AHT038 : Design Management : Design Guidelines and Standards

1). As found from previous results, the British Telecommunication has briefed over telephone. It has been the same projects that have not possessed any pitch. Out of five, that received the brief, just three of them were provided with a formal face-face briefing afterwards. However, this was not an effective result for CDU. Here, two small projects have possessed a written brief. However, there has been formal face-to-face brief. It has not needed for various small projects (Coronel & Morris, 2016). The formal briefings have been less needed for different kinds of small projects. However, they have been important for medium and large sized projects. Moreover, formal briefings have never been depending on the way how effective the agencies have known CDU. This has also known about the design guidelines and standards.

Next, there has been the necessity of formal face-to-face that might not be needed. Apart from this, there has been always the scope that these kinds of subtle nuances of that project could be lost within the written brief. Further, the agency must not totally understand the significance of that brief. As the questions have been asked, most of the agencies have revealed that those briefings have been vital part of the project (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). Apart from this, it can be argued that it must be over the company to ensure that the briefing has been satisfactory for them in developing effective results. For the case of BTR, CDU must be liable to get proper message around the agencies. This has been after all, one of the basic responsibilities. Moreover, two of the agencies working over large projects have felt that CDU has been less formal and it has been less professional in nature.

Here the two organizations working on massive projects have felt that CDU has been less formal and according to other views it has been less precise. They never had an official briefing from CDU. Further, it can be assumed that the processes of presentation have been reflecting the sense of professionalism of the clients (Smedema, Vlotman & Rycroft, 2014).

The proforma brief of various designs of BT has been including the following.

Researching and reviewing:

Same as the reports, the expert in particular technologies or market sectors has been including the phase. This has been allowing tuning the presentation to interests.

Presentation:

Putting together the brief introduction has been offering the overview of the company. Here, the content must be focusing on the issue to resolve and the way in which unique approaches are proposed to solve that.

Involving primary spokesperson:

Briefings have been involving more analysis. As one has possessed some executives over the call, it has been vital that one person leads the presentation to do that. This has been the best to maintain primary spokesperson for during discussion and interactions with the analysts. Further, the additional employees can listen and must be offering the support as needed. As it is not done, many people have been might detract from that conversation (Cordoba-Arenas, Onori & Rizzoni, 2015).

While speaking to analyst or reporter, one might perform a bulk of conversations. This has been vital to listen. The analysts have been asking a wide range of questionnaires and assuring to address then succinctly. Discussing and looking questions has been allowing to create rapport with various analysts and provide the scope to offer multiple in-the-trenches view-points with analysts and providing magnitudes to provide in-the-trenches views under future research report (Jacobs, Chase & Lummus, 2014). Similar to other conversations, the power of listening has been permitting to engage and connect at a personal level and create relationships.

Staying in touch:

As any connection is established, the key analysts have been covering technology and market and staying in touch has been helpful to possess new developments. This includes product launches, customer partnership and so on. Sending brief emails to press release or blog spots has also been helpful to connect (King & Clarkson, 2015). Moreover, the analysts have been the instrumental part of marketing and the ecosystem of public relations. Remaining in from of them has been helpful to garner feedbacks that can be used for fine-tuning business strategies and various industry connections.

2. Three of the results that are not addressed in the case study are highlighted hereafter. The first one is capital expenditure. British telecommunication has been struggling to determine the latest technologies that should be providing a most useful reward for related capital expenditures. Here, many of them have been possessing experienced inefficiencies as per as practical use of capital expenditures are considered (Romiszowski, 2016). On the other hand, the global demand for telecommunication services has been continuing to drive the necessity as per rising in capacity and speed of various wireless data networks.

The reason of the audit has been to assess and analyze effectiveness and analyze communications of CDU. This has been both externally and internally. The internal one has been referring to the CDU. The external one indicated to the external suppliers of British Telecom.

Figure 1: “The Three-way “Relationship and Communication Model” in British Telecom”

(Source: Created by Author)

To react to this demand, BT should be spending billions of dollars on capital projects since last few years. Moreover, there have been various implementations of capital expenditure strategies that have been employed. Here, for instance, the further use of leases as the method to mitigate risks and managing cash flows has been included. Further, the aspects have been presenting distinct or operating cash flows. The characters have been presenting separate problems from various executives. They have been liable for financing, accountability, strategic alignment and most suited control environment. The multiple areas on which BT must focus for internal audit are discussed hereafter (Caniani et al., 2015). The first one is reviewing planned capital projects to analyze the consideration of management regarding authorization, project planning, and alignment. Then there must be an evaluation of vendor authorization and process of procurement assuring compliance with those policies.

Then the real-time analysis if distinct capital expenditure projects are to be done for recognizing potential problems with status reporting, vendor compliances, project management with various contract provisions and terms. Next, the control environments and policies of primary high-risked sectors like fraud, scope changes, contracting and authorization are also included (Karavas et al., 2015).

Next, the capital expenditure strategies are to be evaluated related to expected outcomes, new accounting standards, assumptions and risks that are inherent to the strategy. Lastly, a look-back review must be performed as a pet as a capital project are considered. This must also include reviewing the prior assumptions and various outcomes (Wu, 2017).

The overall capital expenditure has been driving the rapidly developing networks and services delivery technologies. This has also included up gradation, maintenance and expanding of the current systems and supporting of infrastructures. This has also included converting towards IP-based edges and nuclear network technologies, having developed wireless spectrum and implementation of different cloud-based software that is defined the capabilities of networks (Jim, 2015). This has also involved the rise in demand for telecommunication strategies that have been resulting from an increase in the use of mobile and various connected devices.

BT has needed to undergo various audits for examining the records and operations regularly. The reviews have been assuring that employees can complete transactions as per the accounting policies of the organization. These can be both internal and external. The employees of BT can perform internal audits as the external auditing agencies perform foreign inspections (Chang, 2016). Moreover, the reviews have frequently been checking for needed approvals for various capital transactions. Here, the sales have been including different long-term items like fixed assets and different long-term debt.

First of all, this has involved segregation of duties. Here, one of the basic tenets of internal control has been adequate segregation of duties. This indicates that one person is liable for custody if resources, recording transactions, reconciliation of records and approvals. The next one has been the security where the accounting guidelines have needed top management signatures and support from various boards of directors while organizations raise capital through bonds and stocks. Notable investments in others bonds and stocks have also been needing same kinds of approvals (Emmitt, 2014). The next one is an item of expenditure that has included capital transactions regarding physical resources involved in disposal, depreciation, and acquisition of assets. At any time the organizations have been leasing the assets.

Here, in such cases, the auditors have been checking that employees obtain proper approvals and follow various record-keeping regulations for this lease. The next one has been purchasing where the necessity for seeking competitive pricing regarding capital expenditures ahs involved in purchasing rules for multiple agencies. The large-size companies have been formalizing bidding processes. The smaller ones, on the other hand, have been needed to purchase staffs for checking and documenting pricing with various vendors. The last one has been the physical count. Here the organizations have been regularly completing substantial numbers of capital investments and multiple inventories (Hu et al., 2015). Further, the management must establish numerous written policies. They must also note how frequently the counts have been occurring and the type of information that the staffs to auditors have been verifying. This has included serial numbers and location of items.

3. A various channel of communication at BT has been indicating where the message can get communicated. This might pass through different positions and points within BT. It have depended on mean, nature, and structure of communications. These channels are categorized into formal and informal communication channels. This has been irrespective of mode of communication. Here, people can communicate formally and informally (Colledani et al., 2014).

Regarding strategic design a 10 week initial brief and project plan is set up. This has been helpful to maximize the time period spent in CDU. As the project starts the plan gets evolved as particular proposals and ideas turns to be irrelevant. Here, the other concepts are much more appropriate. Further, a more focused plan is created as the project of discussed and finalized with the CDU. This has been helpful to collect data and undergo further research as possible. In the first two week much of background information has been collected regarding CDU and the role under BT. It is dine through a short interview about every design managers about their activities regarding what and how they have been doing and asking common queries regarding relationships.

The formal communication of BT has been maintained by managers and peoples of BT who has been present in the top hierarchy of the organization. This has been the official channel; that has been deliberately structures forming communication chain within organizations in achieving organization goals. The information has been flowing through channels has been accurately authenticating and legally valid (Costanzo et al., 2015). The formal communication has been involving memos, instructions, orders, letters and reports and so on. These have been flowing up and down that hierarchical system under presentations and organizations, branding advertising materials that are presented in public.

The features have been including the superiors and staffs at BT. This can be in oral and written form. The meetings happening inside the workplace between managements have been formal. This has also included communication information about services for the outer world. The dedicated team of professionals has been planning and executing communication activities that have been about branding, and advertising acting has the face of BT (Loucks & Van Beek, 2017).

Its main advantages have lifted the image of BT professionally. This has been empowering employees at different managerial positions along with strategy development and decision making. Further, the high level roles of formal communication have been creating events in productivities at various levels in multifold manners.

However, one of the disadvantages of formal communications has been the involvements of hierarchy in discussions. This was followed by the authority that has made connections a time-consuming task (Vezzoli et al., 2017). Because of its nature, the formal communication has been unable to allow any free flow of information. It has involved particular set tasks that have been adding costs along with stringent practices. Because of the hierarchy included in the formal communication, the human touch between a top and lower level has ceased to be present at BT.

As per as information communication is considered BT, it has been the unstructured and unofficial that has been prescribed by BTR. However, it has been existing because of social and personal needs of people who have been working in that company. Its features have included the prevailing of more middle and lower rings of BT. It has been taking place between people within organizations because of their professional, social and personal necessities. It has been spread that has possessed no basis (Hermann, Pentek & Otto, 2016). The vital data has been used for management. It has owned no specific guidelines and standards that can happen haphazardly in organizations. Because of its nature, the information communication has been considered casual and unofficial.

Various factors fostering informal communication:

The internal one has been taking place because of the influence of different factors that have been more psychological and emotional in manner, further, some of the elements that have been fostering informal communication at typical office environment has been many. The first one has been the low confidence where employees have been making then cling and groups on the same to feel the ease.

The next one has been the low efficiency that has made employees of BT afraid of handing people and situations (McGrath et al., 2016). Further, they have been seeking support from peer groups where people have been looking for the company. It has resulted in forming teams have been making conversations only to satisfy themselves. The next one has been the lack of directions. As the employees have lacked directions, there has been a distinct feeling that is generated among them that has been leading to various rumors. The last one has been a psychological issue. This imbalance has been caused due to the fear of losing job acts as the primary factor in forming those rumors (Accorsi, Manzini & Maranesi, 2014). This has indicated the feeling of security that those team formations has been offering to the group.

4. Overcoming the barrier of language has been helpful for the brand growth of BT. However, it has been not so easy at starting. Some of the tips to get started are highlighted hereafter. The first step is BT must narrow down the market. Prior they start hiring or expand BT needs to narrow down the market. The more extensive customer base has been potentially possessing more considerable willingness to pay. They must access a cheaper supply of labor and raw materials that have been leading cost efficiencies. The more affordable amount of energy and raw materials has been leading to cost efficiencies. The legal, regulatory and various other systematic factors have been making that simpler to perform business (Norman & Verganti, 2014).

Further, BT must be showing respect through knowing what language has been needed to be spoken. Various countries around the world have been comprising populations that have been speaking multiple languages. Through knowing what language has been expressed at the market has been useful for BIT to understand phases and start effective marketing campaigns in the local style of the customers. Further, they have been showing admiration and respects as they considered the time to understand and learn the local languages and customs.

Moreover, BT can conduct surveys where they can dramatically steepen the learning curve and avoid various catastrophic mistakes through learning from local experts. They can also find feedbacks from global brands evangelists through conducting online surveys through SurveyMonkey, Google Forms and Qualtrics (Pérez et al., 2017).

Then, BT can be translating documents. Before hiring the translation of primary work documents can be considered to the native language of new staff members. Plenty of free tools have been present in the markets that are helpful for translating documents. As this has been making communication smarter, however, there can be times, while the meaning of terms used in written translation has been corresponding to sense that is wished to convey the work documents. Moreover, BT can hire interpreters. They can find anyone whom can trust and can provide team feedbacks and instructions in local languages. This has been helpful to prevent miscommunication. Next, they can use various technologies like Google Translate. This has been one of the active online resources breaking language barriers because of its essential and straightforward. However, it has also possessed some powerful features like offering native speakers pronunciations of phrases and words. Again, various free translation tools have been using Bing Translator, Linguee, Prompt and Quest Visual. Moreover, they can avoid idioms, slang, and jargons. While making conversations with overseas staffs, BT must avoid any confusion that is done through more formal English. Further, they must stay away from slangs and jargons that must not be identified in any other area of the worlds (Monczka et al., 2015).

Moreover, they must make use of visual modes of communications. It has been a potent tool. This is because people have been visual learners. It has also been mattering as the overcoming of the language barriers is considered. Instead of text, BT can use pictures to convey the messages, assignments, and instructions. It has indicated that having signs, visual aids and cue cards for the teams for using are needed to be acquired.

Further, as per as culture is considered, the organization culture has been the pattern of various shared assumptions that are developed invented and discovered. This indicates a given group to cope with problems of internal integration and external adaptation. This has been working well to be considered valid and must be taught to new members as the proper way to think, feel and perceive the relation to those issues.

Further, the cultural changes have been taking place because of environmental changes. However, because of various management actions, they are the people defining new strategic directions and courses of business from paradigms. Apart from this, multiple difficulties have been arising as the environmental changes are not being aligned with cultural and social patterns of the political organizations. At this case, the changes to the efforts towards the changes of current forms of action and cognition have been enabling BT to adapt the environmental conditions and taking benefits from various arising opportunities (De Meyer et al., 2014). This has been the constant reintegration of the reality and definition of different meanings shared within BT. It has been corresponding to various dominant management vision and paradigm.

5. To deal with various points of contacts and use the resultant information, BT must undergo multiple phases. First of all, they must understand the most primary change. This must be regarding technology and implications for the industry structure that has been happening ar the architecture of telecommunication networks. Here, the architecture at the context has been referring to functional descriptions of general structures of systems as a whole. Further, they must seek how various parts so the system has been related to each other. At the past data networks, cable and PSTN has been coexisting as separately owned and different operated networks that have been carrying various kinds of communications (Gruber et al., 2015). However, they have also been including a shared common technology base like point-to-point digital communications and few facilities like high-speed digital pipes that have been shared through various networks.

Next, BT must understand the way in which the networks have been distinct. At first, they are to be integrated. This has indicated that every media like data, video, audio, and choice has increased communication across a single shared network. Here, the integration has been offering financial scales and scopes of operational costs and capital expenditures. Moreover, they have been allowing various media to get mixed to standard applications. Thus the technology suppliers and service providers have been rousingly present in the business to provide telecommunications across the media at the same time instead of giving telecommunication every press.

Secondly, the networks are been developed in various layers. This has been including the physical layer that has been concerned with optical, electrical and mechanical, functional and procedural means to manage network connection to transport, network and data sheets. Further, they have been assuring the reliability of data transfer and end-to-end connections to application layers that has been concerned with providing specific functionalities through network and interface to users. Here both technologies like software and equipments services and supplies has been providing tends for specializing in those layers. Here each of them has been seeking to serve every applications and every media (Norman & Verganti, 2014). As a result, the creation of applications has been needed the cooperation and participation as the set of capabilities layered complementary. This implications top define telecommunications has been broadly present at all the layers included in communications at the distance becomes a part of the telecommunication industry. Here, the full range and vast numbers of companies have been contributing to telecommunication industry that has been evident from following point-of-contacts.

• Network service providers around Internet and PSTN, wireless carriers and cable operators. Here, the examples are DirectTV, Verizon, Comcast, AT&T.
• Communication equipment suppliers who have been the leading suppliers to various service providers. Instances of this are Motorola, Lucent and Cisco.
• Networking equipment suppliers that have been selling products to multiple end-users, individuals and organizations.
• Semi-conductor manufacturers have been those who have been supplying system-on-a-chip solutions for telecommunication industry. Here, the examples have included Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and STMicroelectronics.
• Operating system suppliers including networking stacks like Microsoft.
• Software suppliers like those who have been selling applications and infrastructures or the real-time media. Instances of this include IBM, RealNetworks and BEA.
• On-demand service providers of utility who have been selling real-time communication-oriented applications. Here, the examples have been Microsoft and AOL and WebEx.
• Consumer electronics suppliers having communications-oriented handheld and equipments appliances of the customer premises. Instances of this are Nokia and Motorola, Polycom, Sony and Microsoft and Panasonic.

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