Management of Strategic Operation

Management of Strategic Operation

Introduction:  

Many businesses have ventured rapidly formed supply networks in which supplies can be made with anyone, at anytime and everywhere void of emphasizing on the business processes and computers systems as a means of improving the efficiency of their supply chains. Grupo Multiasistencia is a companying, which operates in UK, France and Spain. Its activities encompass the coordination of the home insurance claims and repairs for more than 100 corporate clients (Von Hippel 2005). Its supply network is known as the Networked Business Operating System, which was based on their call center, mobile systems, internet and wed services. Under this system, the customer conveys his request for repair to the company and the corporate clients. The corporate clients transfer their requests to the company who in turn conveys it to the trade professionals. The trade professionals provide invoices to the client on behalf of eRepairs while at the same time providing them with services. The trade professionals also provide invoices to the company, which relays the invoicing information to the corporate client on the repairs and claims made. The corporate clients then provide a survey of their satisfaction to the company hence ending the supply network. All the relaying of information takes place in real time, necessitating the monitoring by the CSR to maintain the quality of services provided.

What factors have affected the organization’s decisions regarding which parts of the network to outsource or keep in-house?          

The company prefers to keep its network in-house rather than outsourcing. The factors influencing this decision include the fact that the supply chain does not involve many key players and outsourcing the network would translate to additional costs for the company. The reason why the company reverted into the Networked Business Operating System was because it was losing a number of their clients as a result of the lowering of the quality of communication and services rendered (Van Heck & Vervest 2007). This is because the company’s network relied on the connections made between the customers and trade professional by the CSR in the contact center. Outsourcing the network might result into the compromising of the quality provided by the company hence translating into more loses for it. The company has been relying on information management as a method of maintaining the 20% loyalty of its customer; this could be significantly affected by outsourcing the network therefore leading to the loss of customer loyalty. The use of digitized signatures and electronic invoicing by the trade professionals is a delicate matter that should be kept in-house because outsourcing a network that relies on such delicate matters might compromise their quality hence culminating into a number of frauds. The final factor is such that outsourcing the network might substantially affect the standardized, heterogeneous and fragmented house repairs sector that has reduced the cost for all the parties involved.

How has the organization planned for the location of capacity? 

Planning for the location of the call center in which the network is managed was not a hard decision for the company because owing to the fact that most of its operations are carried out in Europe, the contact center had to be located in one of the European countries. After its establishment in 1983, the contact center was set up in Madrid and it has never changed to date. The initial number of CSR required for the company was 375 and due to the adoption of the new system, the capacity has not increased as the CSR are bestowed with the role of monitoring the system to ensure quality (Von Hippel 2005). As the company expands, it might necessitate the increase in capacity but this will not pose a problem, as the location of the contact center is strategic such that it can be expanded easily to contain the increase in capacity. Having the network has reduced the chances on the capacity that would have been taken up by the trade professionals if links were not created between them, the company, the corporate clients and customer such that information is relayed in real time. This means that the company had an easy time when planning for the location of capacity.

Bibliography:

Van Heck, E. & Vervest, P. 2007. Smart Business Networks: How the Network Wins, Communications of the ACM, 50 (6), pp. 28-37 http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/doi:10.1145/1247001.1247002. retrieved on 23 October 2009).

Von Hippel, E. 2005. Democratizing Innovation, MIT Press, Cambridge.