Management of Emirates Telecommunication Corporation - Case Study Example

Student Name: Name: Title: O.M.: Emirates Telecommunication Corporation Course: Institution: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Operations Management Systems 3 Introduction 3 Analysis 3 The output of Etisalat 3 Etisalat’s current operations management system 5 Existing weaknesses and problems in Etisalat operations management system 6 Suggested Changes Implementation and Theories Used 8 Inbound Logistics-Operations-Outbound logistics-marketing and sales-service-Margin 9 Recommendations for operations management improvement 9 Conclusion 12 Bibliography 13 Operations Management Systems Introduction Emirates Telecommunication Corporation (Etisalat) was created in the year 1976 as a company that was jointly owned by International Aeradio Limited, local partners, and a British Company. Etisalat is in plans to series of senior management moves, consolidation of operations and traducing of new departments as part of restructuring program being introduced in the company. This indicates renewed effort by the company to re-align its operations management system in order to increase productivity through efficiency and accountability. The company’s facilities management system is very important in delivering its services to the targeted customers. The company has the required resources that can be used in restructuring its operations management system in order to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. This paper explores operations management systems at Etisalat and recommends some of the important steps that can be put in place to improve the system. Analysis The output of Etisalat The management is trying as much as possible to bring the operations management of every facilities service to the desired standards. Meeting the expectations of the customers is among the basic goals that oversees continuous improvement of the company’s operations management systems. Accountability and responsible handling of resources is the objective of the entire company team of management (Mahadevan, 2010). Etisalat facilities management offers facilities management solutions that are integrated to over 5000 sites in UAE. The company today serves education, real estate, hospitality, aviation, IT, and Islamic public sector. The company has a staff of about one thousand people with the goal of delivering and identification, cost effective and customized solutions to its clients. The company engages in time to time updates of its operations management system in order to keep pace with the global standards. The company targets to be among the world class companies that offer the best IT solutions. Some of the facilities management services offered by Etisalat include air-conditioning, electrical, plumping, BMS, UPS and Generators, CCTV and Access Control, and civil work. Facilities management consultancy services include life cycle planning, energy management, assessment, bar coding, HSC service condition audit, project management, and asset registrar. Soft management services offered by the company include 24/7 help desk, maximo /PDA, waste management, cleaning and security, and space utilization studies. The company has very many services that it engages in, and therefore it requires an operations management system that will ensure synchronization of every function of the organization (Stevenson, 2007). Having a standard of comparison for the achievement of the company against the set objective will assist the company in realizing its mission of existence. Coordination of every function and department of the company is important in ensuring thoroughness and systematic accomplishment of tasks on time. Creation of a customized and customer centered operations management systems will enable realization of the objectives of the company in regard to meeting of the objectives of the customers. Provision of first class services that satisfies the needs of customers helps the company meet the mission of its inception. Etisalat’s current operations management system Etisalat Services provides various support functions and services that are offered. Technology is the main business that the company is involved in. the company has diversified into marine consultancy, real estate management, training and development, and project management. Created as individual business units, the different parts demonstrate capability for the type of market leadership and function independently (Walters, 2007). The various business units that are found within the organization require clear coordination of functions in order to avoid conflicts and keep every department involved. For over three decades Etisalat has offered telecommunications services from its head office in the United Arab Emirates. Its growth and development has continued to be manifested. Etisalat recorded yearly Net Revenue of 5815 US dollars in the year 2007. Currently Etisalat has its presence in over sixteen markets in Africa, Asia, and the Middle. In the course of its three decades of operations, Etisalat has offered reliable and innovative services using state of art telecom infrastructure. The centralization of the functions of the company at its headquarters hinders the operations management of its branches in other regions and countries. Diversification and centralization has to be embraced. Independent working that is synchronized encourages career development for all its workers. However, this has not hindered the company from expanding. The employees of the company are deployed in any part of the country and across countries. The penetration mobile phone service has grown tremendously. The growth surpassed 152 percent while its broadband and internet services went beyond sixty percent. In order to support its communication services that are vast, the company requires multiple of applications, an operating system that has a healthy mix, and a well developed network segment that include close to 120 operational engineers as well as a security team of IT (Stevenson, 2007). Making sure that the telecom infrastructure is up to date remains one of the priorities of the company. There security performance that ensures that all the standards is met in the required conditions. Maintenance and security of security operations of internet operations of Etisalat is also important in achieving the goals and objectives of the company. The company has an objective of effectively addressing its required Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) which is compliance for payment gateways of companies. The current operations management system ensures safety of the client and avoids cases of harassment or abuse through internet interaction. The government support provided to the company ensures that the company can hire the best skill in operation management to coordinate its activities across the country and the globe. The pace of addressing clients’ needs and complaints has to be boosted to a competent status that can be admired by other competitors in the same industry. The operations management system of Etisalat has enabled it to perform different services and functions concurrently. The company has also realized expansion into other territories in the world apart from the Middle East. Etisalat has incorporated Microsoft control tools to increase efficiency and accountability within its operations management. Existing weaknesses and problems in Etisalat operations management system The goal of optimizing the security program is important owing to the company’s recent and expansion that is projected. For a long time, security teams at Etisalat has depended heavily on tools of open source security in identification of vulnerabilities together with numerous checklists and benchmarking tools offered by the CERT Coordination Center and the SANS Institute, apart from customized checklists offered for assisting in management and quantification of their IT risks. Implementation of a program of risk management in the operations function is one of the challenges facing Etisalat operations management system. Etisalat has to install intrusion prevention systems, firewalls, anti-malware, and good access controls for its numerous operations to increase safety of its client and databases. Auditing is conducted occasionally on applications of the company and operations systems to make sure every system run well (Schonberger, 1997). Accountability and responsibility of internal control systems remains to be a challenge to the organization. The current operations management system is majorly centralized and hence inhibiting development of branches and regional offices. Quick response and identification of problems in the services offered to the customers is lacking in many functions incorporated into the company. The in-house protection group dealt with conducting ongoing assessments in regard to all internet services. Security protection of the operations management system remains to be the biggest threat to the company. Tampering with the customer’s information is the databases remains to be a challenge in ensuring clients safety. The operations management system team has to have high class coordination to avoid outside interference by hackers and other criminal perpetrators. The company operations management systems still grapples with the problem of providing maximum security to the clients that it provides services and regulates their activities (Heizer, 2008). The security problems are compounded by the fact of the company operating in numerous countries. Duplication of security details in many countries does not prove to be safe for the company. Therefore, the company has to come up with different means of protecting its investment and the interest of the clients. Suggested Changes Implementation and Theories Used Training and development has to form the bulk of operations management improvement program. A well trained workforce will lead to the realization of the goals and objectives of the company. Training should be an ongoing process to ensure that the workers are equipped at all time (Trent & Monczka, 2005, p.24-32). The operations management functions should be synchronized so that there is coordination to seal all loop holes that can encourage fraud or infringement of the clients’ status. Etisalat used QualysGuard for IT security team for automation and streamlining control on its whole vulnerability assessment in regard to tracking security fixes. The risks are expected to be brought down drastically and the aspects of regulatory and security compliance has to be integrated to allow easy management and maintenance. Value chain theory that results in creation of competitive advantage has to be incorporated into the operations management systems of the company (Johnston, 2005). Shareholders’ value has to be increased and competitive advantage created. Michael Porter idea of a value chain will be important and pragmatic for any business that wants to succeed. Support and primary activities have to be identified and worked on to improve service delivery. The activities have to be grouped according to the value they add to the business or their role in the value chain. Porter’s generic chain had the following outlook: Inbound Logistics-Operations-Outbound logistics-marketing and sales-service-Margin The firm’s infrastructure, HR Management, technology development, and procurement have to be developed well in order to ensure that every activity has added value to the business. The cost of producing goods and service has to come down while the benefits rise. The inbound logistic is concerned about warehousing and receiving raw materials, and their appointed manufacturers. The point is to get the best services and goods through the few resources that the company can afford. Resources do not have to be wasted by workers who are careless and reckless. Operations involve changing inputs into finished services and products. Outbound logistics concerns distribution and warehousing of goods that are finished. Marketing and sales involve identifying of the needs of the customers and creation of sales (Eliyahu, 2004). Recommendations for operations management improvement The company operations management has to be reoriented so that quick feedback is obtained from the clients and complaints addressed on time. Corrective measures have to be embedded in the system monitoring unit to ensure quick detection of errors and responding to clients’ complaints on time. The main goal is to ensure that the company is meeting the expectations of the clients and its functions are operating normally and to the required standards. The company has to stay ahead of risk and ensure that it delivers services according to the specification of the clients (Krajewsk, 2005). Etisalat has been accused of impartiality in treated on its clients. The technology infrastructure has to ensure there is surveillance unit that monitors every transaction being conducted in the company. There should no breach of contract or violation of the rights of the consumer. The company employees have to be equipped with the latest technology to serve the customers better and in efficient manner. The functions of the company have to be decentralized to allow development of regional and departmental offices. Hiring of more competent and highly skilled personnel is required to boost service provision of the company. Six sigma quality control can be used by the company in elimination of errors and maximizing productivity. Independent of functions has to be encouraged while observing quality control system to achieve perfection. Employee recruitment has to one of the drives that target to improve provision of services and goods that the firm possesses. The value chain model at Etisalat can be achieved through differentiation and cost advantage. The cost of producing products of offering services should be reasonable and affordable. The goal is to reduce expanses or any other costs while increasing productivity of the company. Through this service reduction effort superior value can be achieved at reduced cost. Differentiation has to focus on capabilities and competencies of the company in achieving long term goals of the company. Etisalat has to take advantage of economies of scale due to its capability to provide a vast number of services. Procurement, service function, job delivery and internal control units have to be thoroughly accessed to determine their viability in this era of intense business competition. Quality and tools of management have to be incorporated in the operations management functions to act as a benchmark on which to evaluate the progress of the company. Implementation of operations management functions has to commence with the implementation of the process of designing and analysis the requirements that are needed for the organization to adequately perform its functions. Forecasting tools will enable the organization to foretell the amount of in-put in terms of human resource and structural functions which are needed for dispensing the obligations of the organization (Jacobs, Chase & Aquilano, 2007). The firm has been accused of being impartial in certain circumstances in carrying out its obligation. This requires that monitoring tools should be put in place to make sure that there is no breach of conduct by any unit or department of the organization. Etisalat should not be partial in provided its mandated services to corporate bodies. Implementation of perfect control system will ensure early diagnosis of problems affecting operations management systems and suggestions of immediate remedies. In real life situation, it is difficult to find a flawless operations management systems and many such systems undergo numerous integrations and upgrading in order to reach the required standard of functions execution (Chary, 1995). Improvement of performance has to be the goal and purpose of every operations management systems. All functions have to be met using the least resources possible. Etisalat has internet filtering system which blocks any access to web resources that are considered offensive. Web resources which are offensive and controversial or harmful are blocked by the filtering system of the company. Certain political religious websites sexual explicit content, proxies and other harmful sites having numerous IP addresses are kept at bay. Content filtering is the requirement of Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of UAE. Restricted content by Etisalat include nudity, pornography and other content that are sexually explicit. Others include certain media sharing websites, Anti-Islamic websites, and critics of UAE, Gay and Lesbian Rights websites, anonymous proxy sites, and numerical IP address links. Etisalat needs to operate with neutrality towards every other player in the UAE market. Service operations are becoming very important in the world and close to eighty percent of jobs worldwide are found in this sector (Robert, 1997). In every organization there increased product development, customer support, and service activities. Service operations are an important part of Etisalat Company since it provides its services to many players in the technology arena. Time series and seasonality can be used in determining future trends in the market. Prediction and determining future events can be used in the event of new market penetration. Conclusion This paper has commences with an analysis of Etisalat existing operations management and explores the output that the company targets. The output realigns the objectives of the company into perspective and focuses on strategies to achieve the desired results. The short-coming of the existing operations management system has been explained and remedies offered in the recommendation part. Operations management system of Etisalat cannot be ignored since it forms the backbone of the productivity expected from the company. Chains of implementations suggest ways that the company can be improved to precisely focus on the set organizational goals. Etisalat has a chance of providing the best service to its clients through improvement of the operations management system. Bibliography Eliyahu M. G., 2004, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, North River Press, Massachusetts Jacobs F.R., Chase, R.B. & Aquilano, N.J., 2007, Operations and Supply Management, 12th Edition, McGraw Hill International Edition, New York. Stevenson W. J, 2007, Operations Management, 9th edition, McGraw Hill, New York. Walters, D., 2007, Operations Management: a value chain approach, New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Johnston, R., 2005, Service Operations Management: Improving service delivery, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, NJ. Krajewsk, L.J., 2005, Operations Management: strategy and analysis, 7th edition, Prentice Hall, NJ. Heizer, J. H., 2008, Principles of Operations Management, 8th edition, Pearson/ Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Schonberger, R. J., 1997, Operations Management: customer focused principles, 6th edition, Richard D. Irwin, Chicago. Robert Johnston, 1997, Cases in Operations Management, 2nd ed, Financial times, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Chary, S.N., 1995, Theory and Problems in Production and Operations Management, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi. Mahadevan, B., 2010, Operations Management: Theory and Practice. Pearson Education India, New Delhi. Trent, R.J. & Monczka, R.M., 2005, Achieving Excellence in Global Sourcing, MIT Sloan Management Review, 47 (1): 24-32. www.etisalat.ae Read More