Datatronics Case Study

Running head: BUILDING SHARED SERVICES AT RR COMMUNICATIONS 1

Building Shared Services at RR Communications Case Study

by Harish Chunchu

Professor Dr. Richard Tabu

University of The Cumberlands

Organization Leadership and Decision Making

06/04/2020

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Abstract

In this case study, we are going to discuss about RR communications and how they were

going to build shared services and what led them to the approach. RR communications is an

organization comprising of four business units executed independently: Cable TV, Mobile,

Internet, and landline. RR Communications has appointed Vince as the new executive Vice

President to uplift the company’s draining stock. This paper is going to describe the various

challenges faced by RR communications along with various strategies and measures taken by

Vince and how his decision of using Shared Services impacted RR Communications.

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Building Shared Services at RR Communications Case Study

At RR Communications, each of the four divisions is headed individual CIO. Vince, the

new executive VP of the Company had developed enterprise IT organizations for streamlining and

normalizing RR communications. Vince acknowledges that the organization is missing a strong

IT control and centralized IT infrastructure. Now leadership in each unit is independent from the

central management.

This actively triggers decision making and steps to be enforced. The vice president is

focused on redesigning the internal IT architecture of the organization, and to create a consolidated

budget. "After he established enterprise infrastructure and defined structured systems, metrics,

and strategies, Vince’s next step is to design a centralized client service center to exchange shared

consumer data within the company." (McKeen & Smith, 2015).

According to Vince, service delivery in a centralized system is efficient. To circumvent

this system, He dismissed the divisional CIOs to pave the way execution of a centralized system.

DIOs feel that a centralized system would increase complexity and strip away their control.

Nonetheless, centralized systems have many positives such as removal of redundancy, reallocation

of excess resources, delivery value at cost-effective, reduce complexity, information exchange,

consistency and provides insight into management of the crisis (Napolitano, 2012).

Method

To execute this strategy the enterprise needs to investigate the current situations and pay attention

to the expectations of each business division/unit. Assessing RIO and the result of business would

also aid in implementing the new strategy implement. Valuation of the current system and the

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needs of supportive teams is important. The company must structure a control framework

mechanism for adopting acquisition financial plans and other services. The organization should

therefore implement a decentralized IT system to effectively deliver services to the clients.

McKeen & Smith (2015) describes Decentralization as the extent to which functions and

powers are transferred from top-level management to bottom level management”. The main

merits of decentralization are efficacy in communication, strong goals ideology, and mission

statement. As competition in the telecom field is high, pressure on CIOs is increasing to consider

these issues. In between this new VP was hired to Position Company towards new services and

products. He formed a panel at the top management level for project endorsement. The firing of

DIOs would benefit the company` management to initiate anew redesigning of its IT

infrastructure (Napolitano, 2012). Suter, et. al. (2009) stated “From a technology point of view,

RR communication lacks definite information management system, because, each division

maintains separate customer database with incompatible formats”. Since the four divisions do

not exchange client data among them, the company is defeated to resolve issues of customers to

maintain a single bill for all purchases. Another concern at RR is the lack of supervision and

evaluation of completed projects are, this would affect the firm`s value in providing services to

clients (Napolitano, 2012). Customers suffered dissatisfaction due to this problem. According to

Ramphal (2012), “The issues and concerns at RR communication is disunity between division”.

This is triggered by a defective communication system, which recompenses individual

performance rather than corporation turnover. Centralized customer database and combining IT

resources can overcome this defective communication system (McKeen & Smith, 2015).

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Results

RR Communications must concentrate on coordinating IT services with business units.

This helps to boost the oversight and integrity of the business and IT divisions. Firms should have

a widely accepted corporate vision that encompasses growth opportunities and risk mitigation.

Leadership should aim to guarantee a shared information service center (Raphael, 2011). RR

communications must maintain centralized database of all departments helped in increase the value

of resources, reduce operation costs and generation of effective reports.

Outcome 1

The first outcome out of this case study is to come up with plausible solutions to the

problems addressed above. The initial step would be redesigning the company’s internal

infrastructure and streamline a set of standard technologies. The whole purpose was to aim at

reducing suppliers and centralized procurement (McKeen & Smith, 2015).

Outcome 2

The second outcome out of this observation is to have a centralized budget for creating a robust

architecture at the enterprise level along with establishing a standardized desktop and

infrastructure. The next step would be aligning tools, metrics, and policies in the right path and

make sure the plan is religiously followed by the other divisions (McKeen & Smith, 2015).

Discussion

Vince had two major issues, the first and foremost concern was that they had no central IT. So,

each of the four divisions had their own hardware and software. So, aligning all the four divisions

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into a common system was very challenging according to the founder Roman. For these divisions,

they were separate sales systems, databases, and customer service centers which was quite

ambiguous to customers and business since they had multiple orders generated for each customer.

This led to a huge dissatisfaction among the customers. Also, telecommunications regulators and

software vendors who were entitled to find out legal activities to be monitored within which was

not been able to provide (McKeen & Smith, 2015). Also, the staff at RR Communications were

less supportive of the decision because, centralized IT reduces freedom with restrictive

administration which led to creation of duplicate data, files, which often and data loss of secured

information (McKeen & Smith, 2015).

Conclusion

In conclusion, to make RR Communications better their profits, the above outcomes are to be

followed. To sum up, duplication of files and data has to be eliminated for which we need to

introduce a change in the company’s internal infrastructure and streamline a set of standard

technologies so that there will be a reduction in suppliers and centralized procurement. The other

issue of monitoring budgets can be addressed by introducing a centralized budget system for all

the four divisions.

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Discussion Questions

1. List the advantages of a single customer service center for RR communications.

Single service Centre presents numerous merits for RR communications. Here are the

advantages of the Single Service Centre as follows

• Improves business processes and guarantees best audit practices

• It opens windows for new opportunities

• Every department has stakes in customer service center efficiency in the implementation

of new projects is achieved

• Improvement in ethical requirements and clear accountability concerns

• Integration of data into unified customer service centers.

• It opens opportunities for upselling/cross-selling of goods and services

• Timely deliveries and reduced costs.

2. Devise an implementation strategy that would guarantee the support of the

divisional presidents for the shared customer service center

Data consolidation limits consumer data and concentrates on advertising and value creation.

Security controls moderates Information Technology requirements and operating costs for data

retention. Tech knowledge in operating a centralized customer service center yields consistency

(Gallivan, 2001).

Contingency planning is moved to senior leadership, who maintains guidelines and security

infrastructure. The senior management maintains basic security procedures and standards.

Information may be organized under the relevant specifications. The Presidents may exchange

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information that is consistent with performance indicators. Moving forward, the company must

create a strategic plan (Sellnow et al, 2008).

3. Is it possible to achieve an enterprise vision with a decentralized IT function?

Decentralization entails the distribution of functions and powers from top-level management

to bottom level management. The input procedures within an organization have posed security

concerns related to the company's which a major concern of companies is now

When Information technology roles exist within a delicate framework, the strategic intent and

emphasis will never be concentrated on the organization. Decentralized functions of information

technology are instituted on a collective vision. It comprises all nodes of tasks which are

apportioned to a central management system within the business enterprise. Every node has a

unique structure and association to aid in the management of concerns present in each node. The

trend will continue to persist and the link between internal divisions will be weakened rendering

the enterprise local.

4. What business and IT problems can be caused by a lack of common information

and an enterprise IM Strategy?

• Low degree of coordination between information systems.

• Diverse large-scale information management systems.

• There is no appropriate uniformity in the dissemination of data, redundancy, and

lack of adequate data framework.

• Less resource to improve information systems.

• The impact of legislation on teamwork activities of the firm.

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5. What governance mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure common customer

data and a shared customer service center? What metrics might be useful?

The convergence of Information technology with trade segments, oversight of operations and

metrics, mutual information technology and corporate obligation, and a collective corporate vision

of the platforms must be instituted. Divisions within the organization must be active in the

development of structures and the focus should be on metrics such as risk reduction, growth

prospects, and legal requirements. Some development standards must and should be maintained

and achieved, as well as objectives. Such principles will offer desirable outcomes in the event the

issues arise (Raphael, 2011).

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References

Napolitano, J. (2012). Department of Homeland Security Strategic Plan, Retrieved from

https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/dhs-strategic-plan-fy-2012-2016.pdf

Mckeen, J. D., & Smith, H. A. (2015). IT Strategy Issues and Practices. Pearson Ed.

Ramphal, R. (2012). A literature review on shared services. 7(1-7). DOI:

10.5897/AJBM12.1202. Retrieved from

http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1380727972_Ramphal.pdf

Raphael, R. R. (2011). A quality framework for services in shared services environments.

Journal of Contemporary Management, 8(1), 223-238.

Sellnow, T. L., Ulmer, R. R., Seeger, M. W., & Littlefield, R. (2008). Effective risk

communication: A message-centered approach. Springer Science & Business Media.

Gallivan, M. J. (2001). Organizational adoption and assimilation of complex technological

innovations: development and application of a new framework. ACM SIGMIS Database:

the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems, 32(3), 51-85.