Service Operations Article

Swift proposes identity management system to banks

SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication ("SWIFT") operates a worldwide financial messaging network which exchanges messages between banks and other Financial Institutuons. SWIFT also markets software and services to financial institutions, much of it for use on the SWIFT Net Network. SWIFT does not facilitate funds transfer, rather, it sends payment orders, which must be settled via correspondent accounts that the institutions have with each other. Each financial institution, to exchange banking transactions, must have a banking relationship by either being a bank or affiliating itself with one (or more) so as to enjoy those particular business features.

Our role is two-fold. We provide the proprietary communications platform, products and services that allow our customers to connect and exchange financial information securely and reliably. SWIFT enables its customers to automate and standardize financial transactions, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating inefficiencies from their operations

The basic premise is that shared IT services will cut costs through the process of putting servers from a group of organizations into the same building and then use fewer people to support it.

But Swift, which was originally a payments service by a community of banks is using its strengths to experiment way beyond transacting payments securely and reliable

Swift's head of innovation Kosta Peric, about another development in incubation. This one is all about identity management. More specifically the fact that Swift is developing a service where banks will be able to offer customers a way of securing their digital identities while making online activity easier.

But basically consumers might just have one digital identity that all the companies they have a relationship with, including government, can use as proof in a transaction. It will ensure that the consumer's ID does not fall into the wrong hands.

It is an interesting one. It shows that banks, who are about the most competitive beasts around, are willing to put down their weapons and share their toys when it is pointless competing and for the greater good.

Swift proposes identity management system to bank.

A group within Swift has already agreed the basic architecture and business model for a service that banks could offer customers that will protect their digital identities against fraudulent activity.

The service would be like a digital vault which the bank would sell to customers. Swift would host the services and be the gatekeeper. The service would mean that when a customer pays for something online using their bank card, for example, they would not have to enter their card number. Rather the merchant would be redirected to the digital vault where, after approval, it would receive confirmation that the payment will be made. No details change hands.

Authentication service pilot

Kosta Peric, head of innovation at Swift, said the society has already created a PKI-based authentication service for CFOs at its member institutions, which includes banks and large corporates. (Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a set of hardware, software, people, policies, and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store, and revoke digital certificates. It is an arrangement that binds public keys with respective user identities by means of a certificate authority (CA). The PKI role that assures this binding is called the Registration Authority (RA) )

If the concept becomes a service, it would make online activity easier and more secure for consumers. If a consumer has four bank accounts they will no longer have to adhere to four different security protocols. It will also ensure that personal information need not pass to companies that consumers buy from, but rather the bank will confirm the identity without passing on information.

Taking control of personal data

It provides a network that sends an average of 17 million financial transaction messages every day across 209 countries. About 8,000 financial services businesses use it. During 2010, it processed more than four billion financial transactions. As well as security, the idea that consumers have control of who sees their details is a critical feature. To this end Swift is working with IT industry experts such as Linux proponent Doc Searls, who is heavily involved with the concept of vendor relationship Management. (VRM or Vendor Relationship Management is a category of business activity made possible by software tools that provide customers with both independence from vendors and better means for engaging with vendors. VRM tools provide customers with the means to bear their share of the relationship burden with vendors and other organizations. With VRM operating on the customer's side, Customers are also involved as participants, rather than as followers).VRM gives the consumer control of their relationships with suppliers. Swift's proposed digital vault service is an example.

Peric said the consumer would have a choice of where to store the vault. It could, for example, be on a personal smart phone, hosted by the bank, or even held by Swift.

Swift also has a prototype of an I Phone app which will act as a security token for authenticating online activity. This would negate the need for multiple security tokens. But the company is currently testing the security of the service.

Swift told Computer Weekly it is incubating a project to provide Community-based cloud services for banks, including an app store for financial services organizations.

Wal-Mart Tests Service for Buying Food Online

Wal-Mart has begun testing an online grocery delivery service, called Wal-Mart to Go, in the San Jose, Calif., area.

The company has been expanding its online options, including a nationwide rollout of a service that lets customers order merchandise (not food) online and pick it up in the store the same day. While that program is aimed at getting shoppers into stores more frequently, this one creates a more convenient way to buy from Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart declined to make executives available for interviews about the grocery test, which started Saturday. In early March, asked about the possibility of an online grocery ordering service, Steve Nave, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart.com, would not discuss specifics.

“One of the great things about Wal-Mart is we’ll put something out there, test and learn from it,” he said. “I would say nothing is off limits.” Other grocers, including Safeway and Peapod, which is affiliated with Giant Food, offer a similar service. Choose grocery items via a Web site, select a delivery time and the groceries are dropped off at your house. Fresh Direct and Amazon Fresh, neither of which is run by brick-and-mortar grocers, also offer a grocery delivery service. But some grocers have said it is not a good use of resources. Supervalu, for instance, ceased offering online grocery delivery in 2009, saying most of its customers would prefer to get groceries in a store. And one of the more notorious dot-com busts was Webvan, a grocery delivery service that went bankrupt in 2001.

Delivery charges for Wal-Mart to Go start at $5.

For the test, Wal-Mart is shipping groceries from a San Jose store, packing them in tote bags and delivering them in temperature-controlled trucks that the company owns. Deliveries can be scheduled for the next day. Currently, the groceries available lean toward prepackaged goods. Customers cannot order beef to specifications, for instance — they must buy precut meat in a range of packages; And in the produce category, while fresh mangoes and bananas are available, oranges and lemons come in bags of several pounds rather than individually.

Its prices are competitive. A 64-ounce carton of Horizon milk was $3.50 on Wal-Mart’s site, $3.99 from Peapod and $4.29 on Fresh Direct. Sixteen ounces of celery at Wal-Mart to Go was $1.98, where 16 ounces of celery at Peapod was $3.29 and at Fresh Direct $3.49. On shelf-stable food like crackers and candy, Wal-Mart had a broad selection — it sells 12 varieties of Triscuits, for instance, versus 10 at Peapod and two at Fresh Direct.

Wal-Mart is the biggest grocer in the country — according to estimates from Janney Capital Markets, it has about 33 percent market share in the United States. Kroger has 9 percent, Safeway 5 percent, Supervalu 4 percent and Target 3 percent, according to Janney. And groceries account for more than half of Wal-Mart’s American revenue, excluding figures from Sam’s Club.

Craig Johnson, president of the consulting firm Customer Growth Partners, said that the move made some sense. Wal-Mart’s big stores are patronized for large stock-up trips, not for on-the-go grocery shopping, he said, and the delivery could help address that issue. Yet Wal-Mart would need to tackle questions like how to deliver groceries on a wider scale (use its own trucks? rent a fleet? use U.P.S.?), and how to handle and keep safe prepared foods like sandwiches or ready-made dinners rather than just basic groceries, Mr. Johnson said.

“These are not simple operations to set up profitably, as Webvan and a host of others have found out over the years,” he said.

The 21st century has placed immense importance on the service operations industry.

By

Vaishnavi Shringare (83)

The 21st century has placed immense importance on the service operations industry. Currently, 80% of North American jobs are in the service sector, and it stands to reason that service operations are a good career path to pursue. Moving away from the manufacturing model, companies now recognize the importance of creating and maintaining a lasting relationship with customers. It's no longer good enough to have a solid product if the consumer is unhappy with the services. A service operations manager ensures that customers feels respected by the company, and also that the company itself (employees and subordinates) feel respected and empowered while doing their job.

The Growth of the Service Organization

Presently, there is growing importance on the service sector in the United States economy. Consequently, the trend is to increase the focus on operations in the service industry. Since more than 80% of jobs currently originate in the service industry, the focus is on delivering

services in a more dedicated and efficient manner.

Any service organization depends upon its operations staff to deliver quality service to both its customers and internal employees. Due to the previous heavy attention given to operations management in the manufacturing industry, not enough studies are available on how to

improve operational performance in a typical service organization.

The Expectations

Nevertheless, operations play crucial roles in maintaining optimal levels of service that meet customer expectations. Less-than-optimal service creates frustration for both employees as well as customers associated with the service organization. Therefore, operations professionals associated with service organizations should be able to:

• Apply both time-tested methods and forward-looking approaches to ensure that an optimal level of service is available
• Prioritize the areas that require improvement and recognize those that can lead to a breakthrough in service quality
• Reduce response times of service delivery and other processes to reach efficient levels of customer service
• Measure the amount of service delivered so that a uniform level of service is deliverable across organizations
• Deliver error-proof service to establish lead service standards
• Lead service organizations in establishing appreciable service cultures
• Gain the appreciation of all levels in the organization for their efforts

How a Service Organization Differs From a Manufacturing Concern

It is imperative for operations professions in the service industry to move from the mindset of high levels of automation that require minimal levels of the workforce to scenarios that utilize multi-skilled workers interrelated in complex weaves of organizational relationships. Unlike the manufacturing approach, operations professionals in the service industry handle issues in more interpersonal manners. As a result, operations professionals in the service industry must be team players with good interpersonal skills. They are usually flexible individuals with relevant experience in the service industry. Furthermore, they have strong customer, analytical, and problem-solving skills.

The Opportunities

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 95% of jobs generated until 2012 will be service related. A safe assumption is that a significant percentage of these jobs will relate to operations within the service industry. A number of universities offer a variety of courses in service operations management.

Service operations are likely to hire operational professionals to work in areas such as data services, information technology, telecommunications, freight and courier services, transport, aviation, consulting, entertainment, hospitality, environmental services, designing service facilities, managing service quality, day-to-day operations, balancing service capability with demand, and other related sectors.

Link:

http://www.operationscrossing.com/article/280010/Career-Avenues-in-Service-Operations-Management/

Consistency a Core Competency

McDonald’s goal:

                        “To give customers a similar dining experience anywhere in the world and maintain high standards of service and quality- fast, accurate, and friendly.”

McDonalds is well-known for its consistency in the production of burgers. Every McDonald’s burger is similar to the last one  without regard to geographic location or time of day. McDonald’s meets these expectations by maintaining rigorous standards in their production process.Their trademark competitive edge is its process management approach in which the company put burgers on the assembly line.

How McDonald's Ensures Consistent Quality

• They carefully match the level of service quality with product design.
• Uniformity in production is a major goal.
• Product design concentrates on maintaining consistency in how products are presented.
• Efficient service delivery-concentrates on meeting time demands of customer.
• Seek to measure results of training through competency tests, feedback, and “mystery diners”.
• Repetitive emphasis on consistency is a primary competitive advantage over competitors.
• Provide rigorous employee training for handling and preparation of food.
• Global standardized operations.
• Their product design concentrates on maintaining consistency in how products are prepared as well as what raw-food components are used.
• Quality is ensured through standardized and careful employee training efforts.

Benefits Related to Consistent Quality

• Provides cost standards for other outlets within the organization.
• Enables cost inefficiencies.
• Benchmarks set for productivity.
• Areas of weakness can be easily detected and evaluated.
• Higher quality (i.e. greater consistency/less variability) can also translate into lower costs, which result in greater return for the same sales dollar.
• Prevention costs may be higher, but other costs will be reduced and avoided in long-run.
• Reduces uncertainty in minds of customers.

Source: http://consistentquality.blogspot.com/