Related Work
Previous research studies had advocated for multitasking approach as a way of cost optimization in business organizations, an approach which involved minimizing the number of employees working in an organization to the smallest number possible. At first glance, this approach seemed to be working as expected because when it came to compensation of employees, the organizations could pay less and hence left with enough to invest in other resources. For instance, Baumrucker and Biegler (2010) in their research “strategies for cost optimization” leveraged on encouraging the culture of multitasking within an organization where employee was supposed to be doing more than one tasks in order to minimize the number of employees in an organization and which also would translate to minimal spending of an organization when it came to employee compensation [10].
Also, Turtle& Flood (21) in their article “Query evaluation: strategies and optimization of costs” also outlined employee multitasking approach as a superb approach towards cost optimization, especially for business organizations. Following such like research studies, business organizations shifted to adopt this approach and were able to shortly testify of its effectiveness in achieving cost optimization objectives [18]. However, with time the hidden repercussions of this approach came it a reality after complaints begun to appear from all corners accusing the organizations of compromising with the quality of their products and services. This had to come and pass considering the fact that employees working under such a system are likely to become much tired and that definitely compromises their effectiveness in delivering quality work.
In his article, “Trends and Innovation in Modern Digital Solutions”, Shivakumar saw multitasking which had been adopted by many organizations as a disastrous approach towards cost optimization. He associated the approach with heavy negative impacts compared to what it could enable the organizations to achieve. He used the qualitative method in his research as an approach in proving how multitasking was an ineffective system in ensuring cost optimization. In his approach, he carried out interviews on the top management team on the issue of products quality before and after adopting the system [15].
Following the stiff competitive markets, most of the organizations had adopted the system of employee multitasking to ensure cost optimization. According to most of the organizations that Shivakumar managed to interact with, they claimed that the system enabled them to meet their cost optimization objectives [20]. The reason behind Shivakumar conducting this research was to disapprove organization management that the system of multitasking was a harmful approach whose end results were more harmful to the organizations.
Proposed Research
Unlike many other types of research which were carried out in response to the weaknesses of employee multitasking as an approach to cost optimization which approached the issue from the customer point of view, Shivakumar approached his research from the management point of view. He used the management views to gather information on the quality of products before and after the adoption of this system of cost optimization [16].
Shivakumar managed to prove that the system of employee multitasking as an approach to cost optimization was ineffective since it brought about more harm to the organizations than the benefits. The main disadvantage of this approach of cost-cutting according to Shivakumar was its role in the deterioration of products quality considering the fact that fatigued employees could hardly deliver as compared to fresh employees [12]. Poor quality products could translate to a bad reputation on the organization and that meant that customer loyalty could be compromised as well. Shivakumar’s research was significant because it managed to enlighten organizations on the disadvantages of employee multitasking as an approach to cost optimization.
Although Shivakumar managed to achieve his objective of proving that employee multitasking approach of cost optimization was an ineffective approach, his limited choice on the research sample size must be improved in future to avoid the chances of being biased. Shivakumar used a sample size of three organizations to prove that employee multitasking approach of cost optimization was ineffective [2]. Considerably, his utilization of such a limited sample size can easily lead to biased conclusions and must be improved in the future to avoid biased results.
Employee multitasking has proved to be an ineffective approach in ensuring cost optimization because of its role in compromising the quality of goods and services which are realized under that system. Some of the employees who tend to be assigned with other duties in addition to their main roles lie under the customer service team [14]. Instead of multitasking such employees and which eventually results in low-quality products, this paper proposes the implementation of chatbots to take care of support services like message responses as well as emails.
In his research article “Mobile conversational commerce: messenger chatbots as the next interface between business and consumers”, Eeuwen has given a brief overview of the main advantages of chatbots in a business environment. Some of the advantages he outlined include the ability to operate 24-7, reducing the operational costs in an organization and their ability to handle multiple customers simultaneously [7]. This was a great research because it enlightens business organizations on the several ways they can leverage on chatbot technology to improve productivity and efficiency. However, Eeuwen’s research does not tackle the issue of security when operating under this technology. Definitely, this is an area which the research should have tackled considering the current trends in regard to cybersecurity.
Employee multitasking approach to ensuring cost optimization in business organizations has been associated with the weakness of poor quality products and services. This is because the system makes the employees be highly exhausted hence reducing their level of concentration during the production process. This research proposes the implementation of chatbots as an alternative to employee multitasking which has proved to be ineffective in ensuring cost optimization [11]. First of all, chatbots can operate 24-7 without the need to be replaced in the customer service unlike the human beings who must be replaced from time to time. Secondly, the ability of a single chatbot to serve many customers at the same time will ensure that business organizations don’t incur a lot of costs in compensating a large number of employees who would have been deployed to serve those customers.
Considering the shortcomings of the previous approach in ensuring cost optimization, the aim of this research is to enlighten business organizations on an alternative approach to achieve cost optimization. The main disadvantage of the previous approach, multitasking employees, has been the decline in the quality of products and services although it has been enabling the organizations to achieve their objectives of cost optimization. This research advocates for secured chatbots as a better alternative to achieve cost optimization in business organizations. This is in consideration to the fact that chatbots can operate 24-7 without the need for replacement in the customer service unlike the human beings who must be replaced from time to time [13]. Consequently, the ability of a single chatbot to serve many customers at the same time will also ensure that business organizations don’t incur a lot of costs in compensating a large number of employees who would have been deployed to serve customers.
At the end of the day, it is expected that this research will enlighten both the organizations which have been using the system of employee multitasking as well as those which might have had plans to adopt the system on its disadvantages and how it can cost an organization in terms of its reputation [19]. The issue of product and service qualities realized when operating under employee multitasking approach will be highly emphasized in this research to be able to convince business organizations on the ineffectiveness of this approach. On the other hand, the research will emphasize the adoption of chatbots as an alternative to multitasking employees. Also, because of the current trends in cybersecurity, this research will take an extra mile in advising the organizations on the importance of securing their chatbots to mitigate the security issues which are associated with vulnerable chatbots. In offering advice on securing chatbots, the research will mainly emphasize on two measures [3]. The first approach will be ensuring that data stored and transmitted by chatbots is always in an encrypted form. This will safeguard the information from potential hackers and leakage to untargeted parties.
This research is expected to be of much importance because it will enable business organizations to avoid the shortcomings of employee multitasking approach of cost optimization and encourage them to adopt secure chatbots as effective alternatives and without adverse weaknesses on the performance of organizations [6].
Apart from cost optimization, there are several other benefits which will be realized on adopting chatbots within the organization setting. These include:
- 24-7 availability which will enable customers to seek clarifications at any time of the day and
- The ability to handle multiple customers at the same time hence ensuring the reduced delay in responding to customers
This research will emphasize on the implementation of an improved version of chatbots. This is in consideration to the current issues concerning cybersecurity and which have listed normal chatbots among the major vulnerabilities to organization information systems. Below is the architecture which will be emphasized by this research
In this architecture, a dedicated HIPAA-compliant AWS instance will be used to ensure security is upheld. In the architecture, any chat starting from a non-compliant media like SMS or Facebook messenger will be allowed to proceed in an unsecured form [1]. However, when it comes to sensitive information, secure links will be sent to the user to seamlessly continue securely. Also, no password will be required as well as registration hence ensuring frictionless and secure communication.
Below are the main modules which will be involved in this chatbot. The main security concerns which will be addressed by this architecture are also listed below the diagram.
Encryption of messages in transit: Although most media connections are SSL-encrypted, this does not concern chatbot platforms. The exception is in SMSs, which must be unencrypted [8].
2) Man-in-the-middle: in a case where chatbots have been deployed on chat media platforms like skype, slack, Facebook or standard mobile texting (SMS), the owners of these mediums usually have access to any conversations taking place via the channels. That automatically compromises the privacy aspect of the conversations and makes them non-HIPAA compliant.
3) Chat logs stored on user devices: if SMSs are used for the purposes of exchanging sensitive data and information, any party that has access to the device used can easily read the messages because they exists in an unencrypted form and without passwords to protect them from being accessed by other parties.
4) Logging and access rights: to ensure that chatbots comply with the HIPAA guidelines completely, all the platform log actions must not be exposed to any person. Strict policies while using the platform are ensured especially when it comes to who accesses a certain data. In this approach, even the employees are only given access to sensitive data on signing the right forms and proving that they have a real need for accessing the data.
5) Encryption of data at rest: The Conversation Management Engine will use encrypted databases to store chat logs.
6) Use of external NLP services: In cases where the chatbot will rely on external libraries to analyze user texts, e.g., extracting date and phone numbers, then such a communication will have to be secured. Another approach will entail the use of libraries inside Conversation Management Engine, which don’t communicate with external entities [5]. Unlike most of the chatbots which are less responsive, this research will emphasize on improved configurations to ensure that chatbots are highly responsive and don’t take a lot of time to respond to the user queries.
Conclusion
Generally, this proposal has identified a problem with the previous approach to cost optimization where organizations have been using employee multitasking approach to achieve cost optimization. The main weakness of this approach has been identified as the low quality of products and services which are realized because of overworking the employees. As a solution to this problem, the paper has proposed chatbots as an alternative to that ineffective approach. Although being an effective approach to cost optimization, there are some weaknesses which have been associated with the approach but necessary measures also proposed to ensure that the approach works as effective as possible in ensuring cost optimization. The proposed solution entails the implementation of secured chatbots.
References
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