RR Communications: Governance Mechanisms Essay

Building Shared Services

1. The advantages of creating a single customer service center include the financial and regulatory benefits along with the risk mitigation. A unified center will allow RR Communications to save the costs which are required for maintaining the individual audit in each divisional IT service center. Additional costs can be economized by removing the responsibility for storing the data from the divisional level. Data consolidation and common security architecture will result in reducing the risks of data breaches. RR Communications will be able to ensure best practices through placing the information within a common framework and handling the regulatory issues. A unified customer center will allow the company to enhance its operations and customers’ satisfaction through answering their questions in a unified call center instead of transferring them to various divisions.
2. The first part of the implementation strategy is changing the presidents’ attitude towards the merger of divisions. For example, explaining the advantages of creating a single customer service center can help affect their views. The second step is laying out the role of each division in the process. The awareness of all divisions that each of them has a stake in the customer service is crucial for the success of the merger. It is also important to emphasize the customers’ benefits from a unified call center. After completing the training exercises intended to change the company’s culture, RR Communications can proceed to the inventory of hardware and software which should be conducted in every separate division.
3. It is impossible to achieve an enterprise vision with a decentralized IT function. First of all, if the IT functions are performed by numerous divisions, the fractured framework will not allow the company to focus on the enterprise. Handling the issues on the divisional level is ineffective because it diffuses the company’s efforts and shifts the emphasis from the company’s main goal. Focusing on the individual success of separate divisions, metrics will be inefficient for achieving an enterprise vision.
4. The lack of common information and an enterprise IM strategy can cause a number of IT and business problems. The company’s reputation can suffer because the customer is dissatisfied with having separate bills for different services. It can make customers switch the service supplier and disseminate their views on the company by word of mouth. Along with losing points in the marketplace, the company spends extra costs for covering the needs of separate departments. Regarding the IT problems, the absence of a unified database can cause redundancy and certain inconsistencies in information.
5. The governance mechanisms which need to be implemented by RR Communications include narrowing the gap between IT and business units, ensuring the transparency of metrics and activities within the company, and obtaining an enterprise vision by creating a single-center and consolidating the data. It is important to involve all the departments in these mechanisms by laying out the opportunities of reducing the risks, saving costs, and settling the regulatory issues within the company. It should be noted that these mechanisms would require strategic planning and continuous improvement. The parameters of operations efficiency and customers’ satisfaction should be incorporated into the metrics. The formation of the metrics requires taking into consideration the company’s objectives and the strategies that were chosen for achieving these goals. The design of specific metrics needs to be aimed at getting the information from separate divisions and consolidating it for creating a single-center and obtaining an enterprise vision of the company.