Despite HP- CISCO top management intentions and senior and middle management commitment to renewed alliance stalemate has reached, due to lack of clearly defined ground rules, absence of detailed plan of action, cultural disconnect in decision making and non availability explicit financial integration plan.
Despite being convinced and committed for the alliance, HP, the largest and CISCO the third largest Silicon Valley IT Company, their alliance organization could not reach to a formal agreement on how to move ahead with the progress of the alliance origination even after five years of association, despite their success as alliance partners with themselves and partners with other companies HP the largest and Cisco third largest Silicon Valley IT Company’s f formed an alliance in early 1997 for that focused on Technology collaboration, product integration, professional services, and customer support.
It took five years for the two companies to realize that they can further formalize and expand their Alliance activities to gain synergistic advantages for both companies. The timing coincided with HP –Compaq merger and the alliance agreement further delayed by 6 months. Finally it started taking shape in October 2002. The top managements of both organizations are willing and committed to the alliance. To this effect that CEOs of both companies are expected to meet in Jan-2003.
Many events have taken place in five years since the alliance inception HP and Cisco have excellent examples of alliances for them with other alliance partners Widely respected technology companies in the world—HP and Cisco both appeared to be very desirable partners. Indeed, both management teams believed that forging a stronger, more formal alliance would produce benefits for both sides. Like all partnerships, however, the strategic alliance faced some challenges, and it was the job of the alliance teams to solve these issues to the best of their ability.
