Virtual Enterprise Collaborative Processes

Question: Discuss about the Virtual Enterprise Collaborative Processes. Answer: Introduction Insurance is one of the the most relevant things human beings are in need of in this modern era. There are several insurance broker organizations that have been established who aid the individuals as well as the various organizations in recommending the products that will protect their assets from any accidents. The availability of so many products confuses the customers to understand the product that is suitable to them(Alexander 2013). Therefore, the customers take help of insurance broker firms who support the customers in understanding their needs and recommending and helping them to purchase the appropriate insurance product that will be ideal for them. The current paper concentrates on Saudi Brokers Company Ltd, an insurance broking agency located in Al Khobar Saudi Arabia. The company has the main aim of broking brokerage services to the customers seeking for an insurance product and on behalf of their services receives a brokerage fee. It is a financial institution aiming to give guidance to the insurance purchasing customers regarding the product that is ideally suitable for them to protect their life and other valuable assets(Saudi Brokers Company 2017). It is vital to identify the core and the non-core competencies of the firm as it will be helpful in analysing the factors and then undertake a brief discussion so that the operations of the firm is properly known and recommendations can be gathered that will up lift the activities of the firm and will increase their market share. Core and Non-Core Competencies It is seen that the firms manoeuvre their way through the tough times and it is vital for Saudi Brokers Company Ltd with recognising and leveraging the operations that delivers the accurate brand differentiation that helps to gain the completive edge and the value of the firm that are undeniable. The core competencies are the main functions to the operations and the non-core competencies are regarded as the peripheral, incidental and sometimes regarded as an expensive distraction to the firm(Cummins Weiss 2014). It is seen for decades that the Saudi Brokers Company have been diversifying themselves of the non-core operations and activities so that they are able to concentrate on the activities that will aid the core business strategy of Saudi Brokers Company. . It is seen that more and more the management of the organization are casting a severe outlook towards their end processes to analyse the most suitable in-house activities and what an external provider can undertake to handle the tasks more effectively and cost-efficiently. One of the core regions that requires to be considered by the firm is the Accounting and Finance Department(Shamsuzzoha et al., 2017). Decision Making Authority Saudi Brokers Company is on the look out to increase their market share by making use of innovative and intelligent techniques that are suitable for the firm. Insurance broking organizations are available in plenty in the Saudi Arabian market and therefore there is a need for the firm to undertake various decisions that will be helpful to the firm. Decision making is an important function for efficient operations of the firm. It is seen that Saudi Brokers Company has an effective decision making authority as the management of the firm have proper knowledge about the market and the operations of their competitors and therefore have the ability to change their decisions according to the changes in the demand in the market(Bansal 2016). It is seen that the management evaluates the external and the internal operations of the firm comprehensively and thereafter undertakes decisions if deemed necessary. Saudi Brokers Company are in the opinion of analysing their business operations from time to time in order to stay ahead of their competitors. The company evaluates their daily operations and with the help of the customer feedback, and accordingly can understand the problems so that they can rectify the problems with ease. Saudi Brokers Company provides guidance to their clients with respect to their decisions regarding purchasing their insurance products and actions without having a direct impact on the authority. Saudi Brokers Company are in the opinion of undertaking changes according to the transformations in the market and the changes in the taste and preferences of the consumers. As discussed above, there are a lot of insurance broking organizations and therefore it is vital that Saudi Brokers Company initiates the changes first in order to stay ahead in the market. The management and the entrepreneurs of the firm undertake essential changes in the shift of the mindsets and thereby adopt transformations in the attitude and behaviour of the employees and the organization and thereby increasing better quality of service. Saudi Brokers Company builds consensus in order to rectify the struggles regarding the power and solves the resistance to transform and establish the sense of trust and rapport between the employees and the customers. The most important competency of Saudi Brokers Company is their knowledge about the environment of the business and the key problems and the obligations of the broking firm. The firm has an extensive communication structure and they take the initiative of interacting with their clients and thereby gaining knowledge about the problems that can be eliminated. The company even interacts with their employees and discovers way to improve the structure of the business with the help of diplomacy and management expertise. Risk Management is one of the most vital activities that every firm looks into so that they can reduce their losses and keep a close eye on the activities of the firm and thereby make necessary changes to restrict any losses. Saudi Brokers Company undertakes various risk management strategies like monitoring the services they provide to their customers and handling the grievances of the consumers effectively so that the customers are satisfied(Minja 2016). The firm even analyses the market on a daily basis and changes their business strategy accordingly when they see any risk in the economy. The company even looks into the areas like accounts receivable so that loss due to bad debt can be minimized. The vision of the firm is one of the vital core competency that is useful for the progress of the organization in the Saudi Arabian market. The setup of a vision is essential so that the company can have an objective for their future that can drive them initiate their operations(Rauch et al., 2016). The vision of Saudi Brokers Company is to provide extensive broking services to the customers and to increase their customer base so that they can become the leaders in the insurance broking organization and capture a strong market share. The organizations when staring their business primarily constructs their strategy to the firm can properly operate their business with the help of a definite path and direction so that discrepancies and faulty operations are eliminated. Saudi Brokers Company have a constructive strategy and that is to examine the market carefully on a frequent basis. The company looks gain more knowledge about the various insurance products so that they can provide advice to their customers(Karimi 2014). The company organizes various promotional and marketing strategies in order to attract potential customers within their customer base. The company is aware of all the new products that are being introduced in the market and therefore they can stay updated with the market thereby attracting new customers. The company making use of the constructive strategy expands their business and looks to become the leader in the insurance broking market in Saudi Arabia and later globally(LandBusatlija 2016). Saudi Brokers Company with the help of their efficient management tries to construct polices that will develop the operations of the business. The company frames their polices looking at the needs of the management and the employees so that all the people who are working connected with the firm internally and externally are satisfied and fraudulent activities can be eliminated within the firm(Jaffar et al., 2014). The policies are flexible in nature and according to the changes in the economy and the demand on the market, the organization transforms their policies keeping the core policies intact. The proper construction of the policies leads to effective operational activities of the firm. Non-Core Competency There are various non-core competencies that are available in the business and these competencies even have an effect on the operations of the business. The core competencies are discussed below: saudi Brokers Company is one of the most successful insurance broking organization and it is seen that the reason behind their growth in the market is mainly due to their extensive researches. The company undertakes frequent researches to understand the market and the needs of the consumers. The research is essential as it would lead to proper construction of their strategies thereby improving the advisory services to their customers(Jarzabkowski et al., 2014). The company looks to understand the changing trends in the market so that they can initiate changes within their working structure and can improve the services of the organization. The company is always on the look for development and therefore tries to improve their business by making changes in their policies. The company operates their business by providing advisory services to their customers and therefore, the organization undertakes various analytics to understand the pattern of the information that is obtained by the organization. The information that are gathered by the company is useful for their business process and thus the information is analysed with the help of analytical tools to segregate the information into different segments so that the knowledge hidden within the information can be studied properly and then can be conveyed accordingly so that accurate business decisions can be undertaken(Veenendaal Kearney 2014). The process of analytics is undertaken by Saudi Brokers Company so that the pattern of the information can be understood and accordingly decisions can be taken to improve the function of their business. Saudi Brokers Company looks to improve their business with the help of strategies that are efficient and accurate. The decisions that are taken by the organization are knowledge driven as the management initiates decisions accordingly. It is important that the management has knowledge about the policies and strategies that are being implemented so that in case of discrepancies the management can solve the problems effectively(Ondura 2014). This is a good strategy as taking a decisions only by looking at the market deviations can be faulty and can lead to downfall for the company. Analysis of the Competencies that can be outsourced Saudi Brokers Company implements the outsourcing strategy when the limit of the operational activity is hit. The company does not want to invest more capital to appoint new staffs, hardware and office space to handle the customer relationships and operational activities. The various competencies that are outsourced are discussed below: Customer relationship is one of the most effective way to communicate with the customers and handle their discrepancies in order to improve the operations of the business. The management of customers are given out to the third party firms who on behalf of the insurance broking organization receives the information and complaints of the customers and conveys the information to the organization. In some cases, some problems are even handled by the customer care executives over phone and thereby improving the service of the firm. These services are mainly given out to various call centres, who on behalf of the company communicates with the customers(Padmapriya 2014). Saudi Brokers Company being a brokerage company even has the duty of collecting the insurance premiums from the customers and handle the claims processing services. Due to a heavy customer base, the company appoints various agencies who are in charge of collecting the premiums from the customers. The employees of the organization are burdened with various tasks and therefore it is difficult for them to communicate with the customers (Gmez et al., 2017). These agencies collect the premium from the customers thereby reducing the time of the customers to stand in the queue and help the company to receive the payments. Impact on the Clients The process of outsourcing helps Saudi Brokers Company to reduce their burden of work. However, the process of outsourcing has positive and negative impacts on the consumers. The impacts are discussed as follows: The introduction of outsourcing helps the clients to reduce their burden of work as now they do not need to go to the office of the insurance organization in order to pay the premium of their products and even during the application claims. The executives on behalf of the organization reaches the clients in their respective addresses collects the payments and even accepts the applications of any claims. The introduction of online and telephonic customer relationship management even helps the clients as now they can complain their problem over telephone or through online services thereby reducing their time wastage. There are certain negative impacts as well. It is seen that the executives from the third party are not concerned about the brand image of the organization and therefore, they do not provide efficient services. There may be lag in the payment process and it is seen that in case of complaints through the customer care executives, the complaints may not be communicated to the company properly (Brophy 2015). There are instances where the information is not communicated accurately and proper measures are not taken to solve the problem. Recommendations There are various scopes of improvements within the operational structure of the Saudi Brokers Company. The major improvements that can be seen is mainly with the functions that are performed through outsourcing. The company requires to monitor the responsibilities performed by the third party agencies from time to time and even requires to examine their activities so that a clear idea can be obtained regarding the faults that are seen in the service and thereby rectify them. The organization even needs to keep track of the all the complaints that are received in a day and even in a month and the time taken to resolve the problem. The conversations of the clients with the executives is essential to be recorded so that the proper idea can be achieved about the behaviour shown by the executives and to discover that the suggestion given by them are accurate. The recording of these conversations acts as a record file that can be used up when deemed necessary. It is the duty of the firm to communicate with their clients from time to time so that their suggestions can be obtained and therefore it is essential to construct feedback forms that requires to be given to their clients to find out what the clients feel about their services and what actions can be taken in various departments of the company in order to improve the services of the organization and satisfy the clients with quality and efficient services. Conclusions The conclusion of the paper reveals that there are various core and non-core competencies that are available in the business operations of Saudi Brokers Company and these are the actual activates that supports the firm to reach their organizational goals. The paper even discusses these functions and helps to discover their impact on the organizations. The paper even analyses the various competencies that are outsourced and discovers their impacts on the clients and the organization as a whole. 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