The Use of Information Systems and IT in the Creation of Strategic Advantage of Nokia - Case Study Example

Report on the opportunities associated with the use of Information Systems and Information Technology in the creation of strategic advantage in the chosen industry sector (Nokia) Table of Contents Introduction 2 About Nokia 2 Need for Information system 3 Information System in Nokia 3 Inventory Management 4 Management of PermiCell terminals 4 Broadband Element 5 Research and Development 5 Client Relation Management 7 Enterprise Management Planning 8 Social Impact of Nokia 9 Ethical Impact of Nokia 10 Nokia in Global Market 10 Introduction In the current times, Nokia is a noted name in the industry of telecommunications. It was formed in the year 1967 with the merger of three companies. The three companies which merged together to form Nokia, belonged to three distinct backgrounds. The three companies were, Nokia Ab, a manufacturer of paper, Finnish Rubber Works, a rubber production company and finally the Finnish Cable Works. These companies were well known for their high quality leadership in the market. Hence, the merger produced a well balanced corporation. When the Nokia Corporation was formed it was separated into five segments, of which the cable industry served as the prime business. About Nokia Presently, Nokia is a global leader of mobile communication. Nokia Corporation is comprised of two main businesses i.e., Nokia Networks and Nokia mobile phone. The mobile phone segment constitutes a lion share of the business. Need for Information system The telecommunication industry is characterised by decreasing cost. As a result of which all the communication service providers within this industry are faced with a sharp competition continuously. For this reason the service providers are constantly upgrading their information system. With an upgraded information system the service providers make the market more competitive. With the passage of time the telecommunication industry is undergoing a series of changes by way of new products and technologies. The growing competition has benefited the customers by lowering the rate of service failure. The information within such enterprises is huge and it is necessary to store them in a proper scientific way. For this purpose these enterprises rely on the information system to a large extent. Information System in Nokia Nokia has been ruling the telecommunication industry for a long period of time through the adoption of new technologies. This has provided Nokia with a competitive edge to surpass its competitors. Nokia has created an inventory management solution for better access and management of crucial business information. Nokia Siemens Networks is a superior inventory management solution that is especially designed for the multi-vendor network. In a network the information pool is huge and scattered too. It becomes tough to determine business decisions because of inconsistent end-to-end data viewing. This in turn causes inefficiency in such organisations. Inventory Management Nokia’s inventory solution comes with both CAPEX optimisation as well as OPEX savings. This solution renders a communication service provider the ability to launch services that match the end-user consumption and requirements in a cost effective way. The solution has multi benefits since it offers an edge for customer service by reducing the time of service provisioning. An organisation can thus improve its customer care service and retain both business users and customers. The inventory solution is extremely helpful as it integrates with the existing operating environment. Its flexibility is manifested through the fact that the solution includes some selected CSS systems and OSS systems (Nokia Siemens Network, 2007). Management of PermiCell terminals Nokia has shown its urge to upgrade technology ever since it has become a global leader in the telecommunication industry. In 1998, the company launched a Nokia terminal management system. The system aimed for improved management of PermiCell Wireless Local Loop Terminals. The system enables the company to analyse, manage and control the process of all the PermiCell terminals within a local network. The remote maintenance of the terminals helps in saving costs while the preventive measures are taken through system measurements and alarms. The alarms help in fixing the service breaks well before the break in service interrupts the subscriber. The reports thus generated provide an important tool for marketing and service planning. This terminal system serves as a unique monitoring system for all the PermiCell terminals in a local network (Introducing the Nokia Terminal Management system, 1998). Broadband Element In 2002, the company launched its broadband element and mediation podium named Nokia NetAct. The Nokia NetAct renders an integrated platform for the entire broadband access of Nokia and it is based on J2EE client-server architecture. The platform provides the network an intelligent edge including the ASR 2020 and Nokia D500. It offers the network operators with a carrier-class management system. This in turn helps the company to achieve reliability, scalability, performance and other requirements. The broadband element is embedded with features like fault management, topology, network inventory, security management, remote configuration and performance management. It also provides command line interface. The platform has helped in reducing the costs of operating and running the broadband network. Nokia NetAct is based on Java ™ client-server architecture and it has the flexibility of getting adapted to any size of broadband network. Such a high technology broadband element has given the company a competitive edge to outperform their competitors easily (Nokia introduces carrier-class management system, June 2004). Research and Development The company has always been engaged in inventing new technology. This called for the need of research and development. Any company in the telecommunication industry needs an efficient research team that will be instrumental in innovating new technologies and apply them on the services so as to enhance the products as well as provide internal business solutions since this industry is solely depended on the technology. And technology is highly dynamic in nature. Nokia Corporation is familiar with this fact from the time of its inception. This is the main reason behind Nokia Research Centre’s collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). This collaboration was announced for a research in mobile computing in 2005. Both CSAIL and Nokia will be closely working together to conduct this research. The company is aiming at long-term research through this project. With the use of hand-held devices, the research intends to create communication opportunities as well as better services for the customers. Nokia has always felt the need of R&D and to fulfil this mission the company has made a number of collaborations with universities to standardise their work. The Nokia Research Centre has always kept up the excellence for its research projects. The Nokia and CSAIL collaboration will render a sharp rise in the technological innovation of the company (MIT and Nokia establish joint laboratory for high-impact research, October 2005). Nokia Corporation developed a laboratory for radio access networking in Bandung in 1997. The laboratory was created in collaboration with Telkom Research. This laboratory would allow the company to study and develop new technologies and services. This project gave the company immense strength to develop the telecommunication industry in Indonesia. Both Nokia and Telkom would be responsible to evaluate the quality of hardware and software solution of Nokia through complete testing (Nokia Telecommunications, Telkom Research and Information Technology (Risti) Division Establish Radio Access Network Laboratory, October 1997). The company has also established several such laboratories in collaboration with noted research institutes. Information technology is the key to survive in the telecommunication industry. Hence, innovation and up gradation is essential for the service providers. In this respect, Nokia has always been the most sincere. The company makes huge cumulative investment in the research and development segment at regular intervals. This is the driving force behind Nokia’s success and it being a global leader in the telecommunication industry despite a very humble beginning. Client Relation Management Ever since the emergence of Nokia, it has invested a huge sum ($ 600billion) on the customer relationship management (CRM). This has helped to leverage the customer and generate additional revenues. The company has consistently allowed businesses to take full advantage on the CRM investment through extending the access into customer information. Mobile professionals have complete IT support to ensure that they have secure and reliable access to the essential customer data that they require. This enables them to offer premium customer service and to achieve productive potential. In this regard, Nokia has the excellence for providing CRM mobility along with groupware integration. It enables a business to obtain an integrated view of the customers. The CRM solution helps to get access to customer information virtually at anytime by the mobile professionals. The CRM solution of Nokia is unique as it has the ability to support a wide range of mobile devices. Whenever a business uses mobile devices it brings with it a host of challenges regarding management and security. Hence a mobility solution must be coupled with a security system apart from the ability to have access to classified information. The mobility solution must also bring additional features to meet the requirements of the growing mobile workforce. Nokia’s CRM solution addresses these issues by the inclusion of components that mobilises corporate application, data, and business processing challenges for any industry. This particular feature of Nokia has given the company immense strength to offer the best mobility solution in the whole of telecommunication industry. The mobility solution of Nokia is admired for its completeness and also for its innovation (Intellisync CRM Mobility Solution, n.d.). Enterprise Management Planning Enterprise Management Planning is a vital issue when a business enterprise concerned is huge. All the service providers in any industry, deals with loads of information gathered from different sources. This mandates the ERP within the enterprise effectively. An effective ERP helps to manage the internal business and saves time for the organisation. Consequently, this helps the organisation to devote more time into the core business policies and earn greater revenues. Nokia in collaboration with Deloitte Consulting introduced world’s first platform for remote access to ERP software solutions in 1998. It was created by using Nokia’s 9110 communicator. The platform provided considerable cost savings and benefited the business organisations as well as individual customers. This platform is responsible for allowing the staff across an enterprise to update and access ERP software data through Nokia 9110 communicator’s web browser. This development eliminated the existing barriers and induced the company to have a successful mobile workforce by taking vital business information from desktop to mobile environment. The partnership of Nokia and Deloitte Consulting aimed to provide a remarkable application and a technology that would allow the individuals in an organisation to have access to information irrespective of their location (Nokia teams up with Deloitte Consulting / ICS to deliver remote access to enterprise software, November 1998). Social Impact of Nokia The burgeoning telecommunication industry has its effects beyond the economical structure of a country. It has impacted the society as well. Nokia, being the leader of the telecommunication industry, has played a major role in making the telecommunication market spread throughout the world. The chief product of Nokia i.e., cell phones has made a revolution in the society. The massive use of cell phones has brought a digital division within the society. The cell phones which are primarily a medium of communication are now more of a status symbol. This has resulted in division of the society into haves (people possessing cell phones) and have-not (people not possessing cell phones). With the increasing need and use of the information and communications technologies, the gap between the haves and have- not is further rising. However, Nokia has made the cell phone possession much easier than before. Nokia’s development of improved and cost effective technology made cell phones affordable for all income groups. Yet there are newer and advanced models being introduced with additional features (access to internet, music, video, camera etc) at regular intervals. This is feeding the digital division further. (Social Impacts of Our Products, n.d.) One more social impact has also been observed because of the growing telecommunication industry. The cell phones of Nokia are affordable, high tech and are associated with all features needed to make it a complete multi-purpose electronic gadget. This has made it lucrative for the young generation who are technophiles. A contrasting picture in observed among the aged people. They find these gadgets complex and refrain from using them. This has infused a gap between the older and younger generation harming the sentiments of the former. (Ideal Users, n.d.) Ethical Impact of Nokia The wide use of cell phones is associated with a hefty magnitude of positive impact on the economy but its ethical impact on the society is sternly negative. The massive use of cell phones is gradually making the humans more introverted and isolated within his/her own microcosm. This is perishing the close-knit bond of the society. The natural human behavior which is marked with the socializing nature is disappearing ruining the social standards. (Ethical and Environmental Impact Analysis, October 2006) Nokia in Global Market Since the initiation, Nokia took an aggressive marketing strategy to capture the global market for cell phones. The global marketing strategy was accompanied with a thorough market research. The countries where Nokia perform are nit homogeneous. There is huge diversity in the culture, environmental conditions, nature of the customers of the countries Nokia operates. U.S. market In the US market Nokia uses the multiple channels for expanding its business. A close look in to the Nokia products marketed in USA shows the combination of Nokia Intellisync Mobile Suite 8.0 and Nokia Eseries. This reflects the company’s effort to capture the business professionals in USA. The features of Nokia Eseries are appropriate for mobilizing the business processes and applications. The mobile devices of Nokia Eseries come with a superior voice quality, business email associated with attachment facility. These features have made the cell phones of this category lucrative for the business users. The Nokia Eseries mobile phones include the dual-mode variety which can be integrated with voice solutions like Nokia Intellisync for Alcatel. Nokia has earned high competitive edge in USA by using a combination of these two varieties of cell phones. These cell phones have considerably increased the productivity and competitiveness of the businesses. (Nokia Eseries business devices broadly available in U.S., 2007) Chinese Market The market of China is enormous and naturally all the telecommunication companies thrive to get a share in Chinese market. Nokia, which is a leading global manufacturer of cell phones, considers the Chinese market as the most strategic one. Since 2004 Nokia has been a leading cell phone company in China. The company has entered the Chinese market with the partnership of China Postel. This has given Nokia an additional help to covet the market with much ease sine China Postel is the largest cell phone distributor in China. The partnership between the companies was strengthened further through the strategic partnership agreement. Presently the two big companies share almost 30% of Chinese mobile phone market. And it is expected that the new agreement will rapidly increase the market share in near future. (Nokia and China Postel strengthen strategic cooperation, 2008) Indian Market The pioneering role of Nokia’s business is seen in the Indian market with the introduction of the Nokia 1100. The company created Nokia 1100 especially for Indian market keeping in mind the affordability of the most Indian customers and the humid weather of the country. This earned Nokia the Golden Peacock Award in 2004. The creation of Nokia 1100 was considered as the most innovative product in the telecom industry. In India Nokia is still the leading telecom equipment vendor. The prime reason for capturing the lion share of Indian telecommunication market by Nokia is its low priced models coupled with high durability. (Nokia India Background, n.d.) European Market Nokia has entered the European market through collaboration with the leading European telecommunication giants. The company has collaborated with several European telecom firms to have a stronger foothold in the market. The agreement between Nokia and France Telecom gave Nokia a potential to operate in the European market. With the signing of this agreement, the Orange mobile customers of France readily accessed their personal music videos and images stored in their computers through the mobile devices. (Nokia and France Telecom sign an integration and hosting contract, 2006) Nokia, which is the leading mobile phone vendor in the globe, has always given stress on the research and development for inventing new models. The company has shown its remarkable initiatives especially in India in capturing the market shares. A thorough analysis of the company’s marketing strategies reflects its in-depth study of any market. This is the prime cause for the wide demographic coverage of Nokia and its ability to surpass the rest of its competitors. 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