UnitX and its Technological Advancement

Assignment 1A

Question 1

UnitX’s middle-sized technology firm offers various emerging technology solutions in artificial intelligence, such as Communication Automation (chatbots), robotic process automation (RPA), and Smart City Applications to optimize efficiency. The vision of the company is “We search for paths in a labyrinth of technological solutions. We are not satisfied until we find the final and often hidden variable X – we are UnitX.” The firm’s headquarters are at Thuwal, Saudi Arabia 22935 (How computing is done on the Cloud, 2021). To optimize business processes, the corporation relies on data intelligence to evaluate business operations and identify areas where more efficiency and effectiveness can be achieved (EY LLP Limited, 2018). Today, the business environment is dynamic with the innovation of transformative technology. Its ingenious application in business, such as deep learning, machine learning, and emotional intelligence, has transformed the global economy (Battista, 2012). Consequently, businesses have to adopt these technologies to remain competitive and acquire a competitive edge in the market.

UnitX’s role in the business process of their clients is to examine the challenges an organization is experiencing, identify the core data generated by the business in these processes, and apply different data learning technologies, such as machine learning, that apply the relevant business models to generate solutions. For example, the business communication process can be a source of inefficiency in a corporation; UnitX applies network automation technologies, such as automated online customer support or smart email categorization, that are cost-efficient ways of managing communication. Integration of robotic process automation (RPA) in the business process lowers the necessity of involving human labor in the different production processes, where it is not necessary. It achieves higher efficiency that drives business growth (Davenport, Guha, Grewal, and Bressgott, 2019). Through collaboration with providers of cloud computing services, UnitX has been able to lower its operational cost by maintaining a small but highly skilled workforce that allows the corporation to expand its operations to different markets at an affordable price compared to establishing its platform. However, this strategy will only be effective in the short term. Still, as its business operations grow, it will need to establish its platform to lower the risk associated with relying upon third-party cloud service providers, such as instability of the platform.

The operational principles at UnitX are core to the realization of the organizational strategy. These principles are agility, reliability, effectiveness, and integrity. Agility refers to the ability of the mechanisms applied in organizational operations to respond to the business environment. To achieve agility, the organization applies deep learning technology to consistently examine the changes in the business environment to forecast possible changes and alert the management to prepare for anticipated changes in the marketplace. Reliability Refers to the dependability of the technologies implemented to execute business operations (Amigud, Arnedo-Moreno, Daradoumis, and Guerrero-Roldan, 2017). The systems deployed by the corporation aim to be reliable in the execution of business processes and avoid or limit the downtime to the least time possible to avoid interrupting the business process. Effectiveness is a critical principle upon which the value creation in the business is reliant. The implementation of different technologies for its clients aims to eliminate wastage and solve business challenges. Integrity while handling data of different corporations is essential to foster a good working relationship with the client firms and adhere to the data protection regulation.

The corporation’s strategic goal is articulated in part in the organization’s vision “We search for paths in a labyrinth of technological solutions. We are not satisfied until we find the final and often hidden variable X – we are UnitX.” Rather than just deploy systems for clients to create an impression, the firm aims to offer innovative solutions that increase value for its clients and solve existing or looming problems (Sadikoglu and Olcay, 2014). The inputs and transformational process to create value for customers and generate profit for UnitX are also applied strategically to gain strategic advantage. The inputs are cloud infrastructure, software applications, human resources (employees), insurance, customers, and suppliers (Fernandes and Primo Braga, 2013). These factors are critical for the generation of value. The application of the transformative processes, consultation, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Platforms as a Service (PaaS), inbound and outbound logistics, marketing and sales activities, maintenance, testing, machining, and data mining, are critical in the generation of value. The outputs in the firm are customer satisfaction, business intelligence, optimized operations, business reports, demand and sales forecast, and brand awareness.

Inputs

Cloud infrastructure Software applications

Employees Insurance Customers

Suppliers

Transformation Process

Consultation

IaaS

SaaS

PaaS

Inbound logistics Outbound logistics Marketing

Sales activities Maintenance

Testing

Machining,

Data Mining

Output

Customer satisfaction

Business Intelligence Optimized Operations

Business Reports, Demand and Sales Forecast

Brand Awareness.

Figure 1: Inputs, Transformation, and Output Processes

Question 2

The operations strategy is greatly informed by applying different AI technologies to generate cost efficiency in the operations of a corporation. The financial, technological, and human resource operational expenses in the UAE market and EU are exceptionally high. They require a strategic approach to examine areas where costs can be reduced without compromising the quality of services rendered (EY LLP Limited, 2018). Some of the considerations that have been made to realize operational efficiency in the short term are the subscription to cloud services from such service providers rather than developing a cloud platform internally.

The alternative to relying on cloud service providers is constructing a data center to offer these services internally (Modrall, 2021). However, this approach to providing services to consumers is objected to due to the high cost accrued and the uncertainty of the changes in the demand and seasonality of demand. For example, the firm may develop a data center that would require experts, procurement of services that range between $12,000 to $200,000, and the development and deployment of software and applications for the current clients (How computing is done on the Cloud, 2021). However, of season or the demand for different services by clients may render the hardware initially procured by the firm obsolete and the software and application requiring the procurement of servers that support the software and applications needed by new clients. Besides these internal factors that limit the efficacy of constructing a data center, the technology environment is dynamic that may render the services rendered by the obsolete if the services rendered by an organization are obsolete.

Given the challenges of constructing a datacenter, UnitX prefers to subscribe to cloud platforms as a service. This is an efficient approach because it eliminates the cost associated with experts’ recruitment, purchases of hardware that might be obsolete in the short-term, or resulting in the transfer of the incurred expenses to the customers that might eliminate the competitive advantage the firm (Suominen, 2020). However, the subscription to cloud service providers will render the corporation a competitive edge by lowering the costs accrued to the acquisition of hardware, developing a data center, and recruiting the necessary expertise. Conversely, the organization is only required to maintain a small workforce that is highly skilled to maintain a competitive edge. Further, the Just-in-time approach to the acquisition of cloud services eliminates the wastage of resources lying idle yet generating maintenance expenses.

The UnitX has found subscribing to cloud platforms as a service more as a more efficient way to offer its clients AI services since it is more cost-efficient and easier to maintain compared to the construction of a datacenter. While this solution presents the risk of compromise on reliability due to instability of such platforms or untimely termination of service, getting into long-term agreements with the service providers limits the termination of these services and stipulates the maintained of stable status (Suominen, 2020). Further, creating an understanding of how operations will be run during maintenance to times when business operations are least affected.

The EU business environment presents a myriad of challenges in terms of languages, legislation, cultures, and taxation that could limit the ability of UnitX to expand operations into these markets successfully. However, these markets present opportunities since this market is highly differentiated along cultural boundaries that means that the technology firms in this region are start-ups in the initial phases. Thus, the European Economic Area (EEA) has made legislation and trade commissions that risk digital protectionism and politicization of anti-trust enforcement (Suominen, 2020). Such regulation has been implemented by raising the tax liability of foreign companies. Further, the limitation of mergers and acquisitions by pre-eminent firms has been prevented. Such firms are forced to forward the data they collect in the EU markets to small and medium-size EU technology firms to help them grow and expand in this market. For example, Walmart, Netflix, and Amazon have encountered legal challenges in the EU market for selling products and content that is branded or produced by the firms (Freeman, 2019). Amazon, in particular, faced anti-trust charges in 2020 for collecting data from third-party merchants to improve its product offering.

Similar litigation has been witnessed at Google, which was fined $5 billion for equipping Android phones with Google products as the default programs or software. While the end consumers in this market enjoy the benefits accrued to this product offering, the regulation limiting such product offering could be counter-productive, resulting in consumers paying more for such applications. The European Commission’s so-called “P2B Regulation” further requires foreign technology firms to disclose the ranking process of their services and goods offered on their platforms (Modrall, 2021). The heavy regulation of foreign technology firms, especially from the US, has been perceived by the European Court of Justice as unhealthy for the local competitions and inconvenient for the European consumers. For example, the acquisition of Shazam by Apple Inc. was highly contested until an investigation was conducted and identified that the acquisition would not give Apple music a competitive advantage over the European music streaming platform, Spotify (Breinbauer et al., 2020). Notably, this approach to regulating foreign investments is likely to present challenges to UnitX expansion of operations into the EU market. Some of its cloud services providers are based in the US, such as Amazon, Dropbox, or Databricks.

While these challenges are inhibitors to the growth of the foreign technology firm’s investment in the EU, employing a strategic approach to the organizational operations can eliminate these hurdles and make it possible for the organizations to access different opportunities in different market segments the UK. For example, UnitX Principles of operation, reliability, and integrity will be aligned with the anti-trust laws in the EU. Being a middle-sized firm, UnitX is not likely to face the limitations in operations as the premium technology firms from the US (Davenport, Guha, Grewal and Bressgott, 2019). While some of its cloud service providers are based in the US, the corporation unlikely to be limited by the regulations against foreign investments due to the trade agreements between the EAE and the EU, such as UAE Federal Customs Authority (FCA), that allow for firms in their region to conduct trade without tariffs or exaggerated taxes.

As established, the opportunities that are imminent in the EU market are the rapid growth of the business to customer, business to business, and buyer to buyer platforms that all require AI technologies to optimize their business operations (Paschen, Kietzmann and Kietzmann, 2019). However, the service providers in these markets are in their initial phases and are limited in proficiency implementation and use of AI. Conversely, UnitX has expertise working with clients from the UAE and Europe and has access to talented experts in AI and experience as an organization. Notably, the EU also has talent and a well-educated workforce that often prefers to work with foreign firms for higher salaries and better working perks than the local firms (EY LLP Limited, 2018). The strategic approach to solve the challenges will make it possible for UnitX to expand its operations into the EU at a competitive advance and render its services to a local client tailored to meet the needs of their market.

Question 3

Stratification of Services

The supply chain practices in technology firms have transformed the value in the business by eliminating traditional models that, in hindsight, were the source of overhead expenses. Traditional supply chain systems were riddled with bureaucracy that would cause inefficiency as the firms would rely on the supply chain architecture to deliver goods only. However, the models applied at UnitX are part of the value generation in the corporation. For example, the choice to subscribe to a cloud service provider rather than construct its own data center lowered the cost transferred to the clients by lowering the cost associated with acquiring the necessary infrastructure. Conversely, the traditional approach to supply chain management would have required the development of a datacenter to control to ensure the company has control of the supply and limited the acquisition of a business that would have required new technologies that would b\\\\\\\\not be supported by the infrastructure created.

The stratification of services at UnitX appeals to different consumers depending on the size of their firm and the nature of services required by the corporation. Employing a service-dominant approach results in creating long-term relations with customers compared to a product or service-oriented relationship with the customers (Sammut-Bonnici & Channon, 2015). The product-oriented service limits the value generated from the costs incurred to acquire a customer only lasts for the time of the period stipulated in the contract that lowers the value created for the cost incurred for acquiring a customer (Vargo & Lusch, 2007). Stratification of services into categories as follows infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Data Centre Utility (DCU) will attract a wide array of customers who seek long-term services from UnitX.

Service-Oriented Supply Chain

The objective of UnitX is the creation of long-term customer relationships and generate mutual benefits by engaging the new customers in the process of production. The service-oriented operations involve integrating the client firmly in the supply chain as part of the production process. The corporation involves the client firm’s employees in training to define the organization’s requirements and take part in the development and maintenance of the client end of the service. For example, Intel, an artificial intelligence platform, offers technology solutions that are bundled into categories as follows infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Data Centre Utility (DCU) (Sedayao & Spence, 2009). These services involve the establishment of an online platform for client enterprises.

Vargo and Lusch (2007) assert that virtualization of the computing environment for cloud hosting organizational operations and storage of firm’s data the operating cost of the client are reduced significantly. Engaging the client firm’s employees creates room for direct inquiry on areas where they deem efficiency of services could be optimized and examines the organizational goals and needs. Consequently, the interventions taken are aligned to the clients’ strategic goals and those of Intel since they gain mutual benefit in the long-term relationship, helping both firms plan for the long-term based on the income generated from all clients in long-term agreements as well as understanding their long-term requirements.

Figure 2: Intel’s Stratification of Service-dominant technologies. Source (Vargo & Lusch, 2007).

Relationship-Based Marketing

Relationship-based marketing involves appealing to prospective clients as partners rather than clients. The marketing corporation seeks to engage in strategic alignment with the clients rather than delivering a product or service it offers and ending the transaction. The main challenge of transactional engagement of clients is it focuses only on the delivery of quality products with the client rather than leveraging the cost incurred in advertising to build long-term relationships with the employees to meet these future needs (Davenport, Guha, Grewal and Bressgott, 2019). For example, Lockheed Martin has been successful in the aerospace engineering environment gaining a leading market share globally by developing long-term relationships with its clients. For example, the longest relationship of Lockheed has been with the US government since WWII, which generates 85% of Lockheed Martin’s revenue.

Figure 3: Comparison of the relationship sales model and transactional sales model.

Since UnitX offers computing solutions to its clients, establishing long-term relationships with the customers would increase the revenue generated in the firm and generate more value from the marketing expenses of the firm. Employing a similar approach to marketing as Lockheed Martin would initiate long-lived relationships with its clients that are not limited to the current contracts and generate long-term value for the UnitX ((Rahman & Ramli, 2014). UnitX offers a myriad of computing services such as the Internet of Things, IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS that employ a relationship marketing approach and service-dominant strategies critical in meeting the customers’ needs.

The establishment of relationship marketing can be established through fostering reliability in the organization by allowing the customers to articulate their expectations teach client’s employees to help them gain the expertise required to handle in-house software issues, communicating the time schedules enterprise teams can collaborate with UnitX can collaborate in different tasks (Grönroos, 2016). Fostering assurance with the client enterprises surpasses the role played beyond just training. In connection with being reliable partners in their operations, they are integral in creating assurance and building trust. Trust is created in the second tier of operation by ensuring the partners feel safe in delivering services and consistency in service delivery (Grönroos, 2016). Notably, this can be guaranteed by making ensuring the first engagement with the clients as co-producers. The process of delivering service should be seamless and implemented promptly. If there are any hurdles in service delivery, UnitX should take appropriate measures to immediately remedy these challenges.

The infrastructure is the tangible element of the business and needs to be supported through the SaaS platform. Notably, UnitX operations have implemented IaaS, where its focus is on optimizing the client’s operations instead of maintaining infrastructure (Grönroos, 2016). Interacting with the customers should be conducted in an empathetic manner to ensure all the enterprise clients are conducted in a caring manner. This approach involves quick responses to client concerns and frequent engagement in training to ensure the UntX employees are familiar with the changing needs of enterprise clients and polishing the professional conduct of all teams. Establishing a support center that is available throughout is necessary to urgent concerns of employees (Vargo & Lusch, 2007). Further, the support staff needs to be a covenant with the customers’ needs to efficiently guide clients in complex scenarios or forward them to the senior employees.

Question 4

Quality management in business management at UnitX involves the business operations conducted internally and adhering to laws in the execution of its functions in AI technologies. First, the organization’s largest challenge is the intense regulation of the corporation in foreign markets, such as in Europe (Modrall, 2021). Adhering to the standard practices in cloud computing is inherently critical to creating the organization’s operations to avoid liability for misconduct or inefficiency in the UnitX operations or those of their clients.

The adoption of the ISO 9000, 2000, has evolved and been adopted across industries with globalization in the competitive environment. The ISO 9000 is founded on principles of quality management and quality management tools used to meet quality standards; for example, the six sigma standards are focused on eliminating defects in the production of goods and rendering of services. Six Sigma is predicated on lean management practices, such as total quality management, that seek to eliminate all the waste in business processes (Sadikoglu and Olcay, 2014). The areas of wastage that need to be eliminated are overproduction, transportation, defects, motion, waiting, overprocessing, and inventory (Freeman, 2019). In transportation, the objective is to avoid any unnecessary steps in the movement of staff. In the subscription of cloud platform services, UnitX should focus on acquiring packages that meet the needs of their customers to avoid the acquisition of unnecessary inventory (Suominen, 2020). The execution of services for clients should be limited only to the necessary steps of implementation. Time delays in the execution of functions should be conducted promptly to meet the needs of the employees. Avoiding overprocessing will lower the operational costs and still meet the core needs of customers. Preventing errors in the execution of functions on online platforms and business operations internally is critical to overcoming the challenges associated with growth.