The Description Of Problem Solving Process

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

This report discusses about the way of presenting products by the sales staff of a multinational company which have different offices around many countries and is headquartered in Geneva (Switzerland). The company sells office equipment to small businesses. Here, the way of presenting office products is just limited to printed brochures of the relevant products. According to the scenario, I’m an IT manager for a multinational company and within the same company, the sales director has approached me to figure out the possible ways for tackling the situation of presenting office products by the sales staffs on behalf of the company.

The company’s offices spread across different countries are listed here under.

Office locations

Sales staff numbers

Geneva

2

Hanoi

8

Jakarta

5

Doha

6

Montreal

6

Total

27

Task 1

Plan

As the company has its offices around the world and is a reputed multinational company but the system of presenting its products is a bit old style. So, we want a new way of presentation of office products simply not by only giving brochures but as the whole world is digitalized, why would the company left behind? So, the most efficient way of presenting product is to equip the sales team with the latest computerized devices not only for easier convenience but the way out of it i.e. the sales staff will be delivering the product information in a systematic and computerized way to the customers.

As mentioned above, the most efficient way is to make sure every office sales staff has got one of the computerized devices for delivering the information about the products. As we are upgrading the office staff with the digital devices, we need to buy latest techno gadgets for this and will distribute equally to each staff. Similarly after purchasing the devices we will also use various software that are developed for office products presentation. One of the software would be the Microsoft Power-point as the software is built for various presentations. As we will delivering the information about office products by digital devices as well as latest software, we not only give access to word documents but also the pictures and audio visual clips of the particular product that will be very impressive for the customers.

As we are dealing not only with computerized devices but they need to be portable also so that the sales staff can carry along wherever they go for the presentation and deliveries. So in the market, there are various digital portable devices such as laptops, tablet-PC’s, latest smartphones, etc. but firstly we need to research for this in the market for the most portable devices but the most important factor is the fund allocation for the devices that need to be bought under the budget the company has been giving.

Description of Problem solving process

Problem definition

As the company is the multinational one and has got its headquarters in Geneva (Switzerland) and has regional offices in Hanoi (Vietnam), Jakarta (Indonesia), Doha (Qatar) and Montreal (Canada). The main problem is to present the product information in a brochure which is considered as the old style of presentation so, we need to implement a new way i.e. by providing the sales staff of the company with the latest computerized digital devices for easier and impressive presentation delivered to the prospective customers.

Identifying selection criteria

The selection criteria for handling of this task problem are done here under:

Costing

As the company has allocated a limited amount of the budget funding for the purchase of computerized devices, so the allocated amount should be spent economically and wisely.

Reliability

The computerized devices purchased must be reliable in a manner that it can support the office staffs while the staffs are dealing with the customers regarding the product information.

Security

The devices should be well secured and should possess security features that if misplaced by the staff knowingly or unknowingly nobody can interfere with the information inside it.

Durability

The digital devices purchased must possess high performance i.e. it should work under every circumstances and conditions and also need to have long backup life for the durability features.

All the points mentioned above were selected under the Selection criteria for tackling with the current problem of delivering information about the products of the company. As we know the funding allocated by the company for solving the problem is limited. So, the most important point is to maintain the amount of budget so that the allocated funding would be sufficient for solving the problem.

We also know that the problem can only be solved if it fulfills the points mentioned in the selection criteria list. The solution achieved should be the way effective for the factors like cost, reliability, security and performance in the manner to handle the selection criteria.

The solution that is to be achieved should make the cost cheaper, needs to be security enabled, convenient to use for reliability and performance and the performance should possess good order to solve the problem quoted.

Possible solutions

Solution 1: Purchasing new computerized devices individually

The devices that need to be purchased such as laptops, tablets, ipads, smartphones, etc. can be purchased in a way by buying each product individually in the market.

Solution 2: Purchasing second hand computerized devices

The computerized devices can also be purchased as a second hand product that would be a bit cheaper.

Solution 3: Purchasing the computerized devices by bundling way

The devices that need to be purchased such as laptops, tablets, ipads, smartphones, etc. can be purchased in a way by buying all the products in a bundled way in the market.

Solution 4: Leaving the problem as it is

As delivering the information about the products using brochures is not a worst way, leaving the problem as it is.

Process of Selection

The solution is achieved by using the Evaluation grid where we will compare the factors of selection criteria listings and the list of solutions. The solution which passes most of the selection criteria will be represented as the optimized solution. For doing this thing, every solution forwarded needs to be ranked with the relevant selection criteria and finally, the lowest possible outcome will be rewarded as the optimized solution for tackling the problem that has been created.

Cost

Reliability

Security

Durability

Total

Solution 1

3

2

2

1

8

Solution 2

1

3

3

3

10

Solution 3

2

2

2

1

7

Solution 4

3

3

3

3

12

In table 1, solution 1 defines purchasing new computerized devices but the purchase is done individually and after consideration it is not found to be best solution.

In table 2, solution 2 defines purchasing second hand computerized devices that would be a bit cheaper but for other factors like reliability, security, etc. It doesn’t stand a chance.

In table 3, solution 3 defines purchasing of computerized devices in a bundling way and after consideration, we thought it would be a bit cheaper than the first solution, has hot reliability, security and durability features more than the second solution. So this solution would be the best optimized solution.

In table 4, solution 4 defines the problem not to be done anything which would be considered as a wrongful decision.

Statement and details of the solution

As we can see in the table, solution 3 is regarded as the best optimized solution in terms of purchasing computerized devices in a bundled way and is ranked lowest of all scores provided. Solutions 1, 2 and 4 have got a bit higher marks than the solution 3 and are not considered as the best solution provided.

After the solution of the problem has been identified, the budget is divided in three groups as follows:

Group 1: for purchasing laptops: as laptops are cheaper than the tablets and smartphones half of the total funding is invested in it i.e. a price of £ 5000 for 12 staffs.

Group2: For purchasing tablet-PC: these devices are for a bit higher level staffs and are quoted with 30% of the total funding i.e. £ 3000 for 10 staffs.

Group 3: for purchasing smartphones: these devices are a bit expensive and are quoted for high end office staffs that handle high business presentations and is quoted 20 % of the total funding i.e. £ 2000 for 5 staffs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that the problem is identified and was solved using the factors of selection criteria as well as evaluation grid. After finding the solution, the allocated budget funding was divided into three groups for proper use of the funding and to come up with the best result.