Operations Management

Introduction
sberbankproposition bank management
Operations management is concerned with managing the resourcesthat directly produce the organization’s service or product. The resources willusually consist of people, materials, technology and information but may gowider than this. These resources are brought together by a series of processesso that they are utilized to deliver the primary service or product of theorganization.[1]
The term operations management refers to the direction and controlof the processes that transform inputs into products and services. Broadly interpreted,operations management underlies all functional areas, because processes arefound in all business activities.[2]
According to Professor JaumeRibera Operations Management can be considering as the art andscience of getting things done, i.e., the way organizations produce goods anddeliver services. Everything a customer pays for is the outcome of the job ofoperations managers who organize its production. [3] For example, a laptop purchasedthrough internet, a new book, a financial service, a trip in a bus – all havebeen produced. People who are response for these different kinds of productsand services really manage operations.
Operations and operation management are really important for theorganizations.
For the operations manager, the range of products and services onoffer has to be managed in order to satisfy the mix of volume and variety forcustomers. This is achieved by having appropriate process technology in place,which can deal with customer requirements of volume and variety.[4]
Many organizations are involved in three fundamental activities:[5]
ü Identifying potential customers, seeking to understand their needs,and persuading them to use the product or service
ü Providing the product or service efficiently and effectively
ü Managing the organization’s finances to ensure continuing success.
We can refer to these activities as marketing and operations.Both, in general, should be taken seriously, whatever they are called.Classically, marketing looks to improve service and to offer a great number ofproduct choice to the customer; while operations seeks to improve efficiency bylonger runs of fewer products and by reducing inventories.

1. Description of the company «The Savings Bank of the Russian Federation (Sberbank)».
The Savings Bank of the Russian Federation, or Sberbank, is thelargest bank in Russia. The Bank isa joint stock commercial bank established in 1841 and operated in various formssince then. Today Sberbank is an absolute leader in the Russian banking sector.Sberbank is several times larger than its immediate competitors by its marketposition, assets, capital, financial results and scale of infrastructure. Thescale and stability of the Bank are particularly visible during periods ofinstability in financial markets The SavingsBank is the biggest taker ofdeposits in the country and the key lender to the national economy. Accordingto The Banker magazine, as ofJuly 1, 2009, Sberbank was ranked 38th in the world in terms of Tier 1 capital.
Sberbank has the largest countrywide branch network with 18 regional head offices and more than 19,050 retail outlets with about 265,100 employees.[6]
Among the Bank’s clients are private individuals from all over Russia,companies and enterprises of various ownership structures and sectors of theeconomy, and government agencies.
The mission and core values of Sberbank are to make people’s live better, helping them to fulfill dreams and aspirations.
 
Current ratings assigned to Sberbank by international rating agencies[7]
 
01.01.2010
01.01.2009
Fitch
Moody’s
Fitch
Moody’s Long-term currency rating:
 
 
 
 
Sberbank
BBB
Baa1
BBB+
Baa1
Russian Federation
BBB
Baa1
BBB+
Baa1 Rating of international obligations
 
 
 
 
Borrowings under MTN Program
BBB
A3
BBB+
A2
Russian Eurobonds
BBB
Baa1
BBB+
Baa1
 
Through the use of a balanced credit policy, the Bank helped manycustomers to survive the challenges of a crisis time and contributed tostabilization of Russia’s economy and financial markets. The Bank providedaround RUB 4,000bn worth of loans to domestic corporate customers and over RUB400bn to individuals.
Sberbank is continuously and systematically introducing newproducts and services to meet the needs of its commercial and retail customers.To enhance its domestic operations, Sberbank continued to develop its branchnetwork throughout Russia. The bank has also continued to expandinternationally. Sberbank has built one of the world’s most respected financialinstitutions based on its 165 years of rich history and deep-rooted traditioncombined with world-class experience and expertise. The bank has grown from anetwork of cash savings offices to the largest full-service financialinstitution in Central and Eastern Europe.
The goal is to deliver customer service with maximum efficiency,and to streamline processes through greater standardization and skilful timemanagement. As part of the reform program, the Bank pays particular attentionto training highly professional and proactive staff.
The main customers for Sberbank we can divide for several groups:
Individuals
Small and medium business
Corporate clients
Credit institutionsThe key elements of the Marketing Strategy include:
1. Retail customers
· An integrated offer, basedon cash & payment services
· Intensive development of allservice channels
· A new SPS-based operationalmodel for retail branches.
· To improve customer service
· Building systematic salesskills within all of the Bank’s service channels and building ‘industrial’skills to manage customer relationships and cross-sales as part of targetedcampaigns.
· develop and strengthen itsbrand to change customer perception
 
2. Corporate Customers
 
· Building the bestcountry-wide corporate customer sales service organization system.
· Differentiating theoperations model and value proposition for the three key segments: large,medium and small.
· The product range will bedeveloped to ensure offering a comprehensive product line matching segmentspecific requirements
· Internal processes will bestreamlined through simplification, standardisation and IT development.
The analysis of implementation of the marketing strategy:
Retail Business
· launched a new product (multi-functionalcurrent account) introduced in Moscow and St. Petersburg
· Credit insurance productintroduced.
· Full functionality of Mobileand Internet bank implemented in Moscow, preferential pricing implemented forremote channel services. First stage of the country-wide contact-centerlaunched.
· Setting-up a federal callcenter for contacts
· Launching a line ofinnovative products (e.g. ‘Grant life’)
· Launching a new Internetbank and website. Currently actively developing ATM and payment terminalnetwork
· VIP customer service pilot
Corporate Business
· First version of CustomerRelationship Management and major
corporate customer model
· Product development programfor corporate customers
· Model for working with smallbusinesses
· Specialized products forsmall business segment
Other Work Streams
· New organizational structureintroduced, IT and operational function consolidated
· Upgraded credit monitoringand work out functions
· SPS implemented in severalthousand branches
· First wave of headcount optimization
Sberbank has made the right choice and correctly identified areasfor improvement. Most of the strategic goals are being met in line with thescheduled completion timing. The network of ATMs and payment terminals wasgreatly expanded, and the «Sberbank Online» service is rapidly gaining ground.Sberbank has changed its style and methods of work. Implementing new philosophyof meeting customers’ needs the bank are changing all aspects of the Bank.Sberbank are driven by the desire to help their customers realize theiraspirations and dreams.
3. Description of the company «Computacenter Plc»
Computacenter plc is theparent company of a group of European companies which provide computer servicesto public and private sector customers. Despite the spelling of the word «center»,it is a UK company based in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.[8]
The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is aconstituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Set up by British Harvard graduates Philip Hulme and Peter Ogdenin 1981, who are both still involved in the group’s management.
Computacenter today has over 10,000 employees across Europe andGroup revenues of over £2.5 billion.[9]
The mission of the company
«To deliver IT services and solutions that enables our customersto achieve their goals».[10]
The strategy of the company
«Our strategy is to achieve long-term earnings growth. To helpmeasure our success, we have five key strategic initiatives against which tobenchmark our performance».[11]
The main activity falls into the broad categories:v  Outsourcing:
– Infrastructure management
– Application management
– Service desk
– IT Security
– Managed Hosting
– Dusaster recovery
– Asset management
v  Support and Maintenance:
– IMAC
– Resources on Demand
– Datacenter maintenance
v  Datacentre Technology Optimisation:
– Datacentre Current StateAssessment
– Infrastructure Discovery andAnalysis
– Data Classification andTiering
– Server and StorageVirtualisation
– Server and StorageConsolidation
– Software Optimisation
v  Commercial Solutions:
– Supplier Management andRationalisation
– Web shop and e-CommerceIntegration
– Advanced Order Management
– Leasing and TechnologyFinance
– Capacity on Demand andUtility Infrastructure
Computacenter is ISO 9001:2000 certified by the British StandardsInstitution. The ISO standard provides the framework that underpins the’Service Excellence’ commitment and ethos of the organization.[12]
Computacenter has subsidiaries in several countries: UnitedKingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Netherlands, and its partner network extending its coverage to over 120 countriesworldwide.
Key metrics 2009:
Group revenue £2.50 billion (2008: £2.56 billion)
Profit before tax £54.2 million (2008: £43.1 million)
Earnings per share 27.7 pence (2008: 21.0 pence)
Group annual services contract base grew to £503.6 million,at constant currency
There were two successful acquisitions during the year: ThesaurusComputer Services in UK and become in Germany.
The main customers
The main customers include:
• Financial organizations – AegonAsset Management, BGC Partners, Threadneedle, Deutsche Bank.
• Public companies – CharityCommission, Liverpool Direct, Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust.
• Telecommunication companies –British Telecom, Virgin Media.
• Retail companies – HarveyNichols, Speedy, Marks &Spencer.
• Industry – Severn Trent,Gist, Crest Nicholson, BMW Group
• Services – CarestreamHealth, Eversheds, Michael Page International.
Current marketing strategy
The Comptacenter’s success is the direct result of a strategy ofsustained high investment in the development of the services capability. Thestate-of-the-art facility is intended to be the source of significantcompetitive advantage.
Computacenter commercial success depends on the quality of theservice and that, in turn, depends on the quality, training, and motivation ofthe staff.
Computacenter continue to invest across all of its businesses,consolidating its position as the leading supplier of distributed IT andrelated services to the European corporate and public sector marketplace. Computacenterwins a number of different contracts with major players if IT industry inEurope.
I want to point out thatthere were a big number of differentacquisitions due to Computacenter become the most significant provider of ITinfrastructure products and services in the United Kingdom and in Europe. Thefocus clearly is and remains on investing for growth in Computacenter existingbusinesses. Much of Computacenter’s growth is due to expanding relationshipswith existing long-term corporate customers. The quality of service that theydeliver to both new and existing customers is the overriding factor in thesuccess of the business.
Computacenter’s ability to deliver value through its entire rangeof services, combined with e-commerce capability, constitutes a significantcompetitive advantage.

4. The framework of managingoperations
The first aspect to point out is that «The Savings Bank of the Russian Federation (Sberbank)» and «ComputacenterPlc» completely different company and from different industries. However, someof the approaches to managing operations for both of these companies are thesame – Total quality management, Process management and Projects Processes.Total quality management is about continuous performance improvement ofindividuals, of groups and organizations. (Gopal K. Kanji. 1995 Total quality management: proceedings of the first worldcongress.p. 3) There are three principals that companies follow: customersatisfaction, employee involvement and continues improvement in quality. If we consider Sberbank’s we can see Poor service quality in terms of decision-making time, process and procedure complexity,communication and bank-to-client interaction levels, as well as generalconvenience and functionality of the branches. There is a low level ofautomation and too much manual labour. Operations and support functions aredecentralised. As a result, many bank systems and processes are poorly scalableand growing business volumes do not lead to efficiency growth. According to Herman Gref CEO and Chairman of the Management Board, in 2009,Sberbank accelerated its efforts to resolve one of its main issues – the transformationof operations. 2009 was the first year of the new Sberbank DevelopmentStrategy’s implementation. The strategy was designed to make Sberbank a leadingworld financial institution, not only in terms of transaction volumes, but moreimportantly in terms of service levels. The mission of the bank is ambitious: «We want to be one of the bestfinancial services companies in the world.» At the present time the bank chooses a «modernization» scenario in order to improve processmanagement. Process management is the selection of the inputs, operations, workflows, and methods that transform inputs into outputs. KRAJEWSKI, LEE J. RITZMAN LARRY, P. 2002.). According to «First year review strategy» (document avalaible athttp://www.sbrf.ru/common/_en/img/uploaded/ir/docs/Sberbank % 20Strategy % 20-%20First-Year% 20Review.pdf) there are a lot of new services and product introduced, forexample Credit insurance product;new organizational structure introduced, IT and operational functionconsolidated; customers started to use interactive banking center.
Let’s consider Computacenter. The goal of company’s activities isto provide services to customers that save them money and help them be moreproductive. In other words, satisfy their needs. To do such job the companyinvolves all capacity, such as high skill workers (staff hold more than 200vendor and industry accreditations and certifications), and over 25 years’ ofpractical IT ‘know how’. It is very important for customers to be ensure thatthey rely on professionals That is why Computacenter is continuing to invest toinvest across all of its businesses in order to extend their performancecapabilities. I want mention thatemployee achievements are recognized through a service excellence award schemeknown as Excellence in Action (EIA).[13]Computacenter is ISO 9001:2000 certified by the British Standards Institution.ISO 9001 is a standard that focuses on 20 aspects of quality program forcompanies that design, produce, install, and serve products. These aspectsinclude management responsibility, quality system documentation, purchasing,product design, inspection, training, and corrective action.[14] In fact it is one of the mostexhaustive and hard standard to achieve.
5. The mix of managingoperations concepts
In previous chapters we consider two different companies: One frombank industry and another one from IT – industry. Despite the fact that theyare absolutely different they have the same mix of managing operationsconcepts: Total Quality Management and Process Management, mainly because bothof them are introduce service operations. It is fact that every organizationhas processes that must be designed and managed effectively and more over havehigh quality of performance. Quality is an attitude or the meaning ofexcellence. Sberbank places primeimportance on achieving a maximum customer focus and becoming aservice-orientated company. As was mention in chapter 3 Total quality management is a system for a customer focusedcompany that involves all employee in continual improvement of all aspects ofthe organization. Computacenter concerns about satisfaction of the eachcustomer. Senior Management monitors training requirements that requiredstandards are maintained. Computacenter remains committed to involving allemployees in significant business issues.

Bibliography
1.  www.sbrf.ru/en/about/bank_today/
2.  Annual report of Sberbank. 2009.
3.  ROWBOTHAM, F. AZHASHEMI, M. GALLOWAY, L. 2007. Operations management in context. 2nd edn. Butterworth-Heinemann.
4.  KRAJEWSKI, LEE J. RITZMAN LARRY, P. 2002. Operationsmanagement: strategy and analysis. 6th edn. Prentice Hall.
5.  RIBERA, J. 2010. Understanding OperationsManagement. [WWW].www.skolkovo.ru/content/view/347/382/lang, en/
6.  BROWN S. 2005. Strategic operations management. 2ndedn. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann Linacre House.
7.  NIGEL S., CHAMBERS S., JOHNSTON R. 2010. Operations Management:AND MyOMLab. 6th edn. Pearson Education Ltd.
8.  GIBSON P. 2006. Cruise operations management. Elsevier Inc.
9.  GREASLEY, A. Operations management. 2008. Sage PublicationLtd.
10.  HILL T.2004. Operations Management. 2nd edn. Palgrave Macmillan
11.  ROBERT H. LOWSON. 2003. Srtategic operations management. Thenew competitive advantage. Routledge.
12.  RONEN B., PASS S. 2008. Focused operations management:achieving more with existing resources. New Jersey:John&Sons, Inc. Hoboken.
13.  SIMON A. BURTONSHAW-GUNN. 2010. Essential Tools for OperationsManagement: Tools, Models and Approaches for Managers and Consultants. AJohn Willey&Sons, Ltd, Publication
14.  SLACK N., CHAMBERS S., JOHNSTON R. 2005. Operations &Process Management: Principles and Practice for Strategic Impact. FinancialTimes/ Prentice Hall.
15.  STEVENSON W.J. 2008.Operations Management. 10th edn.McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
16.  WALLER D. 2003. Operations Management: A Supply Chain Approach.2nd edn. Cengage Learning EMEA
17.  BICHENO, J. ELLIOT, B. 2002. Operations management: an activelearning approach. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
18.  GOPAL K. KANJII. 1995. Totalquality management: proceedings of the first world congress. London:Chapman & Hall.