Why Otisline?

Otis management thought of rolling OTISLINE basically to have a real competitive

advantage and to reduce both distance and time, resulting in faster responses to
customer problems, better maintenance procedures and more reliable elevators.
This was important as the elevator service industry was highly competitive
giving the buyers a greater leverage in choosing and switching service.
This can be expanded as follows:
1.
2.

To tap into elevator service industry exploiting its high margins

To deal with the issues in current system:
a) Varying response time
b) No centralized data
c) Dependence on outside party
3. To improve Otis Elevators response to its service customers. An elevator
service company was selected on the basis of responsiveness, quality and
price. Customers assess the quality of elevator companys service offerings
mainly by its responsiveness to callbacks.
4. Otis elevator was perceived to be the best. Hence, the need for constant
innovation.
5. Reducing callbacks for each installed elevator by one a year would save Otis
5 million dollars annually.
6. Otis line would provide management with a significant amount of info on the
quality of service rendered to customers.
7. Helping management decide key problem areas to focus resources on
by having call back reports highlighting problem installations, allowing
problem awareness prior in advance
8. To improve service price estimating.
9. To benchmark customer service by helping Otis line to measure dispatcher
performance against department standards and averages
10.To help determine when and how many additional staff have to be recruited
to maintain the required quality of service.
11. To help track malfunctioning components by having a central database.
12. It will aid to automate the production reports on elevator sales
prospects facilitating marketing.

Future directions for Otis management

Otis management should proceed with the following suggestions in chronological
order:
1. Remote Elevator Monitoring (REM): Development of REM will lead to
reduced bargaining power of buyers. Also, there would be less threat of new
entrants in REM application. Thus, REM will give that extra edge to Otis and
put it ahead of others.
2. New equipment ordering: This will lead to increased sales and thus help
Otis to expand further. Better and efficient inventory management will lead to
increased efficiency in system.
3. In-car phones and replacement of service mechanic pagers with
hand-held terminals: Both of these will help in reducing bargaining power
of buyers in the situation of increasing industry rivalry. This will give it an
edge over competitors.
4. Telemarketing of service: This will lead to better identification of potential
opportunities and thus sales representatives may be used efficiently to
increase number of contracts.
5. Contract management: This will again increase efficiency of system by
improving communication channel between Otis management, factory and
others involved in installation.