Information Technology Reference
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configuration manager and Trudy McNeal of procurement were giving him
their polite but guarded attention. Nigel Oliver, the infrastructure manager
was sketching some sort of diagram on his pad, although Marcus couldn't
make out whether it related to this meeting or to something else on Nigel's
mind.
He turned towards the other member of the meeting, who was from out-
side his core team. \I'm assuming you already know Edward Faversham, from
the PhoneMob; you must all have had some dealings with him during the
negotiations. He is here to give us his experience of their current services and
processes, and his view of the requirements for the merged system." Faver-
sham shifted nervously and looked round the table, acknowledging the nods
of recognition. \So, let's get down to business. Edward, perhaps you can give
us a quick run-through of the main business units to get us started?"
Faversham flicked the remote control to display a picture of a dishevelled
businessman jumping up and down on his mobile phone. \As you know," he
said, \our mission is to take the hassle out of owning a mobile. We get the
phone xed if it breaks, and we provide a replacement if we can't get it going
again straight away. We have outlets all over Europe, so we can help while
you are travelling and return the repaired phone to you at your home base."
He clicked, and the view changed to a map spattered with dots, although,
Marcus thought, not that many, yet.
\To be honest," Edward said, \our main problem at present is that these
sites are not that well integrated, but so far we have grown from a base where
each local oce franchise did its own thing, and had its own PC-style support,
and we can't grow any more without a proper infrastructure."
He clicked again, revealing a complicated block diagram on the screen,
and pointed to a set of paths highlighted in red. \This," he said, \is the work
scheduling and logistics. That's where there is the main scope for automation.
This other area over here covers the liaison with the handset suppliers, and
at present is mostly person-to-person negotiation; and this is the corporate
relationship management, which is one of the areas we need to put on a much
firmer basis. Down here are the charging and account management processes.
No, it's the logistics that we should concentrate on here, at least initially."
He paused and considered his chart, as if seeing it for the rst time. \I guess
the main difference from what you are used to is the complexity of the data
management involved."
Eleanor interrupted. \What's the problem?" she asked sharply. \It looks
simple enough." \Oh no," he said, \far from it. Think about the investment a
user has in the content of his mobile phone. The SIM is bound to the number,
and can be swapped, but the contact lists and the message and call history
are needed to keep things moving, and all that data is potentially sensitive."
This brought Nigel in. \So your service engineers have access to sensitive
customer data? Isn't that a security problem?"
