsive than the traditional model of a few information gatekeepers dispensing data as they see fit. Cisco itself is a leading example of a Global Networked Business. By using networked applications over the Internet and its own internal network, Cisco is gaining financial contribution of at least $825 million a year in operating costs savings and revenue enhancements, while improving customer/partner satisfaction and gaining a competitive advantage in areas such as customer support, product ordering and delivery times. Cisco is today the world's largest Internet commerce site, with 90% of our orders transacted over the web.

Cisco is one of technology's greatest corporate success stories. Founded in 1986, Cisco has grown into a global market leader that holds No. 1 or No. 2 market share in virtually every market segment in which it participates. Since becoming a public company in 1990, Cisco's annual revenues have increased from $69 million in that year to $12.2 billion in fiscal 1999. As measured by market capitalisation, Cisco is among the largest in the world.

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