MODULE 4

INTERVIEW OF HUNTER DEVRIES

            “The customer is always right.” it is a saying that is constantly heard and where I work I can honestly say we always try to live up to that saying. Now I work at a call center, here in the Ogden area. Call centers are just a small part of large corporation but they make a significant impact on the way of helping a company run smoothly and efficiently. I have the great pleasure and honor to be able to relate my personal experience that I have while working at a call center. I will be giving just a few of the insightful aspects of the call center experience.

            Customer service is always something that is sought for when I take a phone call and I work for a large corporation that number one priority is to help the customer. From the moment that we answer the phone it is our job to continue to help the customer find a resolution. Now not always can we find a resolution that the customer wants, but usually down the line from a few months to a year sometimes that option that they wanted is then made available to us customer service associates. We are constantly working to evolve and too discover new ways to help the customer and make it easier for them.

            Now when it comes to making the experience better for a customer, it always starts with you as the associate. You as the associate are the person that needs to be positive, outgoing, and first and foremost, honest. As an associate you get a wide variety of phone calls every day with issues that are simple to fix, and ones that you know will require a good amount of time. When it comes down to it, the customer just wants to know what they need to do and how to do it. That is the key to anything, explaining clearly what you can do and what they can do to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible.

            Think for a moment, when was the last time you made a phone call to a company to resolve an issue. They probably put you on hold a few times, when that happens it usually means that they are working diligently to find an answer or resolution for you. Now knowing this, when I make a phone call and get placed on hold, I know they are working to find a solution for my problem. Last night I made a phone call to Amazon.com and they were able to resolve the problem and apply the discount to the cart that I had open. When I refreshed the page, the discount had already been applied. Incredible.

            The technology age is expanding every day and the software that I started using a few months ago is now about to be replaced, for something better and newer. It is just a huge thing to be a part of, and how we keep up is just remarkable. I ask you, yes you as the consumer. Ask questions, be clear, and just be patient. Let us continue what we do best, help the customer the best we can. 

Module 3

Let’s put it this way, the phrase “History repeats itself” is one of the most truthful quotes to date.  We are literally living a cycle of repeating circumstances. From the battle for equal rights for women to the fight for equal rights for every race. Also the constant ups and downs of the economic market, which have included economic recessions and economic expansions. It is just something that comes natural for us as human being. Now let me explain as to how these constant cycles apply to offshoring.

Jamestown and many other American colonies were fresh grounds that were established for the purpose of not only expanding the British Empire but also as important part of economic plan for British Empire. Imagine they discovered land that would be able to grow crops such as rice, indigo, coffee, and many other products. But the best part is that the land would be worked by cheaper labor and would help create a faster way to receive goods. The definition of offshoring according to “The World is Flat” is this; “produces the very same product in the very same way, only with cheaper labor, lower taxes, subsidized energy, and lower health-care costs.” (Page 137-138). Now let’s fast forward to the years of the 1980’s when the fresh new grounds of international trade in China had just begun. For the first time, we would be able to make products under the cheap and well-disciplined laws of the Chinese work force, and then sell those products at an international level. That change to the day has created a wave of enthusiasm for offshoring to other countries to create the same product but to make it cheaper and make more profit.

            Supply and demand is a never ending cycle and it is also a double edged sword Now that is due in part to supply chains. Now when the flood gates were opened into China with the offshoring, it also created a great effect on the supply chains. Imagine that a man in the United States of America was getting paid around $4,000 dollars a month to fulfill a certain skilled job and someone else in China could fulfill the same skilled job but for around $150 dollars a month. There is no question about it, it is much cheaper to buy shoes at Wal-Mart when they have been offshored, rather than made locally in America. Then once those shoes are purchased at the cash register, the process starts all over again. Wal-Mart contacts the vendor, the vendor makes and ships the items to a warehouse to be inspected, sorted, and shipped. From there it arrives back to that store and is place on the shelf, right where you found it.

            Could you Google that for me? A phrase that is just a house hold name not only has given us answers but also helps to inform the customer if that product is really what he is looking for. We can literally google any business and research what kind of company they are and see if I should purchase that product. No more hiding secrets from the public eye. Google in short has literally given us the ability to check up on something within minutes to be able to help us moving forward with any decision. Businesses use this as a way to promote their products and the best part is almost everyone has an equal chance.

            The cycle as always will continue to keep evolving and revolutionizing how we act and or think. The best part to all this is, we are improving and everyone has a chance to expand their thoughts, ideas, and business. Now the question is are we going to be a part of this great economical movement or are we just going to watch, history repeat itself?

MODULE 2

"The World is Flat" - Thomas L Friedman

            Click. Open. Submit. Confirm. Thanks. Where would we be without the simply incredible software systems that we have today? Who knows but one thing I can say, we are only scratching the surface. Thanks to innovation we are literally making business that is much easier and even more efficient.  Today I would like to talk about some software programs that make that possible and also who are the people that are using that software on the other end of the phone and more often the computer.

Now much like the desire that men had to one day “soar through the clouds” was not only achieved, but we went the extra mile and landed on the moon. We are known as a society that evolves thanks to technology advancements but doesn’t forget the men that made that technology available. Now imagine even NASA astronauts ran into a few problems so they had to call Houston, so that they could use all their bells and whistles to solve the situation. Today in the ever expanding universe of technologies, businesses still run into those moments where we say to ourselves “Houston, we have a problem!” and we need help. But instead of calling to the great state of Texas, you might be getting “outsourced” to anywhere in the world. Just think of it as receiving a source of goods or help from a distance away. It is still a solution that was considered, approved, and is working for those business companies to better serve their customers.

Now much like NASA hired many people to help coordinate the miracle of the “man on the moon” with those fancy computers that filled an entire room but processed a launch into the stars. We have the great opportunity to be able to use workflow software, which with little human assistant will be able to do the rest. This cuts back on many steps to not only make it easier on the customer but also the employee and company. Take for example the current Amazon order. All you are doing is verifying the information and then pressing a button. Then the software does the rest, like let the warehouse know they need to process the order, process the order, ship the package, and then coordinate with the shipping company the ETA time frames.

Wow! What an achievement right? Now take one more step back for man, and realize you were already using a software that was like fuel to get this shuttle of the ground, which is Open Source Software. It is literally something that provides the right to change and distribute the software to anyone for any purpose. Much like fuel fits the needs to get many different jobs or engines running to get to the destination, Open Source Software will help you get the job done from work or home and in many forms and multiple applications.

Once again we are playing in a new broad open space and thanks to technology advancements we are playing a big role also. Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to be able to use these systems to place an order, but it did take a few to design it that way. Thanks to them and to NASA I was able to make this possible, due in part that they made the computer mouse. That is one small step for man, and one giant leap for consumer kind. 

Module 1

“The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman

            Tweet. Email message. Facebook alert. Friend request on Instagram. Snapchat of a friend in Europe. Text message. Someone is calling you through Skype. Wow! Imagine something that we take as something “normal”, 10 to 20 years ago seemed like movie special effects or just a wish. Change. The word that I feel fully describes the perspective of the author and I believe everyone that was involved with this book thus far. The power of change is incredible and the effects that it will always have on the world. The change that is described in the book comes by many names but I would like to focus on 3 changes, Globalization 1.0, Globalization 2.0, and Globalization 3.0.

            In 1492, Columbus sailed the Ocean blue. Something that we learned at such a young age but that really started what Friedman classifies, Globalization 1.0. In this period we began to open trade from the Old World to the New World, up to 1800 just when the American Revolution had celebrated just around 20 years. It opened up what was at that time a great advantage to trade goods that weren’t accessible in those continents until the Columbian trade exchange started. It came at a cost of course, of lives, of many, but it came with great advantages. It caused us to think deeper, broaden our vision, and explore new opportunities. It helped drive us to expand global integration and ask us what we were willing to do to make a better tomorrow. From this great era came many inventions or innovations that accelerated global integration, such as horsepower, wind power, and steam power machines. Did we just stop there? No, we didn’t settle but rather just continued gaining momentum.

            Wait you can have your business in more than one nation? What a revolutionary idea. Funny enough the revolutionary war was the only grand change that happened around 1800. From 1800 to 2000 the dominance of multinational companies. With few interruptions such as the Great Depression and World War 1 and World War 2, the power house of multinational companies started to take root in the economy in many nations. But much like anything that takes root and is cared for, starts to blossom. That is thanks to innovations of this period making transportation cost fall and to an increasing effective global communication system. Which created a great, fresh, and more accessible market for practically everyone. From Railroads to Telephones, the global economy was turning into an equally, “flat” playing ground. But just like the saying from Walt Disney, “Keep moving forward”. That is exactly what happened.      

            The freedom that once was something that usually only war or treaties could resolve had received a new ally to help let the voice of the people help seek for a solution. Now that goes without saying, we do need to act upon our words but it is easier when it is not only words but the desire of a group, society, nation, or the world. The Berlin Wall is a great example of a desire that finally was brought to action. Not only did it liberate all the captive people of the Soviet Empire, but as Friedman said “tipped the balance of power across the world”. The revolution of global communication opened the door for free expression of international interest from all stand points such as political, social, and more importantly, economical. Trade controls were released and we saw business fall or better yet flourish.

            The roots are in place, the growth spurt happened, and now we get to see the finished product. Globalization 3.0 is that “finished product” and helped give us what we call the modern technology age. It allowed us to have the internet thanks to Netscape. The company Netscape really was the company that established the playing ground for Globalization because thanks to them we were allowed to have “dot-com” because they started it. If we take away .com from any website we either go straight to a search browser like Google or it simply doesn’t work. This simple change still brings big results. Now thanks to the access of the internet we can process easy and practically effortless World Wide interactions and business transactions. Bringing it down to one “flat” playing field.

 I have the great pleasure of using a “normal modern miracle” called a computer, which gave me the opportunity to write this essay and upload it to the internet within my own home to then allow you to read this article. Let’s just say that playing on an equally “flat” ground makes a world of difference.