Analysis of the situation using the Doing Ethics Technique

Analyse an ICT business case study using a chosen ethical analysis framework.

Telstra Corporation Limited or most commonly known as Telstra, is a telecommunications organization operating primarily in Australia. Its primary focus remains on the building and operations of telecommunications network which promotes voice calling, mobile access, internet access, products for pay television services and numerous other products and services. The organization has been a contemporary to Australia Post originating as the Postmaster-General’s Department. In the year 2011, Telstra had announced that the organization would move forward in implementing a new strategy with the launch of Telstra Digital, lead by Gerd Schenkel of National Australia Bank. The initial purpose of this launch was for improving the use of digital channels for customer services. However, changes in a telecommunications based organization in Australia should maintain ethical conduct as per Australian law suggests (Leicester 2016). This report would analyze the ethical ICT implications for the revolutionary business strategy adapted by Telstra. At first, the situation would be analyzed with the help of Doing Ethics Technique, which is a set of questions leading to a feasible and ethical solution. In the next part, the entire situation would be analyzed from the perspective of an ICT Professional, which would retrospect the situation entirely to find out the relevance of the situation being ethical using the ACS code of Ethics. The paper would also hold recommendations regarding the change of business process according to the case study in any ICT based industry with regards to the ACS codes of laws and ethics. The analysis of the situation from these different points of views would enable how the IT governance and IT standards are to be applicable to this kind of innovation in any ICT based industry.

Doing Ethics Technique or DET is a method for analyzing the ethical compliance of any event or occurrence in an ICT organization. It is assumed that the DET process will help in analyzing any occurrence in an organization, preferable and information and communication technology based organization, with the help of a set of eight questions asked in order. The series of questions that are asked are assumed to be sequentially analyzing the entire situation and hence help in reaching a point where the final question in the series would preferably bring about the inference of the entire situation.

The series of questions that are asked are in sequence are the same for every one of the situations arising in the ICT based organization. This event in this case is the change in business process for Telstra that would prove to be revolutionary for the organization, where the entire business process would transform into digital. The questions asked would be sequential, such as,

• What is going on?
• What are the facts?
• What are the issues?
• Who is affected?
• What are the ethical issues and implication?
• What can be done about it?
• What options are there?
• Which is the best option and why?

What is going on?

It is assumed that these questions would sequentially and gradually reach a conclusion that would present a feasible solution to the ethical implications that would arise in the business process change for Telstra for its transformation into digital process.

Following would be the analysis of the entire situation with the help of these questions:

Telstra Digital is a telecommunications company that had been in the Australian market serving telecommunications services since the time of Australia Post. Recently, during the year 2011, Telstra decided to go digital, sourcing few of the impeccably resourceful digital talents that are available in the market (Lema-Moreta and Calvo-Manzano 2017). Telstra had revolutionized this business transformation to implement the most robust digital teams available in the country. The game-changing initiative was taken so as to unify the vast spread business of Telstra Telecommunications Services into providing one unified platform of information and channel architecture. To formulate this strategy, Telstra launched Smartphone and tablet apps. One of these Smartphone and tablet software applications was CrowdSupport community (Iden and Eikebrokk 2015). The implementation had provided the telecommunication services into turning digital by revolutionizing the way Telstra approaches its customers and it services. In addition, this implementation brought about strategies that helped in minimizing the budget of the previously adapted business strategies.

The revolutionary business strategy of transforming the business of Telstra telecommunication services completely into digital arena had changed the way by which Telstra previously used to look forward to its business and approached its customers. The entire platform of the business had become unified with the implementation of apps for Smartphone and tablets, having all the customer services and products available under a single platform. The person in charge of this implementation, Gerd Schenkel had stated that the implementation had been revolutionary and successful; although initially it had occurred several times that the project faced delays and setbacks during the time of its implementation (Ferguson, Thornley and Gibb 2016). The implementation of ITSM or Information Technology Service Management and ITIL or Information Technology Information Library framework into the business process of Telstra enabled a more reliable and responsive IT services. The majority of the people in the organization had voted in favor of the technological change although they are also aware of the fact that it has difficulty in management and implementation.  

The issues that have been there in the implementation of the ITSM services and the ITIL framework for making the organization of Telstra reach a digitized and unified platform had a number of advantages added to it. The implementation had proven to be revolutionary in transforming the way Telstra used to serve its customers. In spite of the huge success of this implementation, there had been several major issues identified in this process. The organization had 20 years of ITSM experience (El Yamami et al. 2017). Yet it was found that there had been very few evidences that the organization had focused on the lack of the interface standards. It is necessary that before implementation of ITSM services, the organization should have a clear view about the correct ethical way of implementation of the services as per the Australian law. However, it has been found that Telstra had failed to abide by these specifications, resulting to issues arising in the process of implementation along the change in business process, leading to delays in the scheduled time for the project.

What are the facts?

The effect of any issue arising during the implementation of a changed business plan in an organization impacts almost every stakeholder related to the organization and the change in the business process. In this case, where Telstra had been in the process of implementing a changed and digitized form of business services in the organization, replacing the previous and traditional way of services, the customers also were prone to be affected (Bartusevi?s et al. 2017). The implementation of ITSM and ITIL framework although had issues during the process of change for Telstra. This would affect the stakeholders of the organization along with the customers of the telecommunication services since any faulty implementation or delay in services would make them suffer the condition. According to the ACS code of ethics and laws, this situation is not at all acceptable.

The issues and implications that had been found during the change in business process of Telstra from being a dedicated telecommunications service to providing digital services as well also bore effect to the stakeholders in the organization and the customers at the receiving end of the telecommunications service. According to the ACS codes of laws for ethics, any organization changing their business process to implement ITSM and ITIL frameworks, must maintain all the specifications for the interface standards. This would also include the continuation of claiming definitions from the service providers to motivate the wider range of changes within the community of ITSM. Therefore, the organizations inability to follow the proper specification for the implementation of the changed and digitized business process resulted in the issues it had according to the ACS codes of conduct as per the Australian law.

Every time an organization decides to upgrade the business process, it needs to follow few codes of conduct that are generated by the laws of ethics of the particular company. However, Telstra had failed to abide the ACS codes of laws according to the Australian government. The organization had 20 years of ITSM experience (Barns et al. 2017). Yet it was found that there had been very few evidences that the organization had focused on the lack of the interface standards. This entire event had resulted in several issues regarding the missing of deadlines and the disruption of service level agreements amongst all the service providers. After the evaluation of the implementation of the business process, it was found that the testing period had 111 respondents, out of which only 45 had achieved a considerable level of integration. However, the specific benefits that had been encountered by those successful 45 respondents had been in the areas of reduced problem resolution times, better communication, improved reporting and clearer governance processes. The situation could have been kept under control had the organization maintained compliance with the proper alignment of IT service delivery.

What are the issues?

In attempting to solve the problems that have aroused in the issues during the implementation of the digital business process for the telecommunications organization called Telstra, there have been issues regarding the implementation of the new business process. To solve the issues, there could be a possibility, that few possible options would be available.

The outcomes of adopting good ITSM practices should include a closer alignment of IT service delivery and the organization. This should result in greater knowledge of how the business uses IT services and help to create the flexibility and adaptability needed to meet business, customer and user needs (Asgari et al. 2017). There should also be improved quality of ICT services in the areas of availability, reliability and security, plus improved resource utilization and meaningful performance indicators.

On the other hand, best practice ITSM can be achieved by ensuring the investment of the organization matches its strategic objective. Service providers who can do what you can’t and define those critical hand-off points with them can also be looked about for. In addition to this, it is important to define the deliverables to be exchanged and desired integration points must be agreed to be documented in individual supplier contracts.

Which option is best and why?

Amongst the possible solutions for the issues that have arisen in the implementation of the newer business process in the organization of Telstra Telecommunication services, the best one would be following the ITSM rules as described by the ACS codes of laws and ethics ensuring that they abide by the laws of conduct according to the organization resources and the strategic needs required to serve the customers (Turban et al. 2017). It ensures that the strategic implementation of the newest business process serves the entire range of customers as well as abides by the strategic objective of the business of the organization. It is only possible that following this option provided by the Doing Ethics Technique or DET process, a feasible solution be achievable to implement the new ITIL framework and ITSM process with compliance to the ACS code of laws of ethics.

If the entire situation is perceived according to an ICT Professional’s perspective there are various inconsistencies in the strategic implementation of the ITSM and ITIL framework introduction in the existing business processes. Every time an organization decides to upgrade the business process, it needs to follow few codes of conduct that are generated by the laws of ethics of the particular company. However, Telstra had failed to abide the ACS codes of laws according to the Australian government. The organization had 20 years of ITSM experience (Turban et al. 2018). Yet it was found that there had been very few evidences that the organization had focused on the lack of the interface standards. This entire event had resulted in several issues regarding the missing of deadlines and the disruption of service level agreements amongst all the service providers. After the evaluation of the implementation of the business process, it was found that the testing period had 111 respondents, out of which only 45 had achieved a considerable level of integration. However, the specific benefits that had been encountered by those successful 45 respondents had been in the areas of reduced problem resolution times, better communication, improved reporting and clearer governance processes. The situation could have been kept under control had the organization maintained compliance with the proper alignment of IT service delivery.

Who is affected?

The ACS codes of Ethics that is suggested as per the Australian Laws, states that, the constitution entails honor and dignity in any profession making the professional a good citizen with adherence to the following societal values:

• The primacy of the Public Interest
• Enhancement of Quality of Life
• Honesty
• Competence
• Professional Development
• Professionalism

The entire situation as per the codes of conduct, do not comply all the constitutional ideas, and henceforth do not comply with the ACS codes of Ethics (Elkhannoubi and Belaissaoui 2015). This is why the project is seen suffering from deadline issues, implementation problems and other issues that would enable further problems for the customers of the telecommunication services. Therefore, as an ICT professional, the project does not adhere to the ACS laws of Ethics as per Australian laws for Telstra’s implementation of ITSM and ITIL framework in making the organization achieve digitalization. Thus, the faulty behaviors of the tablet apps of Telstra are justified.

According to the Doing Ethics Technique and the analysis of the situation as per the ACS Code of Ethics from the perspective of an ICT professional, it is recommended that the following situation be handled according to the solutions provided. In attempting to solve the problems that have aroused in the issues during the implementation of the digital business process for the telecommunications organization called Telstra, there have been issues regarding the implementation of the new business process. To solve the issues, there could be a possibility, that few possible options would be available. The outcomes of adopting good ITSM practices should include a closer alignment of IT service delivery and the organization. This should result in greater knowledge of how the business uses IT services and help to create the flexibility and adaptability needed to meet business, customer and user needs. There should also be improved quality of ICT services in the areas of availability, reliability and security, plus improved resource utilization and meaningful performance indicators. On the other hand, best practice ITSM can be achieved by ensuring the investment of the organization matches its strategic objective. Service providers who can do what you can’t and define those critical hand-off points with them can also be looked about for. In addition to this, it is important to define the deliverables to be exchanged and desired integration points must be agreed to be documented in individual supplier contracts. It is only possible that abiding by the suggestions made in the recommendations, the true implementation of the ITSM and ITIL framework would be possible according to the ACS code of Laws in Australia.

What are the ethical issues and implications?

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above situation that the organization Telstra Corporation Limited or most commonly known as Telstra, is a telecommunications organization operating primarily in Australia. Its primary focus remains on the building and operations of telecommunications network which promotes voice calling, mobile access, internet access, products for pay television services and numerous other products and services. The organization has been a contemporary to Australia Post originating as the Postmaster-General’s Department. In the year 2011, Telstra had announced that the organization would move forward in implementing a new strategy with the launch of Telstra Digital, lead by Gerd Schenkel of National Australia Bank. The initial purpose of this launch was for improving the use of digital channels for customer services. However, changes in a telecommunications based organization in Australia should maintain ethical conduct as per Australian law suggests. This report would analyze the ethical ICT implications for the revolutionary business strategy adapted by Telstra. At first, the situation was analyzed with the help of Doing Ethics Technique, which is a set of questions leading to a feasible and ethical solution. In the next part, the entire situation was analyzed from the perspective of an ICT Professional, which helped to retrospect the situation entirely to find out the relevance of the situation being ethical using the ACS code of Ethics. The paper holds recommendations regarding the change of business process according to the case study in any ICT based industry with regards to the ACS codes of laws and ethics. The analysis of the situation from these different points of views enabled how the IT governance and IT standards are to be applicable to this kind of innovation in any ICT based industry. From the above analysis done on the entire situation, it was made clear that the ITSM and ITIL framework implementation had not been in compliance with the proper utilization of the ACS codes of ethics according to the Australian laws. This had resulted to issues during the process of change for Telstra. This would affect the stakeholders of the organization along with the customers of the telecommunication services since any faulty implementation or delay in services would make them suffer the condition. According to the ACS code of ethics and laws, this situation is not at all acceptable. The suggestions were made to implement the changes according to the ACS codes of ethics as per the organizational resources and strategies.

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