Introduction
The topic of the case study under analysis is the use of the outdated and modern e-commerce and interactive response systems in the business of color cosmetic products focused on field merchandising activities. The case analyzes the problems that Maybelline New York faced in relation to these interactive systems and how the company solved those issues (Online File, 2009). The title of the case study analyzed is E-Commerce Supports Field Employees At Maybelline.
Summary of the Case
Maybelline is one of the world’s leaders in the field of cosmetics trade in over 70 countries of the world. The company carries out field merchandising activities and values the option to know as fast as possible about the modifications of the market conditions that they can get from their field representatives (Maybelline, 2010). To optimize the time needed for transmission of these data, Maybelline equipped its every rep with interactive voice response (IVR) systems, but the latter proved ineffective (IVR, 2009). To solve this issue, the company introduced Merchandising Sales Portfolio (MSP) by MEI Group to substitute the IVRs, and this step manifested its effectiveness and allowed the company to save its reps’ time at the rate of about 30 to 50 minutes daily and increase the company’s overall efficiency (MEI, 2009; Podshopping, 2009).
Statement of the Problem
The major problem argued about in the case under analysis is the lack of efficiency and flexibility of the once introduced interactive voice response (IVR) system by Maybelline New York. The system expected to decrease the time of information transmission from the field representatives to the head offices of the company turned out to be the cause of information reception delays and numerous confusions (Podshopping, 2009). The head office managers obtained the information from field representatives with delays, while those reps experienced considerable operational issues with the IVR as they often had to skip over 50 questions to find the necessary one or could not find the question they needed in a particular case (Podshopping, 2009).
Proposing a Solution
The solution proposed and implemented by Maybelline was to substitute the IVR system by the Merchandising Sales Portfolio (MSP) by MEI Group (Podshopping, 2009). The solution proved to be effective as it allowed a speedier data transmission and was easier in operation for both field representatives and head office managers. It also reduced the stress for the reps as they had fewer chances for failure of their transmission operations. As a result, the flow of the employees at Maybelline stopped that also allowed the company to save valuable funds (Podshopping, 2009). The alternative solution might be the wider use of telephone connection and employment of call reception managers to timely receive and put the data transmitted by reps into the respective databases, although this will be more costly than MSP use.
Learning Application
The usefulness of the solution implemented by Maybelline is obvious as it allowed avoiding the confusion that IVR caused and saved time and funds for the whole company and its field representatives. The efficiency of the proposed telephone solution is not yet tested in practice, but it will obviously benefit the company as transmitting data over the phone will allow Maybelline New York to avoid possible system breakdowns and other unexpected occurrences of the same kind.
References
IVR. (2009). Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Voice Mail and Fax Server Systems. Web.
Maybelline. (2010). What’s New. Web.
MEI. (2009). Trade Promotion Management. Web.
Online File. (2009). E-Commerce Supports Field Employees at Maybelline. Web.
Podshopping. (2009). Maybelline: What Has This Company Been Doing? Web.