Company:Cisco Systems, San Jose, CA, USA
Company Description:Cisco System, Inc. (Cisco) designs, manufactures, and sells Internet protocol (IP)-based networking products and services related to the communications and information technology (IT) industry. The Company also provides services associated with these products and their use and also provides products and services for transporting data, voice, and video traffic across intranets, extranets.
Nomination Category:Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category:Female Executive of the Year – Business Services –More Than 2,500 Employees

Nomination Title:Shanthi Iyer, IT Executive: Changing the company and the industry

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated executive since the beginning of July last year (up to 525 words):

Shanthi Iyer is a Cisco IT Executive with strong vision, excellent strategy and flawless execution. Joining in Cisco as a DBA in 1997, she pushed herself out of comfort zone by moving across many organizations such as Infrastructure, Customer Commerce, Supply Chain and Enterprise Data Services to become the versatile leader. Today, she is one executive with a strong loyal followership in Cisco IT due to extraordinary people leadership skills. Following are just the examples during the award period.

When she took over Supply Chain IT organization, the main challenge was the complex and customized systems. This has led to slow systems and processes threatening to hold back in the ever fast changing technology world. With her innovate everywhere concept, the team created a fully automated end-to-end workflow for the supply chain business in less than 18 months which completed in 2014.

Chief business benefits from this transformation are

- Time to add a new factory shrunk from 18 months to 6 months.
- Up to 73 percent reduction in order cycle times
- Around 50 percent reduction in support costs

Shanthi always focused on inclusion, diversity, talent development and global strategy to reduce the total cost of ownership. She leveraged these supply chain transformation. She played a significant role in exemplifying the best collaboration between business and IT. Business outcome driven approach and open communication of Shanthi helped in building a trusted IT organization with the supply chain business. Her vision to connect connected supply chain with Cisco’s Inter Cloud strategy dream is second to none.

She leveraged Oracle Open World, Customer Experience Center conferences and white papers as platform for knowledge sharing. She was instrumental in organizing supply chain practitioners council event wherein around eighty India customers/partners shared their innovative ideas. She was one of the keynote speakers to inspire the next generation leaders.

Since Apr 2015, she is leading Enterprise Data Services which encompasses Master Data Management, BI/Analytics and Data Security solutions. Her team supports business transformation, accelerating next generation analytics and technology platforms that Cisco business demands. Within a short time, she defined the strategies around data management including Data as a Service. While looking at the products in the market for business capabilities, she challenged her organization for automation to reduce the operations cost. Her team defined the automation roadmap.

As an executive, she spends time in coaching the employees to develop the next generation leaders. She is actively involved in mentoring and networking through ICON (India connection), and WTAN (Women in Technology Action Network). In an IT Fire side chat, she was very vocal to discuss the developmental and growth plan with their managers.

There is no dearth for fun in the organizations she managed. She makes sure the teams have fun after significant milestones. She is a role model for many managers in performance based rewards. Along with the above, she always made sure to give back to the community through donations and volunteering.

Shanthi has been a visionary leader and multiplier. With her disruptive strategies, her organizations transformed supply chain and accelerated data service capabilities during this period. All these while having fun and dedication to the community.

Provide a brief biography of the nominated executive (up to 125 words):

• Shanthi Iyer is a Senior Director of Enterprise Data Solutions (EDS) in CVC IT. EDS encompasses Master Data Management, BI/Analytics and Data Security solutions.
• She supports business transformation, accelerating next generation analytics and technology platforms that Cisco business demands.
• Prior to this role, Shanthi drove Supply Chain Transformation program to move Supply Chain solutions to industry standard platforms and processes.
• Starting as a DBA at Cisco in 1997, moved across many organizations and is known for disruptive and driving results in Infrastructure, Cisco Services, Commerce, Sales, and Supply Chain.
• Before joining Cisco, she worked at Applied Materials in Santa Clara CA and MashreqBank in Dubai
• Provides mentoring and coaching through ICON (India connection), and WTAN (Women in Technology Action Network)