The approach puts the onus on customers to make the products work. From the outside looking in it seems Cisco integrates well. Inside, it looks horrendous. The pieces don't fit together. It probably has to be ripped apart and rewritten, or a more elegant system must be written that makes it easier to package different kinds of products together.
Chambers has additional troubles to contend with.
For one, Cisco's failure to manage quarterly sales numbers and to set analyst expectations has made it look vulnerable. Late last year, Chambers was pointing the finger at Alan Greenspan for not lowering interest rates fast enough in response to the economic tailspin. Yet he failed to warn Wall Street of the slowdown in Cisco sales, holding fast to 50 percent to 60 percent annual growth rate expectations as late as December 2000. In late January, he reported equipment orders had nose-dived. First, it called for a reduced headcount to cut operating expenses.