Problem
As one of the most successful wireless companies in the world,T-mobile seems its whole system runs good and there is no deadly problem. But it has some problem with their management technology. This lead to waste of their human resources and it caused the inefficient workflows, and rise of cost.
Silos are becoming more of an issue in this high speed world. One of the problems that come with this is not letting build a relationship with the customer, not because the company doesn’t want to. Why? Because there no way of tracking that customer information, wants, and needs. Enterprise systems are the way to build an internal system on how to transfer information from all departments to each customer that has an account with us. By having this it will have a smooth flow of information and directions to each employee on how to make the company perform better and increase their target market by identifying certain patterns of current customer. The type of system that would be best fit for our needs increase sales and decision making would be a management information system that will allow to view reports that will be helpful to see on how the company expects sells and goals, with that information, it could make us make a strong structured decision on important issues concerning employees and customers. Also with a management information system, it will have a clear overview on the day to day business to know exactly on what problems need solutions. The types of venders being uses here will be SAP, in order to have management input on the day to day business. Also Siegel so it could track certain patterns on customers to offer promotions and increase their value.
This is an inter-organizational application that allows Senior and Junior management have a better understanding on where the company stands. Using an Enterprise 2.0 model will help us strong business relationships with other business venders, customer and employees. Using this will make the things searching for information will make it easier to find with a structured content. Allows the people have to hand out information with to certain with the proper authorization to do so. And easier access to customers’ accounts that will allows knowing their needs and wants which will drive business.
T-Mobile is currently using a software called “Quikview”:
which allows employee to enter customer account and have an overview of the status of the account, which it depends on the last time they got an upgrade on a phone, billing, and their history on their account so we can see customer memos which tell us times they called or came in the store with an summary on what they spoke about that time. This gives us knowledge about the customer account and history to have a better understanding on what they need. Quikview also has a link for “streamline” which is a employee-support site. Which, gives us information from how to reboot a phone all the way up to annual sales for T-Mobile. Employees have access to this on read-only information about the T-Mobile and issues that we encounter. Only IT and trainers have access to change and add information.
T-mobile uses an Enterprise DBMS because of its need to store massive amounts of customer information. The head of Information Management, Matthias Assmann, announces on 4 March 2011 that T-mobile has switched to the IBM DB2 database system.
Assmann states, “IBM systems will give T-mobile a significant competitive advantage.” The type of database security T-mobile uses isn’t disclosed to the public but
has recently been changed and modified due to a break-in. In October of 2004, a hacker broke into T-mobiles database and stole government files and customer’s personal information. The hacker stated, “There was a flaw in the way the cell phone servers were set up.” Since this incident, T-mobile has reinforced their database security utilizing many counter-intrusion methods such as; account holder verification via text message, and several prompts to confirm email addresses and security questions. I recommend and hope T-mobile utilizes the use of security consultants to prevent hackers from exploiting flaws in their system.
The traditional approach to business intelligence had reached its limits in 2010, and T-Mobile wanted a faster and more flexible solution. As part of a major upgrade to its SAP software environment, T-Mobile worked with IBM Global Technology Services to deploy the new IBM Systems. The new upgrade increased performance which eliminated the need for query optimization, saving development time and costs and enhancing business flexibility for users. Ultimately, the optimization of T-mobiles systems made business intelligence a lot more efficient in recording and gathering customer relationships. Some business intelligence methods used by T-mobile include enterprise Resource Planning (which manages business processes), Information Infrastructure, Leveraging Information, and Optimizing IT. There are several ways to implement each method of business intelligence. They all relay heavily on researching their customers and gaining a competitive advantage wherever they can.
T-mobile utilizes IBM servers such as the IBM BladeCenter, running on IBM HS20 64-bit Intel Xeon processor blade servers. With these servers, T-Mobile is able to considerably reduce the time to market for business intelligence solutions, cut costs, and provide its business analysts with the tools they need quickly.
T-mobile does not utilize web servers or cloud computing. IBM provides a solid structure for T-mobile to access information quickly and efficiently, so much so that cloud computing is not necessary. In the past, T-mobile has had some difficulties with cloud computing services. On October 10, 2009, customers of T-mobile and SideKick data services provider Danger (a cloud computing service) crashed. As a result, information such as contacts, calendar event entries, to-do lists were all lost. The incident prompted T-mobile to stay away from the use of cloud computing.
Recommendation
The fundamental problem of information silos is that data are duplicated in isolated systems. The most obvious fix is to eliminate that duplicated data by a shared database and revising business processes to use that database. T-Mobile needs to be mindful to develop procedures to record any intended use for shared resources in the database. A fully integrated system that offers the necessary content management and optimal workflow control is needed. The technology systems being used which require significant duplication of human efforts. The technical components of the information systems are crucial to daily operations and productivity. These two systems need to communicate on more of a real time basis. Data from each system will at times need to be manually input into the next. This can lead to disastrous results if human error occurs. Two different versions of information each having their own silo can lead to increased costs, delayed the inability to meet customer requirements, etc. To help T-Mobile broaden its reach against Apple and other players on the consumer side is necessary.
T-Mobile USA's chief marketing officer, sketched out some new customer service policies the carrier need institute to boost the comfort levels of new Android phone users. For one thing, T-Mobile has to make sure that every phone is working before it leaves the company's doors. T-Mobile's new emphasis on "usability" will extend across Android software. T-Mobile is contains new software applications and features devised by T-Mobile. T-Mobile should be user-customizable. There will be "boundless possibilities as to how to personalize". To support its new competitive strategy for Android phones, T-Mobile should keep devising a new ad campaign. The new ads should start soon, and should be schedule to enter general availability soon. To add features of T-Mobile's new Android phone include a 3.2-inch HVGA touch-screen display with enhanced video capabilities and a virtual keyboard; a 3.2-megapixel camera; a music player with a pre-installed 4 GB microSD memory card; To built-in wireless communications through Wi-Fi and T-Mobile's 3G network; a Microsoft Exchange client; GoogleTalk, MMS, and Microsoft LiveTalk messaging; and one-click access to a number of different online apps, including Google Maps, YouTube, Picasa, and Yahoo.
Conclusion
It’s our conclusion that T-mobile should make ways to tracking the customer information, wants, and needs in order to build customer relationship as soon as possible, it might improve the quality of customer service, it’s really significant for T-mobile to get marketing advantages in the competition. As a service provider, T-mobile role as a positive company in its industry, the company upgrading its systems and facility frequent to improve their service and purchased integrated management system. High technique support behind of this company, and they are contribute for the better of the service for their customers.
