Case Study Analysis Of Telstra Assessment Answer

This report contains an analysis of a case study on Telstra that has recently upgraded its technology from being a conservative and traditional engineering firm to a modern and state-of-the-art organization resting on the modern digitalized ICT and IT infrastructure. In undertaking the new change management strategies, the management has ensured that there has been due observance of the ethical codes of the Australian Computer Society (ACS). In order to analyse this case, the Doing Ethics Technique has been implemented along with the implementation of the ACS Code of Ethics. The analysis has revealed that the newly undertaken digital platform and technology has been successful in speeding up the business functions and production and service delivery. The new products such as the Telstra 24x7 Smartphone, Tablet Apps and the Crowd Support Community are some of the newly designed products and services those have proved to be successful for the organization and helped the enterprise to achieve substantial profitability.

Introduction:

Telstra is one of the leading telecommunication companies in the international market. It is the leading and monopoly company in telecommunication industry in Australia. It also extends technology services to the target market along with its wide range telecommunication services. The company has been the pioneer in the telecommunication sector in Australia. In the country it provides more than 17 million mobile services and more than 6.5 million fixed voice and more than 3 million retail fixed broadband services to the population where it is enjoys monopoly business. The majority of its services are highly equipped by technological knowhow. The company believes that to enhance more connectivity it has to be more innovative and technology wise more effective and strong. The company always improves the services and tries to be more effective for the convenience of the customers, governing bodies and the entire community (telstra, 2018). The case study of Telstra has been analyzed here in this report and the Doing Ethics Technique and ACS Code of Ethics have been assessed. 

Case study analysis:

Telstra has been the leading telecommunication company in Australia and with the support of its 24/7 Telstra Application and CrowdSupport platform the company has revolutionized the ways through which it connects with its customers. In 2010 the company has realized that the to keep pace with the changing environment and demands of the target market it has to implement certain changes and has to initiate fast-paced digital strategies in to its traditional culture of engineering. Telstra Digital has been formed with the inclusion of multi faced digital resources. The company now has biggest team with best in class digital resources in Australia. 24/7 Telstra Application for smart phones and tablets provide control over its more than 1.5 regular users who can conveniently use the application. The company also remarkably changed the ways it serves its customers (Thomas, 2018).

Doing Ethics Technique:

What is going on?
In the case study it has been seen that Telstra has initiated the differentiated strategies where it has differentiated through its customers, culture and its dynamic investments to the digital environment. The company is now looking forward towards the investments in human resource, delivery system involving digitalization and design. It is the case where the digital disruption is observed harnessing the bang. The changes in the economic and societal environment have made the companies like Telstra to respond back to the new information pool. The companies have to be responsive to the technological changes and have to come up with needful strategies like that of mobile applications and support system which Telstra has initiated. Other companies will also be attracted with these strategies and would respond back to the technological needs with their own technological resources. 
What are the facts/ information?
Telstra being the leading telecommunication company in Australia has been able to make required changes to be responsive to the societal and economic changes. The changes in the tastes and preferences of the target market have been taken into serious consideration by the company. In the year 2010 Telstra has realized that it has to make changes in its traditional and conservative culture of engineering and has to become more digitalized and hence it formed its Telstra Digital. The company introduced its digitally enhanced 24x7 Telstra application for smart phones and tablets and CrowdSupport strategy to enhance its digital transformation (Reichert, 2018). The business landscape of Telstra has been changed by digital disruption. The company has also hiring of best talents who are best in terms of digital resources and has been able to form one of the biggest and best digital teams in Australia. The focus of the company has been shifted to the changing trends of customers’ needs and preferences and technological demands (Boal, 2017).
What are the issues?
The transformation from the conservative traditional engineering culture to a complete digitalized business culture is much challenging. Telstra has understood that to be responsive to the changing tastes and demands of the customers and the enhanced need for getting digitalized it has to undergo a complete transformation. In this respect it has decided to be fast-paced digitalized company. It is very difficult to manage such a big change. The entire operation and process has to be changed. The employees have to be provided proper training. The company has also been responsive to the formation of biggest digital team in the country so that the transformation can be undertaken successfully. Development of best digital team with best talents is also another big challenge. In the process the customer orientation has to be well maintained and must be in the most effective way. 
Who are affected?
The digital transformation by Telstra has impacted all of its stakeholders. The customers will be getting far better services after the digital transformation takes place successfully. The employees will have to manage working in a more digital environment and they need training. The employees have to understand the new working pattern and the strategies of digital transformation. They have to become more digitalized and for that they have to get trained. The customers can get more features and services through the 24x7 application of the company which is compatible to the smart phone devices and tablets. The customers and the employees have been affected. The top management also gets affected as it is the responsibility of the management to initiate the transformation, to train the employees, to communicate the entire strategy to all the members of the company and to ensure that the customers get better services. The company has to retain its position in the market being the leading. The entire community and economy have also been affected as they could witness the revolutionary changes in the technological aspects and digitalization in the company. 
Ethical issues and implication:
The transformation from conservative engineering culture to a complete new digitalized world has to be ethically abided by process. The employees have to be provided with ample training so that they also follow the ethical codes. The transformation must be within the code of ethics. The customers have to be provided with enhanced services. The services to be provided to the customers must be ethically bound (ethics, 2016). The operations must be ethical. The system must be secure and safe. The employees must be communicated about the changes and their implications. They must be provided with adequate education and development programs. The sourcing of best digital talents must be ethically done (JOSEPH, 2013). 
What can be done?
Telstra has to abide by the code of ethics. It has to follow the ethical codes of ACS. The internet has to be safe and secure for the users. The information technology has to be used ethically. The changes have to be planned and implemented within the ethical codes. The company has to remain competitive and to retain the competitive edge it has to be more responsive to the ethical norms. The employees have to understand the importance of maintaining the ethics in the workplace. They must follow the discipline and regulations of the company and must cooperate to enable the transformation successfully.
What are the options?
The company can make more research on Information Technology to identify the new information. It has to make further investment towards research and development. It has to assess the changes in the tastes and preferences of the customers. It has to be responsive towards the changes in the technological know-how. It has to understand the importance of change management principles. It has to make prudent planning for changes and strategies. The company has to implement the changes and has to manage the changes effectively. The employees have to be given training and development resources. It has to evaluate the progress and the outcomes from the changes. The monitoring has to be done on regular basis.
What is the best option and why?
The best option is to implement the most technologically updated IT and ICT infrastructure that will be based on the ethical code of the ACS. This will help Telstra to come out of its image of a conservative and traditional engineering firm into a modern digitalized establishment that functions totally on modern digital platforms. The company must hire some of the most talented workforce in digital information and communications technologies such that it can offer products and services with much greater speed and accuracy to the clients. The company has already come up with new products and services such as the Telstra 24x7 Smartphone, Tablet and apps those are offering solutions to a large number of customers. The management should always be on the lookout of finding some new technologies and processes those will help the organization to implement even newer technologies in future that will help it to produce even new range of products and services and make the overall business functions more seamless and effective.

ACS Code of Ethics:

The primacy of the public interest:
The primacy of public interest is an ethical code of the Australian Computer Society (ACS). It refers to the motive of every organization that uses digital technology to place the interests of the public, stakeholders and the society at large, before the personal business interests. It entails that every organization that utilizes the ICT and modern digital technologies should ensure that the needs and demands of the public are not compromised with under any circumstances. The customers are one of the major stakeholders of a business organization and therefore, the digital technologies adopted should result in the culmination of something beneficial for the society and the community. It should not result in an outcome that is detrimental to the public. Therefore, the code of ethics of the computer society is to make the computer and digital professionals understand the essence of their services and motivate them to work for the benefit of the public that is the customers and the other stakeholders. In this regard it can be said that Telstra has changed from a conservative engineering firm to a modernized high speed digital organization and was named as Telstra Digital in 2010. It moved from traditional business functions of an engineering firm to a single platform and united approach towards the information architecture and that was a revolutionary move. The company has followed the ethical standards of putting the public interest over and above its own by offering high quality of products and services such as the Telstra 24x7 Smartphone and Tablet Apps. It has also produced the Crowd Support Community where the company interacts with and serves the customers by offering high quality of services through a dedicated team of professionals (Roberts, n.d.).
The enhancement of quality of life:
This particular code of ethics discusses about the intent of an organization working on the modern digital infrastructure to offer a better life to the public that is the customers and the other stakeholders. According to this ethical code under ACS, every IT and digital technology personnel should have the motive to ensure that he serves his organization in the best possible manner so that his work is dedicated towards improvement of the quality of life of the customers. An organization that works on a digital platform offers some products or services to the customers with the motive of offering them with something useful which will help them to enhance the quality of their lives. The products and services are designed in order to offer something of value to the customers that will not only be useful to them but will also be able to improve their current state of life by providing them with a product or service that they have not used before and that will certainly offer the customer with something extra that will seek to develop his quality of life further. In case of Telstra, it can be said that the company has shifted to the modern digital technologies that have enhanced its productivity and as a result the customers are being offered new products and services such as smartphones, tablet apps and crowd support community that enables interaction between the company and its consumers and also among the consumers to result in better relationship building. Thus, Telstra has the motive to enhance the quality of life of its consumers (ACS, 2014).
Honesty:
Honesty should be one of the key mottos of an organization. In whichever sector an organization belongs to, the installation of the modern digital and information technology infrastructure must ensure that the objective of the business is to offer honest and ethical services to the customers. The company must use honest means to ensure that there is fair representation of skills by the organizational management and the employees working in the different departments of the organization. Honesty should also be reflected in the depiction and sharing of knowledge by the organizational personnel. Moreover, the products and services offered should also be ethical and honest in their purpose. The organization that is functioning under the modern ICT and digital infrastructure must ensure honesty in its action. In case of Telstra, it can be said that honesty has been one of its key business mottos. In all of its business processes and functions the company has been observing the path of honesty. Even after the change management strategy undertaken by Telstra when it shifted to the modern digitalized ICT infrastructure, the management has not diverted from its objective of offering honest and fair products and services to the customers. It has been the honesty in the approach of the company that it has been possible for the firm to form a large customer base many of those have turned into loyalty customers of the brand (Ferguson et al., 2005).
Competence:
The competence is an ethical code of conduct of the computer society whereby the computer professionals working in an organization must showcase competence in its products and services so that it can offer the best possible products and services to the stakeholders through diligence and competence. This ethical code of conduct refers to the basic business objective of every ICT professional that is to offer diligent products and services to the stakeholders so that the clients and stakeholders are satisfied with the services of the organization. The success of an organization in the long run depends on the competence it can showcase in its area of operations. In case of Telstra, it can be said that the adoption of the new ICT and digital infrastructure in 2010 where it upgraded the digital infrastructure further to make all the business processes faster and error-free helped to offer improved products and services to around 1.5 million regular customers. The competence of the firm was evident in the way it engaged in relationship building with its stakeholders and customers. The implementation of this new technology has proved to be a big success for Telstra and since the adoption of the new digital infrastructure and architecture, the company has been producing more volumes of product at reasonable overall costs and economies of scale have been achieved as large quantities are being produced with much speed, accuracy and attention towards quality.
Professional Development:
The professional development is a code of ethics that should be undertaken by every ICT professional so that they can enhance their own professional development skills along with that of their staffs and colleagues. The professional development should be the objective of every computer or software professional as it is obligatory to learn and develop in this extremely competitive industry and world where the technologies are improving with each passing day. The technology or process of today might become obsolete after a few days and therefore, it is extremely important to develop and grow one’s knowledge and expertise so that professional development is attained. In case of Telstra, the implementation of the modern digital infrastructure has also made it possible for the employees to achieve professional development and growth in their careers.
Professionalism:
According to the ACS, each member of an organization that is working on the ICT infrastructure must ensure that the employees work towards the enhancement of the integrity of the Australian Computer Society and mutual respect of the members for one another. In case of Telstra, one of the prime reasons of success has been the professional behaviour and attitude of the employees and staffs after the adoption of the new digital platform. They have mutual respect for each other and they also believe in the integrity of the ACS which has motivated them to deliver the best possible services to the customers (Merkel, 2015).

In conclusion, it can be said that ethics is one of the key factors that determines the success or failure of a business organization in this extremely competitive business dynamics. The case of Telstra has revealed that it is prudent for an organization to upgrade from the old computer and network infrastructure to the modern digitalized forms of internet and communications technology platforms. The installation of the modern digital business functions has made it possible for Telstra to offer wide range of products and services such as Telstra 24x7 Smartphone, Tablet Apps and the Crowd Support Community that has made it possible for the management of the organization to come closer to the customers by enabling continuous sharing of information and feedbacks through the community. The professional ethics of an organization functioning on modern digital infrastructure is guided by the Australian Computer Society. The various codes developed by this authority have made it possible for organization such as Telstra to function in the most ethical manner by offering new and updated products and services to the clients. Therefore, in order to achieve success and competitive edge in the long run, every firm working on modern IT and ICT infrastructure must abide by the ethical code of conduct of the Australian Computer Society (ACS).

References

ACS (2014) 'ACS Code of Professional Conduct Professional Standards Board Australian Computer Society', Code of Professional Conduct; V.2.1, pp. 1-8.
Boal, K. (2017) Do you have a platform for digital transformation?, 20 September, [Online], Available: https://exchange.telstra.com.au/do-you-have-a-platform-for-digital-transformation/.
ethics (2016) WHAT IS ETHICS?, [Online], Available: http://www.ethics.org.au/about/what-is-ethics.
Ferguson, S., Salmond, R., AI-Saggaf, Y.l., Bowern, M. and Weckert, J. (2005) 'Case studies and codes of ethics: the relevance of the ACS experience to ALIA ', THE AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL, pp. 299-308.
JOSEPH, L. (2013) Importance of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility, 10 December, [Online], Available: https://blog.udemy.com/importance-of-business-ethics/.
Merkel, R. (2015) A code of ethics in IT: just lip service or something with bite?, [Online], Available: https://theconversation.com/a-code-of-ethics-in-it-just-lip-service-or-something-with-bite-32807.
Reichert, C. (2018) Telstra CIO: Customer experience leads the digital transformation, 16 january, [Online], Available: http://www.zdnet.com/article/telstra-cio-customer-experience-leads-the-digital-transformation/.
telstra (2018) Our company, [Online], Available: https://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/our-company.