Course: Management Information System (18.616.03)
Prepared By: Hunaid Sulemanji
Instructor: Carolyn M. Johnson
Date: February 26, 1999
1. Otis is a very decentralized organization, yet the information system it installed, OTISLINE, is centralized. According to the case study, the initial, service-quality reason for implementing a centralized system was responsiveness to callbacks. Customers have assessed the quality of company’s service (regardless of type of service) offering by responsiveness to callbacks (one of the main reason among others such as quality and price). Prior to OTISLINE, Otis relied on answering services for addressing callbacks, and the quality of answering services varied greatly because independent commercial service contractors did not have the same interest in customer satisfaction as the manufacturer.
The fundamental underlying business reason for implementing the centralized system and addressing the quality of service offering was the service contract (especially with introduction of the microprocessor-based control system elevator technology unique to Otis). This technology not only helped Otis increase the sales of the elevators, but also helped to shape the future of the service business (not many commercial elevator service companies were eligible to service the microprocessor-based computer technology because of proprietary reasons). The combination of sales and service allowed Otis to capitalize on the long term profitability in the market. It was important for Otis to address the responsiveness to callbacks because it is an integral function of retaining the service contract.
2. Responsiveness to customer maintenance requests: The system not only improved and tracked the responsiveness to customer calls, but also provided reports of response-time statistics that could be reviewed with customers. The company therefore began offering guaranteed response time to customers because of OTISLINE’s capabilities.
Reliability for current and future elevators: Reliability data could be used by management to allocate resources to locations with recurring problems. Engineering could also investigate trends that could be an indicator of flawed design or problem.
Reporting to management: Not only it improved communication between the customers and manufacturer, but it also provided the sales and service department with an effective submission of various reports to the management.
Customer satisfaction: In addition to improving the customer satisfaction, OTISLINE contributed to improved service quality and to compete with independent competitors.
3. Implementation of OTISLINE included both technical-change aspects and cultural change aspects. The difficulty in technical-change aspect was the migration of one computer platform to other, change in programming requirements, change in functionality of jobs, and redundancy of certain professionals. The cultural-change aspect was shifting of resources to establish new helpful systems rather than application development resources to automate old manual procedures. In my opinion it is a cultural change because the organization was changing the way it was requiring its employees to do business.
The success from the technical change aspect was the centralization of information due to OTISLINE, which provided improved visibility of service business and provide quality service to customers effectively. The success from the cultural-change aspect allowed Otis to re-invent the culture with the implementation of the following six components: responsiveness, reliability, innovation, communication, teamwork, and customer satisfaction. The culture at Otis became synonymous the with these terms, and employees appeared to be empowered.
4. The two important ways in which Otis Elevator has changed how it does business as a result of OTISLINE are as follows:
Customer Service: Prior to OTISLINE, each field office handled the calling and dispatching of a service mechanic. In addition, the preparation of reports was very time consuming because it was maintained manually, and callback reporting was routed upon request only. Customers are now directly linked to the OTISLINE. Customers call a central toll free number, and calls are distributed to the next available dispatcher. OTISLINE can present a wide variety of statistical results, and has helped management maintain a high level of responsiveness. OTISLINE could identify the location and equipment in multiple ways, and a service mechanic is dispatched appropriately to correct the problem.
Marketing: New equipment sales and service marketing became more efficient with OTISLINE. Sales and Service Reps could call and access applications through OTISLINE, which consists of integrated database management system designed to automate the production of status reports on elevator sales and service prospects.
5. In my opinion, the most important use of the information that Otis has planned for the future is telemarketing of service. The database contains information on all installed Otis elevators in North America. The information could be used to contact those customers whose service contract expired or was not with Otis. This would allow the service department to market, promote and grow its customer base.