Report Submission Guidelines 1. Start with an introduction stating what the case talks about and then summarize it in one page. 2. The next page should be an analysis of the case, each case talks about an issue or a problem that is being addressed, in this page you can state your opinion, relate it to the case as well as what you took during the course. You can also put points of what you have learned from the case. 3. The last page will be the answers to the case questions. 4. No hard copies of the assignment will be accepted only soft copies uploaded to the Moodle. 5. No assignments will be accepted after 25/march /2021 My topic is: For Companies Both Big and Small: Running a Business on Smartphones REAL WORLD CASE For Companies Both Big and Small: Running a Business on Smartphones newly 2006, San Antonio, Terbased CPS Energy, the natin largest municipally owned enery provider, was by all accounts riding the road to niches. The company had the highest bond ratings of any such utility provider. Its workforce and cutomer base in general expressed satisfac Don. And most important, it was profitable. In other words, there were no estemal signs that the company was about 10 launch a technology program that would redefine the way it did business and reshape its workforce of roughly 4,000 There weren't external signs, but for those in the know including Christopher Barron, CPS En VP and CIO, couldn't have been more clear that a change wimminent and that the future of the company might depend on it "We had a much larger worldorce than a business our sine maybe should have, Ramon says. Barron looked at other companies with large mobile workforces like its own, companies like UPS and FedEx, and he saw a huge disparity in the way his business was operat ing For instance, specific CPS workers had little or no cess to IT systems and remurces while they were from the office or warehouse. They were often required to visit work sites or customer locations to diagnose inues or sug- gest fixes before reporting to the appropriate departments or parties, which would then initiate the next step of the resole tion proces. That could mean dispatching additional work ers, and the whole ordeal could take days. "If we kept with the amount of manual labor that it took for us to accomplish that work, we would not be in the post tion to be competitive in the future, " Barron ways. From this realization, the company Magellan Program was born The Magellan Program was envisioned by laron and his colleagues better way to mobilise and connect its traditionally sloed workforce to the people and systems they needed to do the job. The goal of the program wito extend CPS networking infrastructure, build its new Wi-Fi networks in offices and warehouses, and deploy smartphones and customs mobile application to all CPS staffers who lodn't currently have a laptop or other mobile device. For Barron, the first and most significant challenge in deploying smartphones to such a large er bese was gut ting executive buy-in "One of our biggest headaches has been, and continues to be the perception that the technology brings little to the table other than e-mail, and it lor," Barron says "For a CIA to try to eliminate all the resistance from senior executive might take forever, Barron says Souther than try to get to the cuts and mollify all their fans about cost, osage and safety, we've gone to specific groups, emp- neers, line workers, office workers, and because it's so cheap we've been able to give the devices et on experimental be sis. There's so much value in these handheld devices and two or the applications that they prove themse he says "You just have to get them into the hands of the people that actually need to use them in order to demonstrate that Three innovative was CPS staff we their smart- phones are adipital cameras at work sites, as GPS tracking mechanisms, and sergency notification receivers is the past, CPS might have had to dispatch a small group of "gen. cralist workers to a service call to make sure the correct person was there. Today, a single worker can visit site a photo of damaged piece of equipment or infrastructure, and then send it back to headquarters of the office. Then an expert diagnoses the wae and sends aloeg in structions to fix the problem or dispatches the appropriate worker, who is wilde mediately via voice e-mail and SMS via smartphone "The Magellan Programs, through the use of smart phones and other technology has or will empower allem ployees, no matter what work they perform, to become pan of the greater company thought work, Barron sy "Each person is now like a node is near The com pany is a sering gintains in supply chain efficiency related to Magellan and the unphone deployment, he says. For instance, marphones help speed up the purchase oder process, be in the pipecific son or group of people del beso approvenien. Now the approven can be patically where with cellular cover age. The company can buyer can be how to work with the people who actually order part leading to faster anders and proactive supply chain management call lone year, the time it took close pour and procurement del decreted by more than 65 percent. A levde werd by more than 58 millionce the Magdan Program began FIGURE 2.9 avou Companies can benet oming 1 improve the proces THE O The Man || 1 lu 1 kg 60 Alle In addition, both employee and customer satisfaction levede rep. llerront, because waters now have more ces to corporate and information, and they feel dowser to the business. Because CPS can now resolve more customer issues with fewer process, they've reduced the time it takes to complete mostre calls, leading to hap pier customer. In fact, the company received the highest score in JD Power and Associates 2007 Gas Utility Rei dential Customer Satisfaction Survey The technology, however, is no longer the esclusive view of large companies with significant IT budgets, at least not anymore. Lloyd's Construction in Eagan, Minnesota might notwem as if it needs flashy phone software. The $9 million year demolition and carting company has been run by the same family for the past 24 years. Lloyd's tales down commercial and residential buildings and then he them away. What could be more simple That is, if wran gling 100 employees, 10 trucks, and more than 600 dump sers can be called simple. Coordinating the mwing parts is crucial to growing the business and to waving the way of Stephanie Lloyd, 41, who has in the company for the past four years. Until recently, Lloydied hodepodge of spreadsheets, peper ledgers, and accounting software on company PC to lep track of its workers and equipment To make matters worse, the company weddins to corde hate with its workers on the job. The more cell phone or es that came online in Minnesota, the worse Lloyd die reception got. It was time, the Lleyde decided to drag the company into the 21st century world of smartphone Lloyd's considered a half-douen mobile-productivity software suites before settling on Trace, which happened to come from a company called Gear Works based just across town. Not only was Gear Work local but its of ware worked on Sprint Nextel 1560 and in 50 phones which are aimed at the construction industry. Loyd had already started buying these push-to-talk phones to we workers from their dying radio Immediately, techno bic staff had trouble. Employees had to be guided up a step learning curve in order to master even basic features on their new phones. For 18 months, the systems an de by side. The www phased in, and the old paper and polystem as it was phased out. Accounting incomis ces quickly crepti And Then to a delicate labor problem. The software featured integrated mapping and twel data that showed the real-time locations of all company their chagrin, the Lloyde dincovered that those acts were pending mo much time parked outside the same lunch pe that we non prescribed routes. Lloyd was sympathetic to workers' needs for break---"We've all worked demolition here," she says--but quickly clamped down on hoidones GW CEO says the challenges Lloyd's faced are to be expecte "All these products operate under the mi pendulum of challenge und opportunity," says Todd Kremer, 47. "But our software does a good job of letting the control that rute of change in the business." Once the deployment dust had sented the savings le came dear The company employs 12 drivers, 22 foremen, and office workers who e 41 phones running The The company buys an unlimited data package for each phone, which totals about 54,000 a month. Add other net working charges, and Lloyd spends about $50,000 year for a complete business, accounting, and communications Refore Trace, the company paid an accountant 40 hours 3 week to do the books. Now that person comes in one day week for 6 hours, saving roughly $1,000 a week. Data entry and job logging by the dispatcher and fore men, Lloyd says, is meghly 16 times faster than paper and radio. More efficient routing has cut fuel costs by about 30 percent. And employees have stopped making author and stops Led states ant improvement in perform- ance of 10-12 percent, or roughly $1 million for 2007 not badem S50,000 "It really does work." she says. PORTONE March 19, 20, NS school Gay , CASE STUDY QUESTIONS REAL WORLD ACTIVITIES 1. In which ways do smartphones help these companies be more proficie? To what extent improvements in performance coming from revenue increases or co reductions Provide several samples from the case 2. The compte described in the records for mount of resistance from employees when introducing umarphone technologies. Why do you think this hap pened? What could companies do to improve the option of the initial Develop two live proposition 3. CPS Energy and Lloyd Goodman phones to make casting proficient. How od they have wed the technology products and services for their customers include least one recommendation for christi 1. In addition to the companies featured in the other FedEx and UPS, which have large mobile workforces, heavily mobile communication tech nologies. What other companies could benefit from these innovations 2. Go online and reach of phones in me different from the ones wed here. Prepare mon share your findings 3. Ut the Internet research the latest technological de donne in phones, and how these cobs by comes to deliver value to custom