Analyzing Ethical Concerns in Telstra's Digital Application Strategy

This case study delves into the ethical concerns surrounding Telstra's adoption of a mobile application to enhance its business processes. It employs the Doing Ethics technique and the ACS Code of Ethics to evaluate potential ethical issues arising from Telstra's digitalization. The analysis covers various aspects, including data security, IT governance, and risk assessment, highlighting the potential impact on stakeholders such as customers, employees, and the company itself. The report explores technical, social, and ethical challenges, including data breaches, authenticity of online services, and programming flaws. It further provides recommendations by weighing the advantages and disadvantages of this digital transformation, ultimately aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of the ethical considerations involved in Telstra's move to a mobile-centric business model.

Running head: TELSTRA APPLICATION ETHICAL CONCERNS
Telstra Application Ethical Concerns
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Executive Summary
With the growth of IT support onto every aspects of the professional industry, ethical concerns
have risen into account. It is extremely necessary for every organization to analyze in details the
ethical circumstances that come up with the adaptation of IT infrastructure in their existing
model of business. This report aims at providing insight into one such case study relating to the
adaptation of digital electronic means for accommodating, enhancing and speeding up business
processes of the Telstra organization. The Doing Ethics technique shall be used in order to
evaluate the ethical concerns that may revolve around the digitalization of Telstra. Furthermore,
the ACS code of ethics framework shall be utilized to throw more light on the respective matters.
The report helps to conclude the prescribed effects of adapting to the shining IT infrastructure
model in various business context.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
Telstra Digital background..............................................................................................................5
Features of the Telstra 24*7 application..........................................................................................6
Doing Ethics Technique..................................................................................................................7
What is going on?........................................................................................................................7
What are the facts?.......................................................................................................................7
What are the issues?.....................................................................................................................8
Who are affected?........................................................................................................................9
Ethical Issues and Implications.................................................................................................10
What can be done?.....................................................................................................................11
What are the options?................................................................................................................11
Which is the best option and why?............................................................................................12
The ACS Code of Ethics................................................................................................................12
The primacy of public interest...................................................................................................12
Enhancement of the quality of life.............................................................................................12
Honesty......................................................................................................................................13
Competence...............................................................................................................................13
Professional Development.........................................................................................................13
Professionalism..........................................................................................................................13

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Assessment of Ethical Consequences............................................................................................14
IT Governance...........................................................................................................................14
Business Decision Tools and Techniques..................................................................................14
Data Security.............................................................................................................................15
Risk Assessment........................................................................................................................15
Recommendation...........................................................................................................................18
Advantages................................................................................................................................18
Disadvantages............................................................................................................................18
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
Telstra Crowdsupport. (2018), says that Telstra Corporation Ltd. is one of the largest
telecommunication companies in Australia They deal in building and operating
telecommunication networks and marketing mobile, voice services and internet services. The
Telstra Corporation had been depending on their modular physical presence and a mere web
presence on the internet to deal with their customers and extend their business contexts.
However, they realized the need for adapting to the mobile application framework to further
extend their services to the people. This report aims at clinically highlighting the case study
relating to the adaptation of digital mobile-electronic means for accommodating, enhancing
business processes of the Telstra organization. The Doing Ethics technique shall be used in order
to evaluate the ethical concerns that may revolve around the digitalization of Telstra (Harcourt
and Sargeant 2012). Furthermore, the ACS code of ethics framework shall be utilized to throw
more light on the respective matters. Furthermore, in the sections that follow, the ethical
consequences of adapting to the mobile platform shall be discussed with keen attention towards
the IT governance and risk assessment methodologies. Finally recommendations are to be made
by highlighting the pros and cons of this new venture.
Telstra Digital background
In 2010, they adapted to the mobile and tabular platforms to bring their services into the
palms of the millions of customers from all over. The company has connected to more than 16
Million mobile and tablet users with the rest of the world. Telstra recognized that both
employees and customers engaged with them over the website every day, asking to have their
problems resolved or queries answered. They also used the web system in order to share their
views and experiences with Telstra's services and products. Gradually, their customers were

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expecting and deserving the same level of authenticity from interactions in digital environments
as they traditionally were offered in the offline world. They recognized the need to create a
Digital CX experience. They wanted this business modification to be brought into effect as soon
as possible. The goals of this campaign included the digitization of their customer care services.
The 24*7 support system on the mobile application seemed like a step forward for the company
in their aim to achieve a respectable position before their customers. Their CrowdSupport
community was powered by Lithium, which enable the customers to review and comment about
the products and services provided by Telstra but not necessarily with the executives from
Telstra (Cater-Steel et al. 2017).
However, owing to the many changes that the business process at Telstra had to go
through, several ethical queries may turn up at their door step. Below the Doing Ethics
Technique shall be utilized to analyze the possible ethical considerations of the mobile
application and the crowd-support system of Telstra.
Features of the Telstra 24*7 application
Before elaborating on the ethical situation of adapting to the application service system,
the features that the mobile application provides to its users and customers must be properly
Users are allowed to create their Telstra account on the application and then gain access to
number of important features. On logging into their respective account, the users allowed to
check their estimated data usage of their eligible services. They can also view and pay bills
online through the application and would also allow them to download a softcopy of their bills.
Furthermore, the application allows their customers to view and buy from their listings of calling
packs, data packs and many more. However, one of the main attractions of the application
includes the 24*7 customer service support (ENVIRONEXUS and AUCKLAND 2016).

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Doing Ethics Technique
This technique helps to identify the engrossed ethical risks within a project and
accordingly allows to sort ways out of it (Coghlan and Brannick 2014).
What is going on?
As mentioned before, the Telstra Corporation modified their business process from
having only offline branches of stores around the nation. Their business model was then
switched to have an e-commerce framework as well. After integrating the mobile application into
their business model a lot of considerations had to be made in order to make the new business
model feasible. This implementations include the integration of the existing business model with
room for IT implications that could fit in the use of mobile applications and other electronic
mediums to promote, reach out to and support their customers and employees from all around the
globe. However, the assignment of information technology in a business process brings along
several ethical questions that must be answered to get a clear picture of the whole scenario.
Customers have been doubting the authenticity of the services that they are being provided
online, they have been doubting the security features as well (Chen and Zhao 2012).
What are the facts?
It is presumed that lots of data and security breach threats may be encountered in the
process (Daya 2013). It is certainly presumable that almost any Information technology system
faces these problems. Questions can be raised against the integrity of the company in their
policies of the storing and handling of data. There are several scopes in the field of information
technology where amateurs can doubt the trust that they levy onto their reliant companies. To
realize the facts in details, it is necessary to dive deep into the core of the ethical issues that are

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closely related to the management of data and information using technological means, mainly
(Chambers 2017). People may also be doubting the authenticity of the data that they are getting
from the online sources through the application. Should they buy an offer online or should they
wait for a meet-up chance, creates a strong dilemma within the business forum. The online
payment method is another field that needs to be stressed upon to clear out customer doubts.
What are the issues?
As stated earlier, several issues can be identified and highlighted when a company makes
the wish to switch onto a completely online solution thorough the likes of a mobile/tabular
application. There are several technical, social and ethical issues that can be addressed under this
section. The technical issues that can be highlighted include programming flaws in the
development of the application. The designing flaws can also be considered to be an issue if the
architecture of the application is not well planned before implementation (Ensmenger 2012). A
newly developed application may crash on several instances, which is considered as a huge flaw
in the technical aspects of a developed application. The compatibility of the mobile application is
also a huge concern. With the advent of technology, comes more complexity into every field of
implementation. This can be a challenge for amateur users. They need to have proper guidance
of using internet accessed applications otherwise silly errors may come up that can cause them to
uninstall the application and gradually lose faith over the service. Social issues may include
advertising flaws within the system. The adverts that are featured in the application may be
socially unacceptable in certain sections of the society. However, speaking of the ethical issues a
huge list can be presented. People may question the authenticity of the company’s data keeping
system. The company needs to be prepared to handle such situations. They need to figure out
ways to make their customers to bestow their trust and yet then not give away too much of the

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company’s information. The situations where the users make the payment but due to technical
flaws, the company does not receive any such confirmation, an ethical issue arises. The customer
service needs to deal with this situation. Details on these issues will be discussed in a later
section.
Who are affected?
From the above listing of the possible ethical and non-ethical issues, it can be concluded
that there will be varied severity of effects on the various stakeholders of the project. To carry on
with this analysis, the stakeholders for the project must be recognized. The company CEO and
Board of Directors form the most important part of the group of the internal stakeholders. The
Management team, the Engineers team and the customer service team forms a crucial organ of
the secondary internal stakeholders alongside the representatives from the Application
Development Company. Telstra Crowdsupport. (2018) explains that the sales team for Telstra
and the 3rd party cloud service providers and the online payment gateway company can be termed
as the secondary part of the external stakeholder group while considering the customers as the
primary external stakeholders. It is generally predictable that every flaw in the system, be it
technical or ethical is somehow or the other going to affect almost every entity of the stakeholder
map especially them from the internal stack. However, the severity of the effects may vary
depending on the indulgence of the individual. Telstra’s business process would be hindered if
there are technical issues with the system. This will affect all the internal stakeholders and the
customers. The internal stakeholders will have to work their hearts out in order to fix the issue as
soon as possible and bring the system live, while it is their daily business proceedings at steak.
On the other hand, the customers will not be able to gain quick access to their Telstra account if
the server is down for crashes or fixes. The Primary Internal Stakeholders and also the secondary

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external stakeholders through the likes of the cloud service providers shall have to face questions
if they cannot get their customers to trust them with their data policies.
Ethical Issues and Implications
First and foremost what needs to be considered is that has Telstra done it just because
they wanted to match up in the race with their competitors. This is one of the gravest ethical
consideration that must be analyzed primarily. Detailed studies about Telstra reveal that they
were extremely eager to enroll themselves as one of the top companies in Deloitte’s “Short fuse,
big bang” quadrant of the Digital distribution map. In such cases it is presumable that there was
obviously a sense a haste among the management and the development team in order to release
the application as soon as possible (Chen and Zhao 2012). This results in programming flaws
that can risk the data of millions of users from all around the world. If a software product is
launched without ample testing of the security features, it is made open to tons of cyber threats
like hacking, jamming, spamming and many more (Lord 2013). This will degrade the quality of
the product and may also lead in compromising important customer information. It would be
interesting to figure out how the company wishes to handle ethical dilemmas regarding the
display of offers in their application. It is presumed that the company will provide special offers
for the application users. However, it is a well-known fact that all the customers of Telstra will
not have access to high-end mobile phones or internet connections. This will void them off the
chances to grab the valid offers that others are availing. This is a certain ethical issue where the
company must decide if they wish to disappoint their existing customers in order to race for the
digital market.
The leakage of confidential customer records are often seen to be leaked out or sold to
other third party data science companies in exchange of money. This has over the past decade

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increased tremendously and has forced the general public to fade their trust over the Information
Technology systems while in the quest of their data protection (Ren, Wang and Wang 2012).
Under the CrowdSupport wing of the application, an ethical issue that might affect the
customer commotion level is poor online customer service. Being run on a server, it is
suggestible that whenever the client wishes to gain the online support, there might be some
network or technical flaw that might prevent the messages from being sent or may cause delay
the admin’s reply. This would affect the customer satisfaction level of the service and would
inherently degrade the ratings of the support-chat admin. In the meantime, their performance will
be judged by the company on the basis of such ratings, in which they have no indulgence at all.
This certainly raises a massive question of miscommunicated ethics.
What can be done?
Telstra would require to look into the matter with more emphasis. They would require to
analyze all the above mentioned ethical issues and try solving them with possible
recommendations. The company must try to take such matters seriously in order to even out their
business process over both the physical presence of the business and the online presence through
the application. The organization must also take proper actions to ensure that the data and
information of their clients are kept secured and their customer service is always available with
prompt and helpful service (Ess 2013).
What are the options?
To figure out the ethical issues and sort them out accordingly, it is necessary for the
company to may be try to frame a board of members who will look after such matters. Another
option that can help in the defense of decreasing ratings of the customer support or sales team

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would be to provide the customers with different options to rate, where they can opt separate
rating for the operations, sales, and support and so on, separately.
Which is the best option and why?
To frame a board of members whose job will be to analyze all-round ethical
considerations and dealing with them individually, will be a better option. This team might
consist of a group of higher level managers from the company alongside the HR manager and
associative. They will be the best people who can take prompt decisions on what should be done
and whether the customer activities are enough justified. They can review the customer
feedbacks and reveal sales or support team employees off the pressure of wrongly made
accusations or poor ratings. This will not only save the employee off a probable
miscommunication but will also relief the company off a downpour.
The ACS Code of Ethics
The primacy of public interest
The general public’s interest should always be kept at the highest concern for any
business organization. It is necessary for the application to avert such situations where the
company’s objective overshadows the application’s aim to help the customers with the ease of
telecommunication access. The problems due to unethical adverts or the difficulty of the
customers to reach the customer service may be camped under this section.
Enhancement of the quality of life
It must be realized that the purpose of the application is to enhance the quality of the way
Telstra deals with their customers. Therefore, all points that may overshadow the business a bit