Running head: TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING Trends and Ethics Portions of TecKno Plus Consulting name school 1 TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 2 Abstract This paper will focus on the new service from TecKno Plus Consulting to Amazon. The business trends, analyzing the current internal factors and external factors related to TecKno Plus Consulting. In the recent past, Amazon has been accused of abandoning its commitment to offering its customers extraordinary form of customer service. Customers have gone online and made complaints regarding the company. TecKno Plus Consulting has been offering consulting services to Amazon on ways that the company can ameliorate its customer service. Amazon promises consumers a one click and an item becomes effortlessly yours and this promise seems to be continuously broken. TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 3 Trends and Ethics Portions of TecKno Plus Consulting In the recent past, Amazon has been accused of abandoning its commitment to offering its customers extraordinary form of customer service. Customers have gone online and made complaints regarding the company. TecKno Plus Consulting has been offering consulting services to Amazon on ways that the company can ameliorate its customer service. Amazon promises consumers a one click and an item becomes effortlessly yours and this promise seems to be continuously broken. When Amazon was founded, the idea was putting the customer first. The business strategy of the company is to make online shopping as seamless and simple such that shopping in person is relegated to an onerous and retro activity. With the advent of the internet, consumers have realized the need for customer service that is proportional to their money’s worth. Customer service has gained popularity with the various options and substitutes that consumers can get online and change ship. TecKno Plus Consulting aims to get the company’s customer service to where it was originally and restore the faith of customer’s on Amazon. TecKno Plus Consulting is in the online consulting industry where there are different external and internal factors that affect the industry. TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 4 II. Trends A. Business Environment There are various internal and external factors that affect TecKno Plus Consulting as a firm in the consulting industry. Disruptive forces that have had a significant impact on the way industries are being run have also impacted the Consulting Service industry (Christensen, Wang, & van Bever, 2013). There have been considerable shifts in demands made by clients and complaints that conventional service providers do not have the capacity to address their needs and expectations that in the recent past have rapidly evolved. The Consulting industry is evolving and there are various internal and external factors that affect this business environment. The consulting industry operates using client driven processes. A company like TecKno Plus Consulting works with Amazon by establishing strong relations in the business and using an approach to business that is client driven. The consulting industry is continuously improving to match the dynamic nature of the service and technological worlds (Christensen, Wang, & van Bever, 2013). There are diverse capabilities that characterize the industry. Some of the services that can be enjoyed from the consulting industry are financial services, technological consultancy, product resources and marketing and in this case, customer service management. The client base in the industry has stretched and so have the responsibilities. Company expertise is among the various internal factors and there is need for specialization and expertise with the various responsibilities (Christensen, Wang, & van Bever, 2013). There could be lack of coordination in the industry owing to some firms growing fast and some being unable to keep up with the dynamic feature of the industry. TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 5 Some of the external business environment factors are potential for business expansion. There is an opportunity for the industry to expand and incorporate various business that extend past services. This will provide the company with a diversified risk. The industry has external environment of making other businesses their focus. There is tough competition in the service consulting industry (Christensen, Wang, & van Bever, 2013). There are many giant establishments like Accenture, IBM, and Infosys. Some external factors like financial times that are tough will raise the dependability of the industry on its premium customers (Christensen, Wang, & van Bever, 2013). There is pending legislation that might have an effect on certification and licensing for firms looking to join the industry. There is an opportunity that exists if a firm has a clientele that is quickly growing and one that can be tapped fast, for instance, the information technology world is the first growing source of clientele in the recent past. B. Description The industry has had a significant number of trends. Firstly, technology is an aspect of consultancy that is dynamic and extremely sophisticated. With the advent of technology, tasks that were provided by human beings have since been automated. Although it is a concept that is a tad premature, there have been concerns of ‘robo-consultants’ taking over the industry (Christensen, Wang, & van Bever, 2013; Janicot, & Mignon, 2012). The industry has seen a plethora of cutting edge machine used for predictive analytics and learning. These machines have provided the industry with some of the most unparalleled insights. Consulting firms have been using the tools in concert in connection with any human resources that might be available. The consulting industry has become a global endeavor. The success of firms in this industry is inevitably being influenced by global features and any new forms of technology (Janicot, & TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 6 Mignon, 2012). The core business in the industry is continuously changing. Firms in the industry are realizing the need for new services and new forms of revenue generation methods. The industry is characterized by a homogeneity in the form of services provided. Global consulting services are being regarded as ‘supermarkets’ by clients who argue that the industry is characterized by a broad range of services that is characterized by little differentiation (Christensen, Wang, & van Bever, 2013; Janicot, & Mignon, 2012). There are many outliers in the industry. Some of the companies that offer similar services as TecKno Plus Consulting like Infosys grow faster and their services have differentiated themselves. In the consulting industry, scale and brand seem to have lost their importance. Firms seem to be considering partnering with newcomers in the industry. In fact, scale in the industry has become a serious disadvantage when the workforce is unsuitably skilled. Small and start-up establishments in the industry are challenging the big ones. There has been a rise of small and medium businesses who are taking up the challenge of the gap in service. Speed and flexibility have become crucial factors in winning clients (Christensen, Wang, & van Bever, 2013; Janicot, & Mignon, 2012). Firms in the industry are characterized by a lot of management and a lot less leadership. Senior executive members in some of the large consulting firms have taken up roles in managerial duties like planning and organizing. Leaders are constantly being unable to understand the current changes in the industry and this is posing significant risk for the future of the business. Innovative models are being used by new entrants in the market and this is disrupting the industry. Co-creation of ideas with clients is another trend where companies are collaborating with clients to come up with business solutions (Christensen, Wang, & van Bever, 2013; Janicot, & Mignon, 2012). C. Impact TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 7 TecKno Plus Consulting offers its services in form of technology. The company is heavily reliant on technology and hence this is a trend in the industry that is bound to carry significant effects on the company. Technology is an aspect of business that is progressing at a faster rate and it is becoming difficult for companies to keep up. It is however, crucial that companies stay updated on the machines and service provision ways to ensure that they achieve competitive advantage in the industry. TecKno Plus Consulting can do this by keeping abreast with emergent forms of service provision and conducting business. This will be a sure way of keeping some of the clients the company has and acquiring new ones that are increasingly tech savvy. Furthermore, TecKno Plus Consulting is heavily reliant on a form of business that incorporates co-creation of ideas with Amazon. This form of service provision is client based and has become a trend in the service industry. One way that this can impact business is in a positive note. There is bound to be a high satisfaction level which translates into good business and eventually high revenue. The company can keep up this form of business and involve the client in decision making as soon as possible. It is also a sure way of ensuring that work is not done twice when the client is not satisfied with the first trial. New entrants into the industry are coming up with innovative methods of doing business. This is placing conventional forms of business in jeopardy as the new and innovative forms are more fast and efficient. TecKno Plus Consulting has a duty to innovation to ensure efficiency and give the company a competitive advantage and differentiation that is currently unavailable in the industry. III. Ethics TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 8 A. Issues TecKno Plus Consulting brings its expertise to Amazon to assist the company in solving their customer service issues and meet their target of providing a shopping experience that makes personal shopping obsolete (Christensen, Wang, & van Bever, 2013; Janicot, & Mignon, 2012). In many cases, consulting contracts are short term and companies can be tempted to cut regulatory and ethical corners. However, this has an effect on securing future contracts. There are different ethical and regulatory issues that could affect TecKno Plus Consulting and have an overall impact on its corporate strategy, brand development and decision making process. TecKno Plus Consulting is consulting with Amazon on how to make the company better in customer service. This means that TecKno Plus Consulting will be let on Amazon’s business strategy and secrets. It is important that employees from the company sign non-disclosure agreements so as to protect the privacy of Amazon during and after completion of jobs. Information that TecKno Plus Consulting gathers during any activities in the period of the contract is protected by the agreement. Any proprietary information that TecKno Plus Consulting gathers should be used after the company obtains permission from Amazon to use it and should not be taken advantage of during other projects. Disclosure of proprietary information either by mistake of intentionally is an issue that might affect the company in its efforts of providing services. This has the potential to drastically affect the credibility of TecKno Plus Consulting in the future and erase any chance of the company getting hired again. Furthermore, Amazon has grounds to pursue legal actions against TecKno Plus Consulting for breach of contract. TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 9 Conflicts of interest are a common phenomenon in business. It is paramount that any conflict of interest that exists between Amazon and TecKno Plus Consulting is disclosed before commencing working together. In this light, the probability of compromising the objectivity as well as integrity of TecKno Plus Consulting should be disclosed beforehand. Ethical standards stipulate that consulting firms should make any conflict of interest clear immediately and make the offer of pulling out of the assignment (Fleming, Roberts, & Garsten, 2013). This is an issue that could have drastic effects on the business of the company. In the event that such issues are not disclosed before work begins and are later discovered, the company could suffer an integrity scandal in the industry that could negatively affect its business prospects (Fleming, Roberts, & Garsten, 2013). Billing in the consulting industry is done using the criteria of number of hours worked. Firms are therefore tasked with coming up with and upholding ethical training and processes of auditing that ensures that a client is accurately charged (Fleming, Roberts, & Garsten, 2013). Some of the ethical issues that might affect TecKno Plus Consulting are overcharging Amazon for hours that were not worked. Furthermore, the company employees might not understand how billing works, with some starting when they get to the site and other when actual log in on a computer is done. This might place TecKno Plus Consulting in grave ethical violations. Licensing is required in the US for business operations to be run by a consulting service. It is paramount that the necessary certification is acquired and account books maintain the standards of accounting. In the case where TecKno Plus Consulting is not following these regulatory requirements, the company might suffer and even face lawsuits and closure of business indefinitely or for good. TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 10 B. Alignment It is paramount that any form of business that TecKno Plus Consulting conducts adheres to the ethical and regulatory standards stipulated. Any corporate strategy, brand development, and decision-making processes that the business makes to should be in compliance with standards outlined by law and consulting ethics. Billing should be made uniform where a system is established that all employees are expected to adhere to. Conflicts of interest are a way that TecKno Plus Consulting could lose its credibility in the industry. The company’s corporate strategy should be based on transparency and honesty where no information is withheld from the client. This has long term positive effects since clients will be more inclined to hire a firm that has a reputation of being honest. Any form of confidential information should be kept confidential. Any decisions that TecKno Plus Consulting wants to make with confidential information should be in consultation with Amazon so as the company signs off on such decisions to ensure its privacy is protected. TecKno Plus Consulting should ensure that their brand development is characterized by honesty and adherence to regulatory requirements set up by the government. Any service that TecKno Plus Consulting wants to offer should be backed by necessary certification and licensing to avoid any issues with the law that might cost the company business. C. Sustainability Sustainability entails management of financial, environmental and social risks, opportunities as well as obligatory requirements (David, Sine, & Haveman, 2013). It is a resilient nature of businesses overtime where a business is able to withstand challenges since they have health TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 11 connections to the aforementioned systems. TecKno Plus Consulting is able to meet the needs of the present and at the same time safeguard the future by aligning their corporate strategy, brand development and decision making processes with ethical and regulatory standards. The idea of sustainability is being able to address ethical issues like transparency and upholding the contract requirements and certification and licensing for any services the company is offering (David, Sine, & Haveman, 2013). This can be acheieved through measurement and control where TecKno Plus Consulting is transparent with Amazon since this will place the company in less financial and most importantly, reputation risk. TRENDS AND ETHICS PORTIONS OF TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 12 References Christensen, C. M., Wang, D., & van Bever, D. (2013). Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption. Harvard Business Review, 91(10), 106-114. David, R. J., Sine, W. D., & Haveman, H. A. (2013). Seizing opportunity in emerging fields: How institutional entrepreneurs legitimated the professional form of management consulting. Organization Science, 24(2), 356-377. Fleming, P., Roberts, J., & Garsten, C. (2013). In search of corporate social responsibility: Introduction to special issue. Organization, 20(3), 337-348. Janicot, C., & Mignon, S. (2012). Knowledge codification in audit and consulting firms: a conceptual and empirical approach. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 10(1), 4-15. Running head: TEKNO PLUS CONSULTING 1-3 Final Project Milestone One: Background Information Name School 1 TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 2 Abstract This paper will focus on the new service from TecKno Plus Consulting to Amazon. It targets the processes that are implemented so as to support the new idea and keep it on track. TecKno Plus Consulting has a mission of providing customer service quality care to their customers at Amazon through an excellent service in a caring and convenient manner. The company provides its services through digital meetings . TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 3 Introduction TecKno Plus Consulting TecKno Plus Consulting is a company that is set up with an aim of running the business under a full range of the best proposed business cycle. TecKno Plus Consulting organization has professionals who run the team approach of most consulting projects with an aim of balancing quality of its services that may outdo its competitors. TecKno Plus Consulting operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. TecKno Plus Consulting has a mission of providing customer service quality care to their customers at Amazon through an excellent service in a caring and convenient manner. The company provides its services through digital meetings. For purpose of clarification, digital meetings involve groups or teams with technology. The main setting of TecKno Plus Consulting is providing all its services to its customers through digital means therefore the services will are offered by the use of digital meetings that may involve different teams organized under the current technology. In most instances the meetings tend to offer an effective collaboration among various customer representatives of the Amazons by conducting a thorough training which ensures that the Amazon technology gets successful results with its customers. Some of the features that TecKno Plus Consulting provides to the customer with different services that draws them closer. Some of the services offered by this company include hands on and computer based scheduled sessions, technical skills, communication and dummy testing phase. (Shaw & Blackburn, 2000). According to the Consumer Events (2016), Amazon has been faced with consumer affairs complaints on the communication of their customer service representatives to customers. Some of the complaints include repeatedly asking for the same information, long wait on hold, useless proposed solutions, rude customer service and failure to respond to emails. These complaints have made Amazon to have its overall satisfaction rating at two out of five stars. TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 4 TecKno Plus Consulting provides its services by means of digital meetings which involve teams with technology. These meetings offer effective collaboration with the customer service representatives of Amazon through training so as ensure that Amazon gets successful results with its customers. Some of the features that TecKno Plus provides to the customer service representatives include hands on and computer based scheduled sessions, technical skills, communication, dummy testing phase and extra support. Training courses are used especially on customer service workers that lack proficient basic computer skills so as to enable them easily use the computers. Technical classes involve lectures, activities and simulations that based on the computer. Experienced users of technology are enrolled in computer based- sessions so as to provide them with extra support. Communication services will be offered through digital meetings whereby the customer representatives will be trained on how to communicate effectively through keen listening and paying attention so as to offer useful solutions (CustomerServiceScoreboard 2016). Finally, the dummy testing phase involves setting up of a dummy test so that the customer service representatives can practice with them by using the Amazon website. Stakeholders Amazon.com Inc. maintains corporate social responsibility initiatives to target the interests of its main stakeholder groups. Amazon’s corporate social responsibility programs are designed to address and satisfy the interests of the following stakeholder groups, arranged according to significance; customers, employees and communities. The target stakeholders of TecKno Plus Consulting are the same as Amazon’s, which are the customers and employees. The relationship of TecKno Plus Consulting to stakeholders is to provide mission of customer service quality care to their customers at Amazon through an excellent service in a caring and convenient manner. (Stakeholders, 2016) TECKNO PLUS CONSULTING 5 References Shaw, J. C., & Blackburn, R. A. (2000). Panacea or white elephant? A critical examination of the proposed new small business service and response to the DTI consultancy paper. Amazon Inc., Stakeholders. (2016, July). Corporate Social Responsibility. Analysis. Retrieved from http://panmore.com/amazon-com-inc-stakeholders-corporate-social-responsibility-analysis 
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