Essay About Service Segments And Control Systems

Otisline
(1). Otis has been the market leader in both sales and service segments. Consider the time when OTISLINE was just being conceived. Why do they need to do anything at all, and that too in the service sector?By 1985, US Elevator industry was approximately worth USD 3 billion; one third came from new equipment sales and remaining two thirds from service. The manufacturing industry was very competitive with a few major players and had significant barriers to entry.On the other hand, the service industry had steady demand and high profitability. The barriers to entry were insignificant and as a consequence of that, thousands of elevator service companies existed. Because of low concentration in the service industry, bargaining power of buyers was high and there was intense rivalry among various service providers. The threat of substitutes was significant (except in the case of elevators with microprocessor based control systems which required the use of proprietary maintenance devices). Most of the market forces were not in favor of Otis and were bound to have a negative impact on its top-line and bottom-line in the long run. As the installation base was growing, service was becoming high portion of profit than new unit sale. As a market leader, Otis has the following reasons to launch OTISLINE:Maintain its position as the Market Leader: Otis had to ensure a better product quality and faster service than its competitors to ensure that its remains the market leader. The introduction of microprocessor based control systems would ensure higher percentage of service contracts for OtisProviding better service to customers: Service contracts were given out based on responsiveness, quality and price. OTISLINE helped in reducing the response time considerablyCentralized System: There was high variance in quality of answering services deployed by Otis. This was a big motivator to come up with a centralized systemReduction in Cost: OTISLINE helped in reducing the number of callbacks per year by providing preventive maintenance. NAO calculated that reducing callbacks for each installed elevator by one a year would save Otis $5 million annually2. Which aspects of the OTIS organization would be affected by OTISLINE, if implemented?Success in Sales is Measured by:No of Bids won / lostMarket share by region, by productType of buildings and elevator, etc.Budgeted and actual profitabilityComparison of planned and actual installation datesSuccess in Service is Measured by:No of Service contracts won / lostProfitability by customer, by office, and by regionResponse time taken by office, and also by regionCallbacks by customer and officeTime to repair elevatorTime for next repair and quality of repair undertaken by  each individual mechanic Impact of OTISLINE on ServiceEmbedding of Microcomputers in recent products i.e.use of  information technology will transform the product.The OTISLINE system will make it possible for Otis to offer perform contracts over it’s competitors.OTISLINE will make it easier for senior management to spot and manage the difficult situations, resulting in higher level of customer satisfaction.If information coming from the OTISLINE is used appropriately, this system will enable Otis to become more customer-service oriented.OTISLINE will significantly transform information flow within the organization.Impact of OTISLINE on Sales OTISLINE’s ability to enhance the service business will be a useful in selling tools for New Equipment Sales (NES) representatives.The New Equipment Sales system can use OTISLINE to shorten the time it takes to record and process the customer order.3. What  would be the risks associated with OTISLINE? How did they try to take care of those?Feasibility – Building a database of existing customers and service information would have taken four to five years. Using the existing Service Management System data base reduced the time and effort required to develop OTISLINE.Responsiveness – Quick response to customer was vital for the success of OTISLINE. The challenge was to keep five-seconds response time to less than 2%. To tackle this issue the system was designed in a way that a dispatcher could respond to a customer in less than a second. Each dispatcher was assigned a specific job instead of dealing with a customer from end-to-end. This increased dispatcher efficiency.Customer Service Experience – Since OTISLINE was primarily a customer based service, it was important that it was a pleasant experience for customers who used it. To ensure this, the service center staff recruited were preferred to have a college degree and speak multiple languages. Calls were directed to dispatchers familiar with the language of the customer. The dispatchers were trained for 4-6 weeks to get familiar with the information systems in use, the organization structure at Otis, appropriate telephonic exchanges and elevator terminology to be used for service mechanics. Incoming calls would be directed to any dispatcher available to reduce waiting time.Tracking service mechanics – OTISLINE decreased field office managers’ control over dispatching service mechanics, due to which they were unable to keep a track on them. To overcome this issue, installation of personalized OTISLINE PCs in field offices was proposed.