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Technology Management Plan
For Rustic Americana, the call center is the center point that drives production and revenue. It is pertinent for Rustic Americana’s call center to be efficient and well oiled in order to maximize profits and minimize loss. Rustic Americana can generate sales through a web store, direct mail catalog, a brick and mortar store, and the call center. The call center is the most important facet for Rustic Americana. If Rustic Americana’s call center were performing at peak efficiency, the process is as follows; a customer calls into the call center and a customer service representative (CSR) answers the call. Then, the CSR gathers the customer needs and enters their information into a customer management system (CMS) and their order in the inventory management system (IMS). The IMS is crucial for keeping track of the stock that Rustic Americana has and informing the CSR whether or not the customer’s order can be fulfilled. Once determined viable, the CSR creates a ticket that pings the warehouse where a shipping clerk processes the order and then ships. Once shipped, the information is recorded again in the CMS.
Business Issue Analysis
Although business is also done via other paths, Rustic Americana primarily focuses on their call center to generate profits The company uses a UNIX system to manage the inventory and tracks it using scanners that are in the possession of workers in the warehouses. The pitfall of using an old UNIX system is the real-time reporting that a company like Rustic Americana would need in order to provide accurate information regarding their inventory. A delayed inventory report has already been a topic of issue for the company and it has caused the business to suffer a loss. The communication method that the company uses is a VoIP system which is efficient; however Rustic Americana hosts their system through use of two servers that are not communicating with each other, they are stand alone. This can cause a break in communication that will also affect business. When evaluating the service provided, it seems that Rustic Americana has an issue with handling the call volume and it seems that the phone system is not efficient enough to handle the calls. In order to provide a cleaner service with a quick response time, Rustic Americana needs a way to keep track of the incoming calls and the time it takes for customer service to respond. Lastly, the company would need to look into increasing the number of workstations for their personnel so they can handle the growth. With regards to the server usage as allowed by the CIO, the company is currently wired on a Cat5 system. In order to increase the efficiency, Rustic Americana should consider updating their system to fiber optics. This will allow for faster transfer of data between business units. For the customer service, the company should survey customers after service to get an idea of the customer satisfaction level and thus be able to track changes based on the reactions. A ticketing system and severity system should be in place where network outages are treated as high severity. Lastly, an endpoint management system should be in place to keep track of employee behavior on company resources. By blocking internet access to non-approved websites, it will free up bandwidth and increase employee performance and output. One final issue for Rustic Americana is the inability of the previous CIO to adapt to the more efficient ways of running operations Today’s CRM systems are more than capable of moving the company towards a mobile environment that allows users to remotely access and update information. By shifting to a cloud based SaaS CRM system, the sales process from the order to the billing will be more streamlined and time efficient.
Best Practices Report for Rustic Americana
In order to have Rustic Americana continue to be a leading competitor with the services that we provide the overall enterprise infrastructure will require changes in order to remain competitive. These areas of focus will include but are not limited to the Business Architecture, Information Security, IT investment management and Employee Relations.
Enterprise Architecture
The EA is consisted of the following parts:
Business Perspective
Rustic Americana is comprised of the Factory that handles the inventory and shipping of the company products. The Call Center is the main customer facing aspect that takes orders from the users and assists customers with questions. Also is the Internet sales department, Magazine and Brick and mortar store fronts.
Application Perspective
The users have at their disposal a homegrown system based on Oracle. This is what they use to update inventory levels and also to manage the customer profiles and ordering.
Information Perspective
The users’ primary data is in the form of Order Forms that are used to complete customer transactions.
Technology Perspective
The users are operating using a Unix database. They also have MS servers that they use for exchange. They also have various vendor hardware to meet their networking needs.
IT Investment Management
Currently Rustic Americana is utilizing hardware and database software that is far outdated for the current service levels. In order to meet the service levels as well as have ample room for growth in the future, we will need to standardize the networking standards as well as perform various upgrades. The upgrades will come in the form of a network upgrade to the DMZ. Currently they have a CAT5 connection but would be better serviced by upgrading to a Fiber Optic channel.
Information Security
Currently, there is no mention of a security service within Rustic Americana. It is our suggestion that we create a team of two in order to monitor the users’ activity on the company’s network. This would also allow us to prevent users spreading information about the company’s business with other competitors. And Encryption service should also be added to the Exchange server and be closely monitored in order to identify leaks that may come about.
Ethics Training
It is recommended that all employees of Rustic Americana as well as management complete an ethics course so that they are aware of the standards by which we hold them accountable for any and all actions within our environment.
Operational Improvements
In order to improve the operations of Rustic Americana, infrastructure improvements have to be made to make sure that the technology is scalable enough to adapt to the change. Rustic Americana should look into upgrading their old UNIX database to a SQL cluster server system in order to guarantee redundancy and minimal downtime if a server should fail. Eventually, the SQL servers will allow for distributed analysis of the call center data which could be used for business development. By standing up SQL servers, the infrastructure engineer will be able to build virtual machines that cater to different business needs. These virtual machines will house Rustic Americana’s software as a service platform that combines the customer and inventory management systems.
The next improvements that need to be made are the increase of number in work stations for the call center. Currently, there are forty employees and not enough work stations. During a high call volume period, Prisha Khan is not able to achieve maximum efficiency because there are idle employees. In order to increase the data transfer speed, the call center should be wired through the use of fiber optics.
The last set of hardware improvements that Rustic Americana needs to make is the standardization of switches and routers for the call center. Cisco network devices are easily compatible and easily management for most information technology departments. The standardization will allow for easier support and maintenance. In the long run, it will also become cost effective.
For business development and for Rustic Americana to make sure their customer service is above par, the company should look into data analysis. By using Hadoop in conjunction with the SQL cluster servers, Rustic Americana will be able to utilize an efficient distributed analysis method to gain accurate data on the performance of their call center. The data analysis can range from customer surveys to an in depth analysis of the company’s products and their sales volume.
Software as a service has become a vastly used method to combine multiple management systems and boost company efficiency. A company like NetSuite creates a platform for enterprise and business management. NetSuite is cloud based software that offers a variety of software such as SAP, QuickBooks, Deltek, etc. The standardization of an enterprise resource planning tool like NetSuite will help all facets of Rustic Americana (from the CEO to your average employee) is on the same page. It allows for the workforce to be completely mobile while still being able to access all the necessary information. NetSuite will streamline the communication between different business units so that company goals are comprehended in all units. NetSuite has the capability to offer real time information. The SaaS can also be configured to suit the specific needs of Rustic Americana.
Besides investing in software as a service, Rustic Americana should also provide their information technology department with a ticketing system and an endpoint management system. A tool such as Kace, created by Dell, will allow for IT employees to be able to track the submitted tickets as well as the severity of tickets submitted. This will allow for a faster response time to severe issues that may cause company downtime. As per the endpoint management system, a company like Symantec creates a suite of software that allows for a company IT department to have full visibility into the behavior of the company network as well as the behavior of users on the company network. The endpoint management software can monitor mobile devices to workstations and it can force users to comply with a company’s acceptable use policy and not eat up company bandwidth on unapproved websites.