EDI transactions between companies flow faster and more reliably than paper documents. Faster transactions support reduction in inventory levels, better use of warehouse space, fewer out-of-stock occurrences and lower freight costs through fewer emergency expedites.
Using new technology in customer support:
There are three key advances in IT usage to facilitate and streamline customer support function:-
- Smart online help pages
- Automated voice recognition
- Semi-automated and supported customer service
In today's competitive marketplace, businesses are looking for ways to more effectively improve the bottom line and keep pace with market demands. To achieve these objectives and remain competitive, companies are focusing on ways to enhance customer services and product quality, increase revenue, reduce costs, and improve productivity.
One of the most powerful means for achieving these goals is through the automation of repetitive or routine activities using interactive voice response (IVR) technology. IVR technology is now used in many powerful and well respected companies. NHS is a good example of this.
Below is a case study of this:
"Enterprise Interaction Center" IVR addresses business needs found in every industry today. EIC gives callers easy, round-the-clock access to a wealth of database information through their telephone keypads. It turns any telephone equipped with pushbutton tone dialing into a computer terminal. As a result, customer service representatives can be freed from handling routine requests, and the quality of customer communications can be improved without adding staff.”
Source:http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/Outlook/By_Alphabet/FastInnovations.htm
When you implement semi-automated and supported customer service within your business, it allows you to dramatically increase customer service response time and customer satisfaction.
Databases are commonly used in business organisations to aid customer support. For instance, an employee can easily search through a particular database designed to help their customers with certain questions which the employee don’t have the answer to.
Online help pages can be very useful and very beneficial to the customers.
The Internet is available to the customers 7 days a week, 24 hours a day and is utilized throughout the world to locate information in an instant. The majority of companies fail to efficiently use their web site to fulfill customer service demand and often fail in immediately providing information to meet their potential customer’s needs. Implementing this method gives a lot of advantages and definitely good customer support.
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Secure funds transfer:
Online money transfer is a well known concept nowadays. However, when security is the concern, very few online money transfers will qualify for this spot. What is secure online money transfer all about? It is all about incorporating the latest technologies that pertain to Internet security to make online money transfer solution that is rock solid. What does a particular organisation need to test the authenticity of a secured online money transfer solution? -Any secured online money transfer service should be able to deliver unmatched online money transfer solutions across a variety of platforms.
A money transfer solution built to work only on Windows environment that fails to work on any other environment cannot be called secured, because it would easily be hacked outside windows environment. When selecting your online money transfer service provider, you should check out for the security options they offer.
One of the most popular transfer systems is PayPal. PayPal is used by many organisations and it is said to be very secure to use as well.
Overcoming these fears will have a positive benefit on cash flow of the organisation.
SCM, logistics and integration with business partners:
The changes in business that this has is the fact that it is easier to plan and control orders taken by customers using EDI instead of doing it manually i.e. write down each order. Now with EDI it is a lot faster and easier to plan and control multiple orders. A drawback to this is if the delivery service does not deliver the item ordered in time then the customer will not be happy. This would lead to losing customers which the business cannot afford to risk.
Supply Chain Management is about managing the flow of information, materials, services and money across any activity, in a way which maximises the effectiveness of the process. It is about introducing new tools or revising well-known techniques.
Therefore business needs to take time and plan out how to deliver the goods to the customers in time. If they do this then it will have a really good influence on the business.
Establishing an internet presence:
For instance, if a particular customer has an internet connection at home and can’t reach the main store, can simply go onto the official website and by e-commerce the person can buy online. This can be very easy and efficient for customers and the business would not risk losing out any customers as well. A major drawback to this however is if the website is not constantly updated then this will cause problems. If the website is regularly updated and up-to-date with the new products then the customers will not hesitate to buy them.
Another good reason for having an internet presence is the fact that it can be spread worldwide which means that the business will get more customers and thus more profit to the business. It is also important to consider the fact that if the website goes down for stupid reasons then the business will risk losing significant amount of customers.
Below is a case study of this:
“Businesses are failing to understand the many benefits that an internet presence can provide. People have become very cautious about this medium after the dot.com bubble burst in 2000 and are unaware of its power. Companies are willing to spend thousands of pounds on a single day’s advertising for national press, radio or television but are not considering the internet as an equal alternative. When it has the ability to reach a worldwide audience for a longer period and often for considerably less money, surely the benefits of advertising businesses and services through this media are worth considering.”
Source: http://www.mediacollege.com/internet/intro/presence.html
Automating manufacturing processes:
Automated manufacturing processes are basically robots being implemented to create a particular product for a customer’s order. This could for instance be motorbikes, cars and trucks etc.
It basically creates a particular product that will match exact with the customer’s details i.e. colour of the car, size of engine etc. This saves companies a significant amount of money due to the fact that they don’t need to take the time out or worry about the space to store products in the warehouse. They will only create a particular product when a customer makes an order.
Many car manufacturing companies, in particular Volkswagen allow you to design your own car on the website. This is a huge advantage and can increase the sales for a particular company dramatically. The customer can then have a look at the end result before actually purchasing the car. This gives the customer some kind of control which makes the person wanting to buy the product even more.
The drawback of this is the fact that businesses needs to make sure that everything is working properly. If one thing goes wrong then the company will lose a lot of money.
Another drawback is that employees can lose their jobs especially the middle man that take orders and process them.
Reducing intermediation:
Reducing intermediation is basically the term used to describe the number of businesses involved in a supply chain from raw materials supplier to finished product customer.
It will basically bypass shops as customers can directly deal with the manufacturing if they have any queries for any products they buy from the manufactures.
I.T deals with customers and removes the middle man that works for example for the help and support team or the team that take customer orders.
Using technology in a business, you are basically getting rid of the middle man to robots. For instance, if a machine stops working and the company does not have any backup i.e. the middle man, the business can lose money because wasting time is losing a lot of money for companies.