Aim and Objective of the Department
The major objective of the Emirates Group’s IT department is to promote customer experience with the aim of increasing revenues of the firm. The department aims at ensuring that the firm provides customers with excellent services that are geared towards increasing market share and gaining competitive advantage.
Customer service is the sum all the interactions that a customer has with a firm. Terblanche (2009) argues that customers are attracted and/or lost when they interact with the personnel of a company as they seek service. Meyer and Schwager (2007) propose a strategic approach to issues of customer experience to ensure that clients have positive perceptions and attitudes about companies from which they obtain services.
Project Implementation
The project within the IT department of the Emirates Group will aim at achieving quality customer experience. The plan will entail customer focused IT support systems that will foster the abilities to anticipate changes in the market and respond accordingly.
The IT department of the Emirates Group does operate in a vacuum, but in association with other departments charged with the mandate of achieving particular organisational objectives. The department is supposed to enhance the ability of the firm to achieve its goals and objectives. Murphy and Ledwith (2007) have identified three approaches to implementation of change in a firm. These are cutover, pilot and parallel approaches.
With regard to the cut-over approach, a project implementation team may choose to have immediate halting of an existing system and embark on a new system of doing work. This approach, however, poses threats in terms of losses that could be occasioned by interrupted operations of a firm. In fact, for large firms, such as the Emirates Group, the implementation approach could pose high risks of recording losses. However, the approach could be tenable in small firms where the scope of operations is narrow (Murphy & Ledwith 2007).
The pilot approach is popular due to its cautious approach to change. With regard to the strategy, changes are rolled out at once, either in branches of a firm or in departments. The full implementation of project is highly dependent on the success of the implementation of small units (Murphy & Ledwith 2007).
The parallel approach to change in organisations implies running a new system simultaneously against an existing system. The rationale of approach is that the strengths and weaknesses of a new system over an existing system can be seen clearly (Murphy & Ledwith 2007). This approach with regard to implementation of new IT functions allows user participation.
Thus, it has the ability to test the competence of users to deliver excellent results of a new system (Chanaron, Jolly & Soderquist 2002). Therefore, the overall output of a system can be compared to the output of an existing one to ascertain the feasibility of the system. However, the Emirates Group is a large company and running two parallel systems could imply incurring large expenses.
How the activities will be carried out
The changes to be executed in the IT department will be many and they are expected to take a relatively long period. Thus, they should be carried out in phases. A project manager will be identified to be in charge of the project and lead other personnel in executing the programme.
Most importantly, the manager will ensure that proper education is carried out to educate various stakeholders with regard to the project. A person with adequate knowledge about IT projects will assist the manager. The two persons will motivate personnel in other departments to appreciate the use of the proposed IT changes within the Emirates Group.
Monitoring and evaluation of the total quality systems
All projects are executed with the aim of achieving specific goals. Monitoring of projects could be important in identifying the extent to which projects achieve their objectives. In order to assess the successes and failures of the project to be implemented in the IT department, it would be important to understand its goals. Information technology functions have a multiplying effect on output (Luo, Homburg & Wieseke, 2010).
The recent rise of medium-sized firms that are IT intensive is enough evidence of how the strategic utilisation of IT functions can influence organisations. The main goal of the proposed system will be to upgrade customer interaction interfaces within the Emirates Group. The system will have an opportunity to obtain travel tickets directly from the company without necessarily having to go through the middle agents whose extra charges could make services less attractive to travelers.
The system will optimise the utility of the services that the Emirates Group prides in offering its clientele around the globe. Clients will be able to plan their trips with access to adequate information. This is a framework that illustrates how the different aspects of the project are related. In IT intensive firms, such as the Emirates Group, there is a range of issues that may arise during implementation of projects. These could be user interfaces, cultural bias, financial and economic issues.
A project evaluation plan will ensure that the desired results are achieved in all these aspects after implementation (Luo et al 2010; Weiss 2008). Based on the results of monitoring and evaluation, the project in the department could be changed to reflect some aspects that could lead to better outcomes.
The Recommended Implementation Approach
For the purpose of the implementing new customer-focused IT functions, it would be important for the department to adopt the pilot system. The pilot approach will lead to reduced number of threats to the firm’s activities and provide a chance for the firm to ascertain in advance what it can derive from the full implementation of the proposed new system.
Impact on Stakeholders
It is expected that the project would affect all stakeholders either positively or negatively. Whenever new projects are being implemented, it is critical for project managers to provide information to stakeholders (Terblanche 2009; Weiss 2008). The direct impact of the proposed changes will be on the clientele and front office staff that will have to use IT interfaces to interact.
The implication of this is that customers and front office personnel will require basic sensitisation with regard to the interfaces. Suppliers will experience efficient services in the firm because they will be served within relatively short periods. The environment of the business of the Emirates Group will be positively impacted by the project because it will lead to better systems that will result in improved services.
Risk Assessment
Risks could negatively the performance of an organisation. Risks should be assessed so that the chances of the project’s failure could be minimised (El-Sayegh 2008).
The following steps would be utilised in assessing the risks associated with the project:
- Identification of factors that could result in harm or losses.
- Making a decision about who or what could be affected by the identified risks.
- Evaluation of the identified factors with regard to the possible precautions.
- Execution of the proposed precautions that could help prevent harm.
- Review of risk assessment approaches with the aim of updating them and assessing their success levels.
Evidence-based explanation about whether the department is following regulations
Regulations in all sectors of the economy because they involve standard approaches to implementing various issues at the workplace. In order to identify whether the department is following regulations, it would be essential for an individual to identify regulations with regard to the Emirates Group and learn about how they should be adopted (El-Sayegh, 2008).
Approaches that are conducted by the department should be compared to those that are proposed by various bodies in the aviation industry. Most importantly, professionals should decide whether the department follows regulations (El-Sayegh, 2008).
How to carry out the recommendations with regard to risk assessment effectively
In order to significantly minimise the chances of risks impacting the department within the Emirates Group, it would be important to implement recommendations with regard to risk. An implementation team should be formed by the management to spearhead the changes proposed during risk assessment (El-Sayegh, 2008).
The team members should be knowledgeable about the various issues contained in the recommendations. The team should be given a period within which to implement the recommendations. Afterwards, the management should assess the extent to which the team works with regard to preventing risks in the department.
References
Chanaron, J. J., Jolly, D., & Soderquist, K., 2002, ‘Technological management: a tentative research agenda’, International Journal of Technology Management, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 618-629.
El-Sayegh, S., M., 2008, ‘Risk assessment and allocation in the UAE construction industry’, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 431-438.
Luo, X., Homburg, C., & Wieseke, J., 2010, ‘Customer satisfaction, analyst stock recommendations, and firm value’, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 1041-1058.
Meyer, C., & Schwager, A., 2007, ‘Understanding customer experience. Harvard business review, vol. 85, no. 2, pp. 116.
Murphy, A., & Ledwith, A., 2007, ‘Project management tools and techniques in high technology SMEs’, Management Research News, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 153-166.
Terblanche, N., S., 2009, ‘Customer experiences, interactions, relationships and corporate reputation: a conceptual approach’, Journal of General Management, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 120-125.
Weiss, C. H., 2008, Evaluation: methods for studying programs and policies, 4th ed, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.