beyond pt 0 23/1

Cisco is trying to drive a ‘borderless business’, which is not concerned where
manufacturing or ordering takes place, the ‘most appropriate’ is chosen for a host
of reasons. Cisco does conduct R&D in Australia due to the technical competence
of local labour.
Cisco worldwide has four post-sales facilities, call centres that answer customer
queries and resolve problems. These are located on the US East and West coasts,
in Brussels, and in Sydney. These four locations provide global coverage on a
24 x 7 basis. Each site has a six hour slot when all calls from around the world
are handled. For Sydney this is 11am to 5pm. For the rest of the day regional
calls are handled.
One of these facilities was sited in Australia in recognition of the technical
competence of local labour, the telecommunications capability, and the ability to
source technically capable staff with multilingual skills, especially in the Asian
languages.
Interview: Gary Jackson, Cisco, IRG member, 20 July 1999
Key points
The IT industries have been rapid adopters of e-commerce technologies and business
models. The biggest advances in this sector have been in business-to-business
e-commerce, though more use is being made of e-commerce to facilitate the
purchase of goods and services by consumers. There are many areas where businesses
in the IT industries or their customers are using e-commerce to reduce supply chain
costs, or enhance convenience. Disintermediation is occurring as items such as
software and documentation are now delivered online.
The IT industries are not represented individually in the National Accounts, but
instead consist of parts of manufacturing, communications, and business services.
Accordingly the IT sector itself was not directly impacted in the modelling exercise,
however its component parts were. These impacts may be found in the respective
sections of this Part.
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