Outsourcing Strategies and Productivity at Vodafone Australia

This report examines the effects of outsourcing on the productivity of Vodafone Australia, a telecom company, within the context of global business trends. The project aims to evaluate how outsourcing operational activities and customer care services impact the company's performance. It incorporates a literature review discussing both advantages, such as cost reduction and increased innovation, and disadvantages, including potential job losses and quality control challenges. The research employs qualitative methods, including interviews with Vodafone managers, and considers quantitative data to assess the relationship between outsourcing and productivity. The study also addresses research questions concerning the level of increased productivity associated with outsourcing and the methods for maintaining quality in outsourced business functions, ultimately providing recommendations for improving Vodafone's outsourcing strategies. Desklib provides access to similar reports and solved assignments for students.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
Project objective..................................................................................................................4
Project scope........................................................................................................................4
Literature Review................................................................................................................5
Research Questions/Hypothesis...........................................................................................8
Research Design and Methodology (data collection)..........................................................9
Qualitative research.........................................................................................................9
Quantitative research methods.........................................................................................9
Research Limitations.........................................................................................................10
Research plan (time table).................................................................................................11
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................13
References..........................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
Outsourcing is an essential element of international business, which forms an important
aspect of economic globalization. With the help of outsourcing business process, it is possible to
inherit number of specializations, which increases the working ability of an organization. As the
diversity of an organization is increased, it is possible to improve the efficiency level. This can
have a direct impact on the overall productivity of the organization. Due to the increased level of
outsourcing business, it is possible to improve the condition of the international department.
According to Andries and Thorwarth (2014), one of the major aspects of gaining competitive
advantage in the current Global Business scenario is dependent on the level of productivity that
is obtained by an organization. Hence, number of different organizations or industries is
implementing the policy of outsourcing business operation in order to increase their current
productivity for gaining a level of market share and achieve business sustainability. The main
purpose of outsourcing business is to accomplish certain task in the operational department of an
organization from outside agency (Antonioli et al. 2015). The ability of an organization to
incorporate higher level of cultural diversity in the workplace is highly dependent upon their
efficiency in Outsourcing business operations.
The business operators of Australia are providing their input in the global rush related to
outsourcing by proliferating their businesses and including third party service providers. Thereby
the outsourcing of process are providing an opportunity to small organizations so that they can
enhance their productivity. The industry which is utilizing the opportunity to expand their service
throughout Australia is the Business Process Outsourcing or the BPO industry. This industry
serves a multiple operations such as IT services, debt collection, recruitment services, and call
center operations and so on. Through these processes the industry has generated revenue of $32.

3RESEARCH PROPOSAL
In this proposal, the discussion will be based on the telecom company Vodafone Australia and
the service it provides using the outsourcing process.
Project objective
In the given context of the Global Business scenario, where maximum number of
companies are focusing on the Outsourcing business functions, the objective of this current
project is to discuss the effects of outsourcing on enhancing the productivity of the telecom
company. Proper research method will be used in order to gather relevant information related to
outsourcing business functions that can help to evaluate its effect on the quality of the chosen
organization’s performance. The subject will be analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative
form of research method, which will help to evaluate the effects of outsourcing business in the
level of productivity of Vodafone, Australia.
Project scope
The scope of the current research project is to analyze and focus on the positive effects of
outsourcing business functions. This will help to evaluate the ways it enhanced the business
productivity of the telecom industry by outsourcing operational activities, customer care services
and troubleshooting customer problems. The research will also provide proper recommendations
under the conclusion section, which will help to improve the existing outsourcing business
strategies of the chosen organization.
Data will be collected from the relevant sources related to the business project, which
will include the telecom companies that are highly dependent on outsourcing business services.
The limitations and the drawbacks of the given research project will also be discussed under the
current circumstances.

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Literature Review
While discussing the effect of outsourcing in the telecom industry, it should be mentioned
that in this era of competition, the CEOs of different telecom companies are primarily focusing
on reducing their costs, and implement stubbornly diverse workforce so that while increasing
cost of expenditure for expanding process, the cost of operation can be reduced. Malik and
Blumenfeld (2012) determined that BPO or telecommunication industries are able to easily cut
their cost related to such services as their process can easily move for outsourcing by some
smaller and sisterly organizations. The processes such as payroll management, human resource
management, travel and account payables which are similar throughout the world can be easily
outsourced and provided t a smaller company so that these back office jobs can be done properly.
This helps the organization to solve different issues of customers related to billing, reporting,
critical issue solve for customers and branding of the organization through manual interventions.
According to Bakhtiari (2015), outsourcing business is one of the major driving force of
international business in the modern context, which has to achieve specialization and
fragmentation in manufacturing sector. As the business environment in the global scenario is
becoming more complex, it is not possible to achieve high level of efficiency without
implementing talent diversity in the workplace. In other words, it is essential for
telecommunication industries to have diverse range of department in the workforce, which will
help you achieve specialization for innovation in manufacturing and service sector.
Nevertheless, there are several disadvantages of outsourcing in telecommunication. As
mentioned by Liu et al. (2017), one of the major negative aspects of outsourcing business by the
development in the economic aspect is the loss of risk of job loss. As the countries like America
are outsourcing jobs from the Asian regions, the nation is now facing the issue of job crisis. On

5RESEARCH PROPOSAL
the other hand, as the company is unable to improve upon their productivity, they are able to
invest more business expansion, which ultimately helps to improve the overall economic
productivity of the nation. Magelssen et al. (2015), have highlighted and the fact that outsourcing
business can increase the opportunity for fostering innovation at workplace. This is mainly due
to the increase in diversity of trade transactions. However, the positive effects are such that can
bring success in organization’s process. Mamic (2017) determined that using outsourcing in
telecom service, the company can reduce its production cost for service to a great extent. This is
because the third party or cooperative organizations include processes and provides quality
services as per their ability and in cheaper rates. Due to availability of able working staff in less
wages can also be helpful as quality staff can provide customer satisfaction, which ultimately
increases the consumer productivity. Further, using this, the company can expand their service to
location, where it is not possible for the organization to reach. Hence, on contractual part-time
basis as mentioned by Savitz (2013), the telecom company can expand its process.
While discussing the advantages of outsourcing is telecom process, different researchers
determine different positive points in their research articles. While describing the effect of ICT
companies of Qatar, the primary aim of the researchers was to understand the effect of
outsourcing different ICT organizations in Qatar as in that timeframe different smaller SMEs and
private organizations accepted the application of ICT in their process. From the results it was
found outsourcing not only helps by increasing the productivity but also directly impact on the
pricing stagey of the primary organization and the state of employees for the organization. In
other words, it can be said that as organizations are able to provide quality support in a limited
time, they are able to provide the same at much lower cost to the customers. This is directly
related to the concept of increasing the cost effective level of manufacturing (Magelssen et al.

6RESEARCH PROPOSAL
2015). However, Butler and Callahan (2014) argued with the fact that element of cost
effectiveness is not able to determine the ultimate effect of organizational productivity and the
impact on the same on outsourcing. Disturb level of competence formulation can have a serious
effect on the innovation value that is implemented by the organization. The higher level of
outsourcing business operation can have direct impact on the quality of the manufactured
products. Additional factors of quality assessment need to be implemented in order to ensure
interpretation of the telecommunication industry. This is because, as most of the telecom
companies aim to spread their service in foreign countries, it become costly for the organization
as most of the process is transferred from one location to another. Further, there are another
aspect that should be mentioned is the legal challenges that varies across the world. Hence, usage
of an application is one region can vary from the legislation of another region, hence, this is one
of the major issues that can have significant impact on the long-term business sustainability.
Another research was used to explain the reason, for which the outsourcing can be
beneficial in telecommunication businesses around the world. It has been seen in the research of
Wuyts, Rindfleisch and Citrin (2015), that successful customer relations are helpful for an
organization to develop its organizations reputation and reach to an increased number of
customers. The element of customer satisfaction is an important decisive factor in the level of
successful establishment of brand reputation. With the element of outsourcing business function
it is possible for an organization to improve the quality of customer service. This is evident from
the example of Samsung Company, which is currently one of the largest shareholders in
Smartphone segment. As the total number of sales of the company has increased, the
management has decided to provide after sales service from the Outsourcing units. It is therefore
possible for them to look after all type of minor issues that are encountered by the customer

7RESEARCH PROPOSAL
while using their products. From the general evidence that is provided by Scherrer-Rathjeet al.
(2014), it can be said that as with Outsourcing business, the burden of manufacturing product is
being transferred to the third party agents. It is therefore possible for the operational managers to
primary to focus on policy-making process of business. This can help them to bring about
Change management at organizational level, which can help them to provide innovative product
the customer. The Change management is also considered to be an essential element of business
sustainability. In the given context, it is also important to mention the challenge of implementing
Change management at organizational level.
Research Questions/Hypothesis
Research hypothesis
 Outsourcing business functions it is possible to improve the level of organizational
productivity and quality of organizational performance in telecommunication industry.
 Outsourcing business functions can compromise on the quality of business performance
as it is not possible for the company to focus on core business operations in
telecommunication industry
Research questions
 What is the level of increased productivity that is associated with Outsourcing business
functions in telecommunication industry?
 How it is possible for a telecommunication organization to control the quality of business
production and providing quality service to its customers with Outsourcing business?

8RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Design and Methodology (data collection)
Qualitative research
According to Taylor et al. (2015), qualitative research is the naturalistic way of inquiring
the in-depth understanding of a social phenomenon. This method is implemented in academic
research to understand the human factor that is associated with the respective subject. It therefore
focuses on individual opinion on the related subject area.
For the given research work, qualitative method will be applied in order to conduct
interview with the operational manager of Vodafone as it is the chosen organization for the
research proposal. At least two managers will be interviewed from the organization. The sample
size of the organization is selected by non-probable method. On the other hand, the managers of
the organization will be chosen randomly depending upon their ability to communicate with the
investigators. It is also important to set proper questionnaire for the interview in order to collect
optimized form of primary data.
Quantitative research methods
The research instrument used in quantitative research include survey questionnaire which
is framed for high end collection of primary data. In a given case, the sampling size is done on
random basis. Here, from hundreds of workers of the Vodafone organizations are selected, who
will be able to provide essential data related to the subject to the level of productivity that is
increased due to implementation of outsourcing business operations.
The given research work will mainly focus on primary process of Data Collection, which
will be implemented on the basis of survey and interview. It is also important to focus on
secondary data, which will be collected from pastor research work related to Outsourcing

9RESEARCH PROPOSAL
business operations of telecommunication industries. It will be after being possible to highlight
on both positive and negative aspects of outsourcing business unit, which can help the
researchers to provide proper recommendations (Bernard 2017).
Researcher will also select detective research approach, which will help them to evaluate
the existing theory, is related to Outsourcing business operations. It is also possible to implement
the inductive approach, which will help the researchers to formulate new theories in order to deal
with the challenges of Outsourcing business unit under the current Global Business
Environment.
In case of Research Design, the descriptive form will be used in order to make use of
perfect research structure that can be implemented to set up research questionnaire for survey
and interview (Bryman 2015).
Research Limitations
The primary research limitation is due to the time constraints, which will not allow the
investigators to collect sufficient data that is needed to improve the quality of the project. They
also might not get access to proper databases for secondary data collection, as these data are the
private and confidential data of the company and being an international brand Vodafone might
refuse to provide its business and customer related data for primary and secondary data
collection. They can also be limitation in getting appointment with operational managers of the
Vodafone Australia which will prevent them to interview a process of primary data collection.
There are other critical challenges, which include ensuring proper data verification before they
are being published in public domain.

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Research plan (time table)
Main activities
and stages
Week 1 Week 2 to 9 Week 9 to
15
Week 15
to 20
Week
20 23
Week 23 to
25
Week 26
Research of topic
selection

Data Collection 
Planning the
proper layout
 
Reviewing of
existing literature

Research plan 

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Selecting research
technique
  
Gathering
Secondary data
from data sources
 
Data analysis  
Interpretation of
findings

Conclusion and
Recommendations

Project rough
Proposal
