This thesis analyses the development of telecommunications universal service in relation to people with disabilities and national policy making in Australia from 1975 to the end of 1997. The history of public policy development in telecommunications universal service obligations is analysed to gain an understanding of how different political, scientific, social symbolic and material contexts have influenced policy. It is argued that social symbolic and material contexts mutually constitute telecommunications policy. Social symbolic influences, such as charity and 'rights' discourses of disability, have framed telecommunications policy toward people with disabilities. Material contexts, including changing technological, economic and legislative environments, have created favourable conditions for either charity or 'rights' models of disability, and have dominated related policy arenas at various times. The study demonstrates that policy arenas influenced by certain discourses, may also lead to changes within the material environments. The influence of community interest groups is also analysed to investigate their effect on telecommunications policy. Associated with interest group influence on telecommunications policy is a joint consultative process initiated by Telstra and consumer groups in 1988. The value of the consultative process to people with disabilities is evaluated. A key focus of this study is the consideration given by policy makers to the interests of people with a disability in the continuing debate on access and equity issues in relation to telecommunications services for all Australians. A turning-point in telecommunications policy for people with disabilities occurred in 1995, when various people with a disability made a successful complaint against Telstra to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). The outcome forced a major change of policy in telecommunications service delivery and benefited many who have disabilities. The HREOC inquiry is a useful case study which indicates the significance of the mutually constitutive effect on policy stemming from the dynamic interaction of social symbolic environments and material conditions. The research revealed that policy in this area may be described as a pluralist, non-linear process. Government and Telstra policy makers have found telecommunications policy a problematic area to reconcile with universal service obligations.

A great deal of attention has been devoted by researchers to examine different aspects of the relationship between marketing orientation (MO) and competitive advantage, mostly within causal relationship style research. However, the mechanisms and intermediate variables underlying this relationship remain vague and poorly investigated. Drawing upon mixed method research utilising qualitative and quantitative techniques, this study aims to offer further insight into this relationship within Jordan’s telecommunications market, focusing on customer satisfaction and customer retention as two prominent performance indicators in this market. Hence, this research set out to investigate the mechanisms and interrelationships that link marketing orientation and organisational performance, the issue that seems to be highly justified in the matured and competitive market where consumers have more choices, switching cost are decreasing and retention of the market base is becoming more and more difficult. As a case study undertaken in Jordan’s telecommunications market, the main four telecommunications operators in the market were represented. Quantitative data analysis was used to determine the variations between the main operators in the market regarding their adopted levels of marketing orientation. On the other hand, the qualitative technique - namely semi-structured interviews - represents the main instrument the study utilises to gain an in-depth insight into the relationship between marketing orientation (MO) and organisational performance. This qualitative tool enabled the researcher to construct a rich picture of the mechanisms and ways by which firms manage the different attitudinal dimensions of customer satisfaction and the behavioural dimensions of customer retention. Results of the research confirm significant variations between high- and low-marketing orientation telecommunications operators with regard to the approaches, drivers and mechanisms by which firms manage their capabilities to achieve customer satisfaction and customer retention. Thus, two different patterns were indicated which were associated with the adopted level of marketing orientation of these firms. The most important finding to come out of the research was that genuine marketing orientation is an integrated attitudinal-behavioural perspective. Hence, any deficiencies or even ignoring of any aspect will weaken a firm’s overall value creation capability, the main mission of the marketing-oriented firm. In addition, internal culture emerged as a critical success factor for marketing-oriented firms. It serves as the glue that ensures a firm’s values are adhered to, and also allows a clearer understanding of a firm’s vision and mission, which in turn resulted in the fact that these firms are more capable to translate their attitudes into practice on the ground. Moreover, the role of marketing orientation was substantial as it worked as a supportive environment that stimulates a firm’s capabilities to integrate and coordinate its resources and competencies into new ones in such a way as to enhance its overall performance as well as to achieve congruence with the changing business environment. The importance of this research stems from its nature and approach in studying the relationship between marketing orientation and organisational performance. The main issue being evaluated is different from the bulk of marketing orientation works that have focused on examining different aspects of marketing orientation and organisational performance within causal relationship-style research, and mostly within a short-run view. In contrast, this study is concerned with gaining in-depth understanding of this relationship through evaluating its mechanisms and interrelationships, the aspect that was treated as a black box in prior research.

User involvement has, during recent years, become something of a mantra among product development managers. However, the existing literature has not much to say about how the individual user contributes to product innovation and whether her or his contribution is valuable.  The thesis attempts to fill this gap in knowledge by reporting experiments in which ordinary users are asked to suggest new services that their mobile telephones could deliver. The originality, user value, and the feasibility of their suggestions are then compared to the suggestions of professional product designers. On the whole, the users contribute ideas that are more original, and that could result in services of higher user value than the professionals.  Exactly how the users are involved matters for the outcome of their involvement. Two different approaches to involving users are identified, Guided Users and Pioneering Users. The Guided User approach seems to be preferable when stepwise refinement of an existing service is desired.  The Pioneering User approach is better suited to supporting radical innovation. The conclusion is that firms must adapt their processes of developing new products in order to realise the full potential of user involvement. / Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2003

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2003. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.

El presente trabajo de investigación se llevó a cabo en la idea de formular propuestas de mejora para la reducción del TCO por atención de la gestión de flotas de una empresa que brinda servicio a las principales empresas de telecomunicaciones. Actualmente, el costo de esta gestión representa el 42% del total de costos de la compañía, por tanto, representa una oportunidad importante para iniciar un análisis de su TCO e identificar potenciales de ahorro. Esta empresa tiene como reto convertirse en el proveedor de servicios de red de referencia para las empresas de comunicaciones y energía de manera rentable, por este motivo una adecuada gestión de sus costos es el camino para ser competitivos. El problema identificado radica en el no cumplimiento de los presupuestos asignados a la gestión de flotas, siendo este presupuesto repartido entre todas sus sedes. El impacto negativo de esta situación radica en sobrecostos para la organización y posibles pérdidas de clientes debido a no poder ofertar precios competitivos en las licitaciones que participa. Para resolver la problemática, el trabajo de investigación se compone de cinco capítulos: El primero se centra en la definición del problema y la justificación de por qué es necesario el análisis de la presente. En el segundo capítulo, se presenta los conceptos relacionados al TCO y gestión de flotas, así como de herramientas lean que serán la base para formular las propuestas tanto para reducción de TCO e incremento de atenciones; adicionalmente el estado del arte con investigaciones académicas relacionadas al tema. En el tercer capítulo, se describe la situación actual de la gestión de flota relacionado al TCO y nivel de atenciones, se analiza y delimita la sede y componentes del costo para mejora, además de identificar las causas que originan los problemas. Con la identificación de las causas, en el cuarto capítulo, se procede a desarrollar la propuesta de mejora apoyada en herramientas Lean, para finalmente terminar con los cálculos de beneficios esperados y principalmente el impacto en el TCO y presupuesto actual de la gestión. Por último, en el capítulo quinto se muestran las conclusiones y recomendaciones finales para la implementación. El trabajo realizado espera como resultado final la reducción en el TCO por atención y el cumplimiento de los presupuestos asignados de la gestión de flotas, optimizando la gestión de costos de la compañía y contribuir de manera positiva incrementando las posibilidades de abrir nuevos negocios ofreciendo precios competitivos en las licitaciones. / This research work was carried out with the idea of ​​formulating improvement proposals for the reduction of the TCO for fleet management by attention of a company that provides service to the main telecommunications companies. Currently, the cost of this management represents 42% of the company's total costs, therefore, it represents an important opportunity to start an analysis of its TCO and identify potential savings. The challenge of this company is to become the reference network service provider for communications and energy companies in a profitable manner, for this reason an adequate management of their costs is the way to be competitive. The problem identified is about the non-compliance with the budgets assigned to fleet management, this budget being distributed among all its offices. The negative impact of this situation generates over costs for the organization and possible loss of customers due to not being able to offer competitive prices in the tenders it participates. To solve the problem, the thesis is divided in five chapters: The first focuses on the definition of the problem and the justification of why the analysis of this thesis is necessary. In the second chapter, the concepts related to TCO and fleet management are presented, as well as lean tools that will be the basis for formulating proposals for both reductions of TCO and increase of attentions; additionally, the state of the art with academic research related to the topic. In the third chapter, the current situation of fleet management related to the TCO and level of attentions are described, the office and the cost components for improvement are analyzed and defined, in addition to identifying the causes that originate the problems. With the identification of the causes, in the fourth chapter, we proceed to develop the improvement proposal supported by Lean tools, to finally finish with the calculations of expected benefits and mainly the impact on the TCO and current management budget. Finally, the fifth chapter shows the final conclusions and recommendations for implementation. The work performed expects as a final result the reduction in the TCO by attention and compliance with the assigned budgets of fleet management, optimizing the company's cost management and contributing positively by increasing the possibilities of opening new businesses by offering competitive prices in tenders. / Trabajo de investigación

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:31:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre David Medeiros-1.pdf: 2241104 bytes, checksum: 2474b0cdd4a080e937967b0552c2b175 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-06-23 / The telecommunications services quality, as well as several other products in the telecommunications area, is strongly linked to the suppliers services levels quality. These services levels can, however, be measured andevaluated by objective criteria and from a service level agreement between service supplier and customer, this agreement is called SLA. In this study a methodology is proposed for the elaboration of the SLA documentation model, that takes care the business model necessity.This methodology is structuralized in the politics and processes of service quality described by the international norms and standards like Management Forum, ITU, IETF and ITIL. The modeling of the SLA documentation was applied in a practical case of multi-service networks, based in IP networks, resulting in the system specification of the quality service level to be contracted with services supplier. The application of this methodology resulted in improvements for both sides, regarding the reduction in operational costs, the correction of processes and procedures, and a high reliability and transparency in the commercial relation. / A qualidade dos servi?os de telecomunica??es, assim como a de v?rios outros produtos da ?rea de telecomunica??es, est? fortemente ligada aos n?veis de qualidade de servi?os prestados pelos fornecedores. Esses n?veis de servi?os podem, no entanto, ser medidos e avaliados por meio de fatores e crit?rios objetivos, a partir de um N?vel de Servi?o acordado entre o provedor do servi?o e o cliente, chamado de SLA. Neste estudo ? proposta uma metodologia para elabora??o de modelo de documenta??o SLA. Essa metodologia est? estruturada na pol?tica e nos processos de qualidade de servi?o descritos nas normas e padr?es internacionais do TeleManagement Forum, ITU ,IETF e ITIL. A modelagem da documenta??o SLA foi aplicada em um caso pr?tico de rede de multiservi?os, baseada em redes IP, resultando na especifica??o do sistema de n?vel de qualidade de servi?o a ser contratado do provedor de servi?os. Na aplica??o dessa metodologia obteve-se ganhos para ambos os lados, com refer?ncia a redu??o de custo operacional, na corre??o de processos e procedimentos e uma alta confiabilidade e transpar?ncia na rela??o comercial.

[pt] No cenário atual do setor de telecomunicações, percebe-se uma tendência crescente em direção ao uso de sistemas de comunicação que permitam a criação rápida e de baixo custo de serviços. Na busca por arquiteturas de rede que respondam a essa tendência, vários grupos têm centrado seus esforços em pesquisas na área de redes programáveis. O surgimento da tecnologia de processamento de rede no mercado de equipamentos de telecomunicações abriu ainda maior espaço para pesquisas nessa área. Nesse contexto, é imprescindível que os processos de criação de serviços sejam bem estruturados e, o quanto possível, sistemáticos. Esta tese, inserida em um projeto desenvolvido no Laboratório TeleMídia da PUC-Rio, adota uma abordagem de criação de serviços em que técnicas de Arquitetura de Software e de Desenvolvimento Baseado em Componentes são aplicadas consistentemente e de modo ubíquo, desde especificações de alto nível de serviços até a implementação de software básico em unidades programáveis de processamento de rede. Os objetivos principais são expressar a adaptabilidade de múltiplos aspectos nesses serviços e, simultaneamente, reduzir a sobrecarga cognitiva em projetistas e programadores, decorrente dessa multiplicidade de aspectos. Para isso, foi desenvolvida uma linguagem de especificação baseada em XML, chamada Lindax, que permite descrever arquiteturalmente diversos aspectos de sistemas de comunicação - por meio de um arcabouço sintático único para DSLs - e restrições de adaptação em cada aspecto particular - por meio de estruturas de estilos arquiteturais. Complementando o trabalho, um conjunto de ferramentas de manipulação de descrições arquiteturais em LindaX é definido. Essas ferramentas permitem o refinamento para diferentes linguagens formais ou a síntese de configurações e mecanismos de controle de adaptações para diversas plataformas. / [en] It is increasingly noticeable, in the current telecommunications market, a trend towards using communication systems that allow rapid and cheap deployment of new services. In pursuit of network architectures that keep up with such trend, significant research has been carried out on programmable networks. This field is set to gain further impetus from developments in network processor-based equipment. In this context, it is crucial that service creation processes be well structured and, as far as possible, systematic. This thesis, which is part of an ongoing project at the TeleMídia Laboratory, PUC-Rio, adopts a service creation approach in which techniques from Software Architecture and Component-Based Software Development are uniformly and ubiquitously applied at all levels of a communication system, ranging from high- level service specifications to low-level software implementation running in network processors. The main aim is to express adaptibility in cross-cutting service aspects and, meanwhile, cut down on the cognitive overhead usually imposed upon designers and programmers due to such multiplicity of concerns. For the sake of the aforementioned aim, an XML-based specification language, called LindaX, has been developed. Such language allows various system aspects to be architecturally described - by means of a single syntactic framework for DSLs - as well as adaptable in a constrained way - through style structures. Complementing the work, a toolset for handling LindaX architecture descriptions has been defined, which allows their refinement to different formal languages or their synthesis onto system configurations and adaptation controlling mechanisms for diverse platforms.