Links between Customer Service and ICT at Telecom - Case Study Example

of the Number: Paper: Links between service and ICT at Telecom Telecom New Zealand which provides communication service throughout the country has lately changed its name to Spark New Zealand. The company is one of the leading Information and Communication Technology (ICT) providers to businesses in New Zealand. The company does this through its division of Spark Digital. This division of Sparks is managed by highly skilled individuals who work as a team and has required understanding and knowledge of ICT industry. Efficiency in this sector helps the company to stay ahead of technology trends related to their business operations. There is a link between customer service and information and communication Technology (ICT) strategy within the company. This can be showed with the help of the strategies used by them. The ICT strategy of the company is designed to ensure that the customers of a company are retained. It also ensures that new business developments are strategized in such a way that the customers’ expectations are met effectively. An efficient ICT strategy will always meet the demands of the customers and update the system requirements with the changing taste and preferences of the customers. Customers’ service should always be fulfilled as per the requirements of the customers. For instance, to enhance customer service, the ICT strategy of Spark has adopted an integrated process which ensures that a mobile workforce is given the responsibility of handling customer needs. This workforce needs to efficiently communicate with the customers and develop an interaction process that would help in establishing an affable relationship with the customers. Employees who are given the responsibility to handle the customer queries at Spark can productively solve issues if they are equipped with information related to sales and this information should be accessed easily (Blanchard, 1994). The customer service can be efficiently met if the employees of Spark remain close to the customers. The operational tasks are taken care by the ICT strategy. The mobile ICT system of Spark ensures that investment returns are productively capitalized to enhance customer service. A link is also established between the emerging technologies based on collaboration and the mobility investments. This is how the opportunities and scope gains its actual worth from the ICT strategy. The customer demands are thus met by an integrated network of ICT by leveraging on the opportunity of utilizing day to day enterprise data and other applications. Communication tools are developed by Spark to enhance customer service. This ensures that customer grievances are met efficiently. It can be seen that the ICT strategy is becoming an integral part of the business strategy in the telecom industry and especially for Spark. Strategies are designed to effectively meet customer requirements and this is done with the help of an effective ICT Strategy. Thus there is a fundamental link between the customer service and ICT for Spark and the other companies in the telecom industry (Steinmueller, 2001). Transformation of telecom supply chain by ICT Spark Digital can establish a comparative advantage within the industry by accessing important and relevant information that is publicly and privately available. Such strategies were adopted by Spark. Spark Digital has taken the help of ICT to transform its supply chain. it has focused on the process of mobilizing people so that business process can be managed with effective solutions and business applications. The strategies were implemented effectively and efficiently by using and capitalizing on the ICT tools that are available to the company. Interactions have been established between the different companies in the telecom industries and this has ensured the development of an efficient supply chain for Spark. This has facilitated proper sharing and exchange of information and data. Higher accuracy and speed is maintained in the whole process so that customer requirements are met on time. Thus customer service standards of the company are maintained accordingly. The operations of Spark are guided by the advancements in the ICT technology in order to gain competitive advantage in the market over the rivals. Material can be handled and managed effectively with the assistance of the efficient departments that are present in the supply chain. All the issues and terms of the contract have to be negotiated and suppliers have to be selected appropriately. The professional who are related to purchasing activities play a vital role in the operations of Spark. The organizational needs are fulfilled with the help of the Bar-coding, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Material Resource Planning (MRP) and Distributions Resource Planning (DRP) techniques. The organization should ensure that these systems are included in their supply chain. Effective implementation of the ICT tools will ensure that the company is benefitted in the long run. This would certainly reduce cost and expenditure of the companies and also enhance profit in the long run. The entire transformation process would ensure that there is a reduction and elimination of waste. Capital would be released and inventory holding will reduce over time. Therefore, it is imperative for the researchers to continue making efforts to develop new techniques that would update the ICT tools and thus the supply chain of Spark would be enhanced. This is how ICT has transformed the supply chain of the telecom company. The figure below shows the whole framework. Figure 1: Conceptual/ theoretical framework of supply chain Source: (Steinmueller, 2001) Telecommunication: Consumer driven or IT driven? Spark Digital as a subdivision of Spark New Zealand has always taken initiatives to help customers to take advantage from the telecommunications and technology convergence. The transformation in supply chain enables the entire process. Sparks Digital serves to business, corporate and government customers and provides seamless integrated and hosted ICT solutions. Businesses heavily rely on this ICT partner as it can provide them with resilient and robust hybrid networks which help in integrating copper, fibre and mobile and manage services with the help of multiple resource providers. In the current global scenario, the operations of the company are generally consumer driven. The Operation Support System (OSS) of Sparks is mainly driven by the customers. Satisfying customers’ needs effectively has been the main criteria that have helped the company in particular and telecom service providers in general to differentiate themselves from the other competitors. In meeting such requirements, the companies are also posed to new challenges. This is why the demand for OSS and Business Support System (BSS) has increased with time. Refocusing on the issues related to OSS means shifting the perspective to Customer expectations and experiences. Network resources and Information Technology (IT) thus takes the back seat. Comprehensive planning techniques require that a holistic approach is maintained throughout the management processes (Naim, et al, 2002). The telecom industry is driven by the customers and this statement can be supported by the operations of Spark. The analysis of the company’s business processes reveals that the operations of the company are mainly driven by consumers. It is essential to study the congestion management and network upgrades of the company with this regards. The crucial objective of incorporating network upgrades is to provide exceptional service to the end customers. Problems related to network congestion are solved with respect to perception of the customers. Thus customers’ needs are given utmost importance while making any business strategies. The entire process depends on high level of automation techniques that guides network management. This will ensure that a swift network is developed that is significantly based on consumer demand. The maintenance of service quality is also a concern for the telecom company. The service quality is perceived from the customers’ point of view and is not solely based on technical key performance indicators (KPIs). The customer experience has an influence on various technical parameters that are essential for the service providers. Thus the operations are entirely customer centric (Basole & Rouse, 2008). Transformation of supply chain: An example Transformation of supply chain by ICT can be illustrated with the help of an example. This illustration has been done by focusing on the characteristics of Material Resource Planning (MRP) which is an essential tool of ICT and has helped to transform supply chain. In Spark Digital, MRP has helped to enhance connectivity. This process has ensured that people, customers and partners of the company could be connected securely with information related to business. Scalability is also ensured in the process as a result of which users are added to suit business needs. MRP is used as a technique which assists in the process of planning of production methods and thus plays a vital role in assembling operations. It is a computer based system of information and is guided by a demand technique which is dependant in nature. The objective of MRP is to provide supplies that are needed for the companies in manufacturing assemblies when they are need for delivery or during the later stage of production. It track orders efficiently in the process of manufacturing and helps in assisting the different departments to effectively manage the activities related to transferring of supplies to distribution or manufacturing points. Thus MRP has transformed the entire process of supply chain and plays an essential role by coordinating the activities of the engineering, marketing, production, purchasing and human resource. This helps to attain a common business strategy and as a result the managers who are associated with the supply chain operations can analyze the implications of various decisions that have been taken by them throughout the process. The system can adjust to changes effectively due to the effective supply chain. The transformation in supply chain will be guided by the help of various forecasted sales report (Naim, et al, 2002). Key features of supply chain management The supply chain management in the telecom industries and mainly of Spark has various features which marks its importance in the business operations of this industry. It is necessary to study the key features to understand the significance of such supply chain behaviors. The two most important features of the supply chain management are the sales and operations strategies and the process of collaborative planning. The operations and sales team are the most vital elements in the supply chain of any organization. One of them helps in promotion and identification of the demand for the products and services of Spark. The other element helps in coordinating the firm’s supply and its distribution to the customers. Both the elements help in enhancing profit and revenue by minimizing cost and expenditure. An integrated mechanism in the supply chain helps in coordinating the different functions and helps in an efficient distribution of resources across the markets. The disconnection in the process of supply chain can be removed by the help of operations and sales planning. Thus operations and sales planning are one of the key elements of an integrated supply chain (Carter & Wright, 1999). The process of collaborative planning is also an essential feature of the supply chain. The entire process is based on fulfillment and replenishment of the collaborative planning process. The marketing and sales practices are linked to supply chain through the process. Thus a link is established between the manufacturers and retailers who are termed as the trading partners. This ensures that decision is made jointly and information is shared effectively throughout the company (Cassivi, 2006). Supply Chain Issues The Telecom Company faced various threats in its supply chain management techniques. It can be stated that maintenance of security is vital concern for telecom supply chain. The biggest threat faced by Spark Digital is related to security issues. There are several vulnerabilities in the telecom supply chain that has gained increasing priority. There has been rise in espionage of cyber activities. The customers are also depended on a small group of service providers. Sparks tried to develop a smart grid that would protect it from cyber attacks. This helps in ensuring cyber security (Kao, 2006). The suppliers of Sparks also cannot be trusted and this is a threat for the supply chain. This risk cannot be eliminated by using technical assistance. There are risks associated with intellectual property rights. Data also get transmitted for nefarious practices. Threats also arise from theft of software and hardware that contains important information. There can be excessive load on the bandwidth. These traits arise due to excessive rivalry in the industry. The government regulations also pose a threat to the telecom supply chain. There is high demand in the industry and keeping pace with such changing taste and preferences of consumers is challenging for Spark’s supply chain. Threats also arise when audits are not done ethically. There are various sustainability issues which pose a threat to this company (Henten, Samarajiva & Melody, 2003). Impact on supply chain of music Increased popularity of vinyl records in recent years has severely impacted the supply chain for music. Vinyl records were popular long back. There was a decrease in demand with the invention of cassettes and Compact Discs (CDs). However, in recent time there has been a change in taste and preferences of customer and a section of the music industry has been showing interest in vinyl records. This had increased profitability for the music industry but this has negatively affected the supply chain of music (Graham, et al, 2004). The cost of production has increased as the vinyl records require raw materials which are expensive. Not only there is increase in cost of production but also complexities have arisen in the techniques of production. There are issues related to quality control and often it has been found that the vinyl records do not match the quality that used to be there in the olden days. The advancements in technologies do not support the vinyl records and compatibility issues arise in the supply chain process. The entire process of supply chain has also become time consuming. These issues have severely impacted the supply chain of music and the entire process has become ineffective to some extent. Challenges arise from such inefficient supply chain techniques. However, the popularity of vinyl records suggests that the music industry should strategies efficient techniques to solve such issues. Transformation in supply chain of music retailing There are various forces which have impacted the supply chain for music retailing. The major driving forces that have helped to transform the process of supply chain are the increasing popularly of online shopping portals and the rise in the demand for smart phones and applications (Disney, Naim & Potter, 2004). The rising demand in business through e-commerce has transformed the supply chain of music retailing. The industry has been influenced by the virtual operation in business activities. Consumers taste and preferences have changed and they prefer to transact online. There are various portals which offer music that can be downloaded. Consumers save time and thus the entire process becomes very affordable for them. This has affected music retailing chains. They had to shift their operations from the retail stores and concentrate more on the internet for reaching out to customers. With the advancement in technologies, there is a great demand for smart phones. These phones offer facilities that make availability of music easier for the customers. People can use various applications and download their preferable music easily. This has also affected the retailing of music. The music industry had to generate strategies to effectively meet consumer demands. Thus there has been a transformation in the supply chain off music retailing (Graham, et al, 2004). References Basole, R. C. & Rouse, W. B. (2008). Complexity of service value networks: conceptualization and empirical investigation. IBM systems journal, 47(1), 53-70. Blanchard, C. (1994). Telecommunications regulation in New Zealand: How effective is ‘light-handed’regulation?. Telecommunications Policy, 18(2), 154-164. Carter, M. & Wright, J. (1999). Interconnection in network industries. Review of Industrial organization, 14(1), 1-25. Cassivi, L. (2006). Collaboration planning in a supply chain. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 11(3), 249-258. Disney, S. M., Naim, M. M. & Potter, A. (2004). Assessing the impact of e-business on supply chain dynamics. International Journal of production economics, 89(2), 109-118. Graham, G., Burnes, B., Lewis, G. J. & Langer, J. (2004). The transformation of the music industry supply chain: A major label perspective. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 24(11), 1087-1103. Henten, A., Samarajiva, R. & Melody, W. (2003). Designing next generation telecom regulation: ICT convergence or multi-sector utility?. info, 5(1), 26-33. Kao, C. L. (2006). U.S. Patent Application 11/532,536. Naim, M. M., Childerhouse, P., Disney, S. M. & Towill, D. R. (2002). A supply chain diagnostic methodology: determining the vector of change. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 43(1), 135-157. Steinmueller, W. E. (2001). ICTs and the possibilities for leapfrogging by developing countries. International Labour Review, 140(2), 193-210. Read More