Page 166 - DMGT522_SERVICES MANAGEMENT

Unit 7: Delivering Services on the Web

3. Help Desk Management: Notes

Solve the problem by searching the existing knowledge base
Initiate, modify, and track problem reports
Provide updates, patches and new versions
Dot.coms

Indian e-retailers can emulate the technology drive of amazon.com to be unique, big with the
first-mover’s advantage. It has pioneered many Web-based processes and is the holder of the
controversial “one-click purchase” process patents. It has five huge barns as warehouses, each
costing the non-store bookseller $ 200 million. These warehouses are connected by satellite to
process customer requests. The request-process/order-handling centre sends the requirements
by walkie-talkie to the person concerned near the book stacks. The book is put on a conveyor
belt with the order details, which then heads for the order-processing centre. If a request has a
multiple title order, then they are all collected at the centre and shipped to the customer – at a
discount and within 48 hours.
ERP and SCMs: Enterprise Resource Systems like SAP and BaAN have given the chance to
Indian companies to better plan and utilise their resources – which they were notorious in not
doing. Supply Chain Management Systems, like i2 Technologies have enabled companies to
better integrate their production processes with their suppliers and have ‘just-in-time’ advantages.

Banking

ATMs, V-SATs and EDC: Indian banks can use technology to cut down their personnel costs and
yet achieve wider market coverage. Of all the retail banks in India, it was Citibank that first
harnessed technology to grow fast, derive higher productivity and cover a wider market base.
Citibank, long before others realized its importance, invested in technology - be it in microfilm,
microfiche, scanning, data mining, data warehousing, satellite communication systems, etc. It
started Citibank Overseas Software Limited (COSL), a financial technology and software
development division, entirely for its captive use. It moved its entire card business to Chennai
in the early eighties and served its entire customer base through telephones linked via satellite.
It was one of the first to make a move towards captive business process outsourcing through
eServe. Such technological innovations helped Citi Bank to drastically curtail its personnel costs
and yet achieve wider market coverage.

ICICI Bank emulated Citi Bank by strategically deploying technology to dramatically widen
reach, to grow at a frenetic pace and increase its visibility. It has over 1800 Automated Teller
Machines (ATMs), 5.5 million Internet banking accounts and almost a million mobile banking
customers. It has used the V-SAT technology to uplink all its ATMs with its branches. A customer
can now operate his account from any ATM in ICICI Bank’s dedicated ATM network or through
its arrangements with other banks’ ATMs. It uses note-counting machines at its branches and
saves a lot of valuable time for the bank. Other banks have also followed suit with automatic
ledger-posting machines. Likewise, HDFC Bank has quickly adopted net banking and online
share transaction systems.
Migrating customers to alternate and cheaper channels: HDFC Bank has successfully
used technology to migrate almost half of its banking transactions to low-cost channels like
ATMs (50 percent), net and mobile banking (10 per cent), and phone banking (5 per cent).
Similarly, ICICI Bank has managed to shift most of its transactions from their branches (from 95%
two years back to 40% today); 45% transactions have been moved to ATMs while Internet and
phone banking constitute the residual 15%. Among foreign banks, HSBC branches account for 25%
of transactions while Citibank does only 5–7% of transactions in terms of volume through its

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