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By Barbara Morgan, 30 September 1998 17:12

NEWS Cisco has created a business division called The Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG). The thinking behind the move is to transfer what it has learnt selling $11m of equipment over the Internet each day, to its customers. Cisco is currently recruiting consultants in Europe to establish the division here. Barbara Hartmann, the US director of ISBG, said there are no hard numbers on how many people Cisco is going to hire or in which countries they will be based. "It will depend on customer needs and demands," she said. Hartmann said Cisco will focus its efforts on seven areas, including financial services, healthcare, public sector, retail, manufacturing, energy and utilities and service providers. Cisco currently has about 40 employees on board in the US. According to Hartmann, Cisco can afford to give away the services because it will benefit by selling more routers and networking equipment if more people use the Internet. "We are not going into competition with consultants and systems integrators. Our aim is to accelerate the transfer of our intellectual capital," she said.
Through partnerships with leading management consultants, systems integrators and ISVs (Independent Software Vendors), IBSG develops customer solutions and delivers an accelerated consulting approach. "For instance, small to medium sized companies can use the Web to make themselves look and act bigger than they are," said Hartmann.