Because of productivity's ability to help companies navigate through rapidly shifting market conditions, and its general importance to the business community, Cisco Systems has sponsored a series of research studies in the last three years to measure the impact of technology on enterprises.

Net Impact: Latin America
For the last seven years the Net Impact series of studies has focused on answering questions like this by identifying technology and business practices that are leading to enhanced operating improvements in organizations. Due to the increasing importance of the Latin American economies, and the resulting pressure put on the firms in those countries, it was decided that this wave of Net Impact research focus on this rapidly changing region. Net Impact: Latin America interviewed more than 1,200 technology decision-makers in six countries - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. Net Impact: Latin America departs from the previous methodologies used in the U.S. and European studies, to focus on identifying the current adoption of these fundamental best practices in organizations across Latin America.

Net Impact: Public Sector
“From Connectivity to Productivity” continues the microeconomic exploration of people, process and technology. The objective of Net Impact: Public Sector was to identify business process and technology practices that are accelerating the citizen services productivity of public sector organisations in eight European countries. Based on interviews with local, regional and national government offices, as well as multiple types of public healthcare providers, a selection of best practices were developed for four broad productivity outcomes.

Net Impact: United States Private Sector
"Driving Networked Business Productivity" moves beyond this macroeconomic view to a micro view of the specific technological and organisational conditions that lead to operating improvements within an organisation. This shift in perspective required an innovative approach for reaching the enterprises that should, based on past research findings, be most likely to be experiencing operating efficiency from their technology investments.

Net Impact: National Economic Benefit
Cisco Systems sponsored the first study of its kind in 2002 to measure the broad economic impact Internet business solutions have had on the productivity of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany . The Net Impact: National Economic Benefit study found that companies implementing Internet business applications were experiencing reduced operating costs and increased revenues at a scale large enough to affect the current and projected productivity growth rate in each country.