Research Proposal for Streamlining Communication Channels At ACC

Introduction

Background Information on ACC Limited

ACC Limited was formed in 1936. It is a cement company that aims at providing for the Indian market. The company has 17 cement factories updated with modern technology, 90 concrete plants and over 10000 distribution channels(Our Network). Due to its size, the company maintains a large number of communication channels. The ACC office in Mumbai is the main hub and is responsible for the coordination for the rest of India.  This requires clear communication.  But due to the size of the company, this means a variety of communication channels. However, more doesn’t always mean better.

Statement of Problem

For formal communication, employees usually employ Gmail. For informal communication, WhatsApp is used. For video conferencing, Hangout and Zoom are the preferred mediums of communication. However, for larger conferences, Cisco is used. For daily verbal communication, mobile calls are employed

Having a variety of communication channels can create multiple problems. It might be hard for an employee to track down all the messages that he or she has from the various lines of communication. Secondly, it may be hard for a person to easily separate his office communication from personal communication. Making it difficult to know which notifications or apps to pay attention to. 

Purpose Solution

One of the possible solutions is that ACC invests in its own application for its employees that allows them to communicate in a variety of ways. In doing so, ACC will be able to oversee the security of the application and ensure it has the correct security measures in place. Furthermore, this will also help improve productivity. Since only employees will have access to the app, they can be certain when using the app any messages or calls coming from it will most likely be work-related. 

Scope

In order to best understand the problem and evaluate the feasibility of the proposed solution I would first answer these 8 questions:

• What are the top 2 communication systems that people use? What functionalities do these communication systems fulfill for them?
• To what extent, does getting up-to-date with lines of communication interrupt with the daily work of an employee?
•  How hard is it for an employee to separate his work communication and personal communication on services such as WhatsApp and Hangout? 
• How has this impacted the speed and quality of their work?
• To what extent would the communication requirements of an employee be improved if all the services they need can be provided through one interface?
• What would be the estimated cost in terms of time and money for building such an application?
• What are the risks if such an application fails or has security leaks?
• How much time do employees spend on communication? 

Methods

My main method of gathering data will be primary research in the form of surveys and phone interviews. I will ask the office employees to volunteer to take a survey to decide to understand the extent of the problem. Then I’ll be doing an interview with the Vice President of Project Management, in order to better understand team dynamics when a group works in a project and what aspects would my proposed application need in order to help

Qualifications

I am a Computer Science Major. I have done 3 software engineering courses; CS110, CS210 and CS310. In addition, I am currently doing a Web Development course and an A+ security certificate. For my capstone project, I had to work with Associated Engineering, to develop an in-house hiring and availability system. 

Conclusion

Modern communication systems have helped in improving the speed of communication delivery. It has made the world truly a global village. However, communication channels can at times, hamper human productivity and interrupt their work. Over time this can cost a company tremendously. Which is why it is important to understand and act to streamline communication channels. In order to do so, research is vital to acquire in order to create an effective solution. With your approval, I hope to begin that vital research.

Works Cited

ACC Limited. “Our Network: Cement & Ready Mixed Concrete Manufacturer.” Our Network | Cement & Ready Mixed Concrete Manufacturer, ACC Limited, www.acclimited.com/about/network.