Value Chain & Customer Benefit Packages In Telecom - Vodafone Australia & Samsung Mobile: An Essay.

Customer Benefit Package of Vodafone Australia

Discuss About The Customer Benefits Packages And Value Chains?

The report would focus on the analysis of value chain and Customer Benefit Package. Two companies have been selected for the analysis from the same sector. The identified sector is the Telecom or the communication and information technology sector. In this sector Vodafone Australia is the telecommunication network service provider in the Australia and Samsung mobile Australia is the mobile communication device manufacturer and seller. In Australia Vodafone Hutchison Australia is the leading mobile text, voice and data service provider with 5.56 m active customer base in the country (Vodafone Australia, 2017). In its operation the company is serving through 120 retail stores around the country with more than 3000 employees. Samsung is one of the largest electronic companies in the world. Their mobile device company is one of the 200 subsidiaries that the company holds. In Australia Samsung mobile is one of the largest mobile handset sellers with around 30.4% market share Griffith, C. (2017). The company provides the Android platform to its mobile devices.

(CBP) or Customer Benefit package is a customer point of view.  This approach has the intangible and tangible features that the ordinary customer perceives, experience and pay for. This CBP consist of three different elementary factors. First element is the primary service or a good, next one is peripheral and the last one is variants. The primary service that Vodafone offers to the Australian customer is the mobile text, voice and data service. The consumer mainly uses the network for calling, using the internet or send message. On the other hand the second element that is the peripheral product or service is the value added product or service that the company offers to their customer (Heizer, 2016). For the 3G or 4G data service Vodafone provides modern to the customer to avail the service through one device and share with around 30 devices which are compatible in nature. Here the customer does not have to go to the other mobile device hardware manufacturer for modem. The variant in the package is completely different value addition. The product or the service would vary at large from the original service theme. The mobile device insurance plan by the Vodafone is the variant element in the total service package provided by the company (Vodafone Australia, 2017). The basis insurance plan provides the cover for the damage and the premium plan provides cover for the damage and theft or lost.

Customer Benefit Package of Samsung Mobile Australia

For Samsung the primary product is the mobile communicating devices which are the mobiles phones and tabs. The main features that the customer expects hear is the connectivity through the device by using the network service provider’s SIM. The peripheral service here will add value to the main product or the service (Heizer, 2016). As a peripheral service that Samsung provides is the Android operating system to the customers. Earlier the mobile phones companies used to use their simple version of mobile operating system but as the mobile data use and the processing capacity of the devices increases the application software for different use become some value addition to these devices. In that context the Android operating system provides the right platform for those Apps to download and affectively use. The variant product or service comes with the same benefit package for the customer but not directly linked with the product theme. In case of Samsung mobile the product is the Iris and the Fingerprint scanning facility in the device (Samsung au, 2017).

In both the CBP the tangible and intangible aspect of product is there though one is product based another one is service based company. In both the businesses the competition is high and that is why the peripheral and the variant element of the CBP become important for the product and service differentiation in the market. The peripheral product or service gets more priority in the Samsung. Here the product is costly and the buyer’s takes time to decide. That is why more product features which adds value to the product helps to attract the customer to buy (Smith et al., 2014). On the other hand in Vodafone the cost factor is low but the peripheral products and services help there to retain the customer by providing extra services. In the variant part the features of Samsung increase the device utility where as in the case of Vodafone it provides extra service type through the same value chain process

The value chain of any company has the primary and secondary set of activity that is thoroughly designed to deliver the products or the services effectively to the customer (Smith et al., 2014). The primary set of activity would consist of the activity like operation, in and out bound logistics, sales and marketing, and service. On the other hand the secondary activities are the technology development, procurement, infrastructure and management of human resource.

Comparison of CBP among both

For the inbound logistics Vodafone Australia develop the infrastructure for the better service delivery. The 4G connection is able to cove around 22m citizen in the country. In the country the organisation is developing around 177 towers for the mobile network connection (Vodafone Australia, 2017). For the better operation the organisation deploys around 330 of its engineer every day for the network maintenance. 5500 network updates in last couple of years helped the organisation in its operation. Through its own billing system the services are services are renewed and bills are process in the outbound logistics. In Australia the organisation has around 120 owned stores through which the sales and customer service support are given to the customers. For the service the online, tele-calling and on store facilities are there.  For the infrastructure spending in recent year the organisation spent around $3bn and that enabled them to launch the ’30 days network guarantee’ program (Tucker, 2015).  For the 4G network aggregation of carrier of 850-1800 MHz Vodafone has completed the process. This has given the technological ability to provide the excellent performance to the customer (Karlovsky, 2015). In the management of the human resource the organisation provides freedom to the employee to explore and have status quo challenging attitude. The organisation promotes the diverse culture where they provide quality personal development support to the employee. In the procurement process the organisation has decided to implement cloud based procurement application Ariba to increase efficiency, collaboration and enhance the strategy based relationship (Vodafone.com, 2017).

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In the primary activity of the company, the majority of the supplier comes from the Asian countries. As reported by the company, around 80% of the expenses for the supply chain of the company are from the Asian. The expense for EU is 4.4% and America 14.8% (samsung, 2016). To maintain the logistics the organisation owns many subsidiary companies. In Australia Samsung partners with the DB Schenker a leading organisation in logistics service (manmonthly.com.au, 2017).  All of these come under the inbound logistics. In the manufacturing operation the first process is the general manufacturing that is the device hardware manufacturing, second is the manufacturing of the system that is the development and installation of the software and last one is the packaging assembly. In Australia the company uses the packaging solution of Packsize International (manmonthly.com.au, 2017). The outbound logistic is helpful for the organisation to deliver the products to the end customer. In the marketing and sales the organisation serves the customer through their dedicated Samsung stores in the Australia. The organisation provides the customer support through web and calling facility. The physical customer support is also given through the company owned stores.

Value chain analysis of Vodafone Australia

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In recent time Samsung had serious issue regarding quality and safety of the products. In that context the organisation has developed a strong quality assurance program and they assure that this new infrastructure would prevent such problems in future.  In the technology development the organisation partners with many companies in Australia like Telstra, Commander, Optus, Community Telco Australia, Engin, APPT, Vidyo, Telikom PNG (samcom.com.au, 2017).  For the management and development of its human resource the organisation follows 3 part training and development program. The Core training program is there to develop the core skills; the leadership program is for the leadership development and the expertise training program are for the development of the excellence (samsung, 2016). The reward and recognition system is also there for the development of the employee competency.

These two companies are in the same business sector. But one is having tangible product that is Samsung mobile and another one is intangible product based business that is Vodafone. Vodafone is service based company. In the inbound logistics Vodafone is spending heavily but Samsung is using its existing infrastructure for this process. In the operation part maintenance of facility is the main concept for Vodafone where as for Samsung production efficiency is important (Fearne et al., 2012). For the outbound logistics system product delivery system is important for Samsung and their the forecasting of the demand is important where as in Vodafone the billing and mobile balance recharging system is important to provide quick service when needed. Mobile device market is highly competitive and that is why the product differentiation technique is highly used there. That is why the market budget and reliance on the external media for marketing is high for Samsung where as Vodafone can use its network to promote its different service to its existing customer and can also use the external media for promoting its high performance network (Crain and Abraham, 2008). For the selling process Samsung heavily dependent on the physical store though now a day the online store is also changing the scenario. Vodafone uses the digital platform for the sales and service process.

In the infrastructure the main investment for Vodafone is for the better performance delivery. On the other hand the new investment is coming in the quality assurance and better product development part because of Samsung’s product safety issue. For the development of the technology Samsung goes for extensive partnering process with other businesses whereas Vodafone invest in the own capacity building. The human resource development of the Vodafone is done through open participative environment. In Samsung the process is more focused on the competency and excellence development (Fearne et al., 2012). In the process of procurement also Samsung is focused on the subsidiary and partnership whereas Vodafone is more focused on the new technology use for the performance and productivity.

The main advantage for Vodafone is the investment in the infrastructure and new technology. It will enhance the capacity of the company to provide the customer high quality service, maintain better longer relationship with the supplier and enhance performance. The main disadvantage is the structured planning of the human resource development in the company. On the other hand in Samsung the main advantage is the strong supplier base, development of core competency and excellence through the human resource (Crain and Abraham, 2008). The main disadvantage is that lack of investment in its own capacity technology building rather than partnering with other technology company which could have prevented the latest product safety issues.

Conclusion

The report shows that the implication of the CBP and the value chain in both product and service oriented company. Both the company is in the highly competitive market. The CBP and value chain is in that context is very important for attracting and retaining customer and also delivering the promised features and benefits to the customer with full customer satisfaction.

Reference

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Fearne, A., Garcia Martinez, M., and Dent, B. (2012). Dimensions of sustainable value chains: implications for value chain analysis. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 17(6), 575-581.

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Heizer, J. (2016). Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.

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