Technology Management inInformation Age Assignment This is an individual assignment of 30 % weighting.

The Background: An industry is a group of organisations producing the same principal product/service or more broadly the group of organisations producing products/services that are a close substitute for each other, for example, the hotel industry or the manufacturing industry etc. The Task: Briefly describe the industry and choose a reputed organisation in that industry. You need to gather information on that particular organisation within that industry/sector. Information is to be collected from a variety of sources. First hand data on the technology introduced may be collected by means of interviews, emails, surveys or questionnaires from the organisation including various aspects of the technology management process and how it could be improved. You may include employees, customers and researchers related to that technology. Evidence of the data gathered should be provided in the appendix. ( this is optional) You are then required to produce a single report that assesses the nature of a new technology managed within the organisation. The Report: Your report should include an audit of the technology management process by considering the following points: Approach adopted and the implementation mechanisms. Determine how the technology has improved the performance of the organisation as a whole and increased its competitive advantage (Important value chains may be analysed here) Identify the innovations, if any, which have resulted due to the integration of this technology and business strategy of the organisation. Make recommendations outlining the role of a manager and the organisation to support the management of technology within the organisation The format : Please note that your assignment should be in the standard report format of about 2000- 2500 words, with a well edited executive summary. References in the Harvard style, including personal communications, need be included.

Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...........................................................................3 1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................4 2. LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................5 INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE NEW TECHNOLOGY BULK CASH DEPOSIT MACHINE ..................................5 TRIGGERS:.................................................................................................................5 MANAGEMENT PROCESS OF CHANGE:...................................................................................6 ROLE OF THE MANAGER...................................................................................................7 HANDLING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE.....................................................................................8 THE TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY.............................................................................................9 IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY.......................................................................................9 BENEFITS OF TECHNOLOGY...............................................................................................9 TECHNOLOGY IMPACT ON VALUE CHAIN AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE...........................................10 3. CONCLUSION...................................................................................11 4. REFERENCES...................................................................................13

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The following course work describes the banking industry of modern times. It includes a short depiction about HSBC Bank and its working. It is followed by the enhancement in technology exercised at HSBC and the review of the latest technology introduced,Bulk Cash deposit Machines. Analysis is done to know the cause for introducing that technology and to understand the managements role in the process of change. Further investigation has been carried out about the implementation of the technology. Benefits of the technology and its impact on value chain and the competitive advantage that HSBC has gained from this technolgy has also been discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION
The Banking industry is one of the oldest well known industries in the world, which started off as a small business wherein people could safely keep their money and in return they would get low interests. Banks on other side would lend money to everyone from small businesses to large industries at higher interest rates. However in the recent years banking industry has changed drastically. The credit goes to deregulation and advancement in technology that has revolutionised the banking industry. Thus banks have become the universal power hubs and heart of most developments around the world. HSBC plc has a banking history going way back to 18th century. They were functioning like any other banks and had plans to expand. This was first seen when HSBC group acquired 14.9% share of Midland bank in late eighties. Later in early nineties the group decided to acquire the rest of the midland bank shares. This was one of the biggest acquisitions of its time and showed clear picture that Hong Kong and Shanghai bank group wanted to expand their business in Europe. HSBC were always ahead in the game by adapting new technologies from time to time to satisfy their customers.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction about the new technology Bulk Cash Deposit Machine
In the early 2002, HSBC launched new and innovative machines, in which customers could deposit cash and cheques. There were separate machines for depositing cash and cheques. These machines were supplied by Diebold, who were pioneers in manufacturing automated cash and cheque deposit machines. At first these machines were simple and straight forward. Customers had to fill up the paying in slip and deposit their cash at the end of the day; the bank staff would collect the cash and slips and manually update them to the respective accounts. As technology advanced these machines got more sophisticated and user friendly and Diebolds 3030 bulk cash deposit machine was so advanced that it could update the customers deposit instantly. The later version of this machine could actually check genuine and counterfeit notes, fit and unfit notes, coins and could recognise notes printed from different regions like England, Scotland and Ireland. They could take up to 200 notes at a time. There were cheque deposit machines which would scan the cheque and print a small version of cheque as proof. By the end of 2006, HSBC had installed more than 250 such deposit machines around UK. This was not the end of developments as the next version of these machines could actually recycle the notes to the withdrawal chamber were customers could use to withdraw money from ATM. Thus saving a lot of time, and reducing the risk of cash handling.

Triggers:
According to our observations external triggers for the introduction of bulk cash deposit machines were:
Changes in customer requirement and tastes: Customers were tired

and very annoyed of waiting in long queues to deposit small amount or just a cheque. Developments in Technology: HSBC has always been looking to invest in new technologies that would bring about revenue for their bank. According to our observations internal triggers for the introduction of bulk cash deposit machines were: New product & service design innovations: The bank wanted to bring about new services that could improve their overall advantage over other banks. Deliver better services to customers: In a banking sector, the key feature is to keep the customers happy and provide them with good service. In order to attract or retain the customers, the bank had to come up with a technology that could help them achieve it. Recognition of time constraints: The time that was invested heavily on transferring the money from the bank vaults to the ATM machines needed to be reduced.

Management Process of Change:

With reference to the Kurt Lewin Model, we can understand that a change process usually consists of 3 stages: Unfreezing, Move and Refreezing. In order to bring about successful change, the management has to follow the best practices. Management process is the level to which the management has to get involved to execute a particular task. With the introduction of the bulk cash deposit machines, HSBC had to follow the management processes to bring about the change. The change process was split into four layers: Trigger Layer In this layer, the management had to address the grief that the customers were going through. In order to overcome this hurdle, they proposed to use the new deposit machines, which would give customer satisfaction. It would also benefit the bank staff by reducing their time

spent on each customer by counting their notes and coins. The management made sure that the staff and shareholders were well informed about the new technology. Vision Layer This stage had to concentrate in particular to explain the benefits that would be obtained to the bank and its employees by introducing the new technology. The management knew that the future holds the extensive use of automated processes and machines as they had read the success stories of other banks that implemented similar processes in the US. The challenge for the bank management was to introduce the new automated device to the traditional work culture of the bank where all the work was carried out manually. Conversion Layer In this particular layer, the management put the new bulk cash deposit machines into working in some of its branches. They recruited some of experienced staff who had enough knowledge of using the new technology comfortably and able to fix any minor problems that would arise confidently. They even gave rigorous training to their staff on how to use those machines and how to encourage their customers in using the new machines. Maintenance and Renewal Layer In this layer, management got feedback from their customers and the staff regarding any issues that they had to face when using the machine. And if any problems were identified, they were sent to the head office to resolve them. They kept making changes to the software to make it more user friendly and less erroneous.

Role of the manager

In order to get more information about how this new technology was introduced in particular branches and what role did the manager have during this process, an appointment was requested for a one on one interview. The manager explained some of the tasks he had to undergo for smooth implementation of the new machines. Firstly, he had to communicate about the necessity of this change to all his branch staffs and how this change will affect

their current working condition. His next step was to make a proposal to the board of directors regarding the refurbishment cost. He then invited any objections from the staff and if any was solved informally. He had to change the infrastructure to install the new machines keeping the security, comfort of staff and customers in mind. During this process, he had to select some of the staff and send them for training to gain full understanding about the working of the machine. He put up banners regarding the new machine within the branch premises, so that the customers were well informed about the change. This was not the end of the process; he had to constantly monitor the developments so that the change process takes place as planned.

Handling Resistance to change

The sources of resistance came up initially from the staff and as well from the customers. The staff had the fear of losing their current position and some feared to lose their jobs. In order to overcome this, the manager had to informally sit and discuss their new roles in the bank and reassured them that they would not lose their job. As these new machines would not require large number of staff, some staffs were given an option to relocate to other branches. There was initial resistance from the customers as they were skeptical in using these new machines. They had the fear that their money would not be credited to their account. They even had problems in using the machine as they found it to be a little complex to use. But the trained staff managed to encourage the customers removing the notions they had

about the new machine. The customer service assistants even guided the customers through the process of depositing their money and assuring that it has been credited to their respective accounts.

The technology strategy

HSBC installed the automated cash deposit machines which was developed and manufactured by Diebold. Diebold uses a very advanced and user friendly software. Their machine is loaded with Agilis Power software (bobsguide.com, 2006). This software architecture provides HSBC to deliver excellent service to its customers. Each of these machines cost up to $30,000 (approx. 25,000).

Implementation of Technology
Like any other software development project, HSBC also had to communicate their requirements and get the tweaks developed by the Diebolds project team. The changes in the existing software used in the machine could be as small as changing the user interface to HSBCs home page and on the other end they had to handle sophisticated procedures like connecting to the HSBCs central database to get the account details about the customers. This new self cash-depositing machine is unique in the banking sector and only a few banks have introduced it. HSBC should be credited for implementing an innovative technology that changes the way banking sector works in the UK. This innovation has revolutionized the traditional methods of banking by fully automating the process and eliminating the burden of the staff.

Benefits of technology
HSBC has got many benefits from this new innovative technology. Some benefits include: Customer satisfaction- As the new technology has been implemented; the customers do not have to wait in the queue for their turn. Instead they can use self automated machine and get their deposit done. Customer also benefits because the machine is programmed in such

a way that it separates all the notes of different denominations and count and display them on the screen. Then this would be credited to the customers account instantly. The staffs do not have to waste a lot of time on counting notes and coins, instead they can invest the same time in dealing with the customers. The staff can also use the time for generating more revenue and improving the overall efficiency of the bank. As this technology recycles the deposited cash into the withdrawal machines, the bank management will be free from cash handling and thus increase their efficiency. This technology also reduces cost burden on the bank by reducing the number of staff required at the teller windows. The machine also has the capability to identify the fake notes and separate them for further investigation. The machine can separate fit notes from unfit notes and also differentiate notes distributed by all the money issuing banks in the United Kingdom. The technology can also provide the customers for checking their account details, transfer money between accounts and also get a print of their latest transactions.

Technology impact on Value Chain and Competitive advantage

Value chain is a coordination of mutually dependent activities. These value chains determine how the performance of one activity affects the performance of other activities. With the implementation of the new technology, the value chains that would be affected could be the customers and the employees of the bank.

The customer finds it satisfactory to use the new technology, which reduces their waiting time and performs all the required actions that are to be carried out when depositing their money. The employees have been benefited with the implementation of the machines thus giving them more scope to face the customers. With the cash deposit machines in place, HSBC has an advantage of reducing the costs, increasing the efficiency and profits, decreasing the time, increased customer satisfaction and also provide competitive advantage over other banks in the United Kingdom. In a busy working trend of life, people would hate waiting for long time and instead would want to serve themselves. The customers look for greater speed, flexibility and convenience of carrying out transactions by themselves. HSBC bulk cash deposit machines is one of such self-service machines, thus providing a competitive advantage. Due to such innovations and services, the customers not only remain loyal to the bank but also suggest other people to join the bank and enjoy the services.

3. CONCLUSION
HSBC bulk cash deposit machines have been introduced and

implemented successfully in many of the branches of the UK where there were problems regarding to long queuing. It is now in the Reflection stage of Technology Management Cycle. The management of the technology by HSBC from the time of its introduction to date is accelerating to acquire better results. The management of technology can be further increased by the Manager by noting that the technology is available at all times and there are enough customer service assisstants to guide the customers to carry out their transactions. By investing in such a technology, HSBC has been able to deliver front-line service for customer satisfaction and great experience thus increase customer loyalty, reduction in operational costs and increase in total revenue and service of the organisation.

4. REFERENCES
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Pearson Education
2. Ettlie, J 2006, Managing Innovation (2nd edn) Butter worth-Heinemann

Elsevier
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http://www.economywatch.com/banking/
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news.org.uk/banks/hsbc/
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http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2006/Dec/14/DIEBOLD_INSTAL LS_250TH_BULK_CASH_DEPOSIT_MACHINE_AT_HSBC_UK.html
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http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/bank/hsbc/1067801/
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http://www.diebold.com/depositautomation/
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http://www.diebold.co.th/Products_Services/Remark8.asp
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http://www.allbusiness.com/banking-finance/banking-lending-creditservices-cash/11940374-1.html
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