Journal of Student Research

Fourth Middle East College Student Research Conference, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Automation of Processes in Omantel

Wholesale
Aisha Al Hinai MIDDLE EAST COLLEGE
Dr. Deena Middle East College

Telecommunications sector is often considered as one of the most rapidly changing dynamic
industries in the world. Products and services of this sector are changed very quickly.
Moreover, the business of the telecommunications company develops and progresses through
many internal processes and technologies at its core. The success of any enterprise in this
dynamically developing external environment is decided to a great extent on its ability to
adapt to swiftly in accordance with the changing market needs. Adopting automation process
is one of the key strategy that is adopted by many enterprises that is most effectively
functioning in the modern telecommunications industrial sector. The growth of the
telecommunications sector in any country is highly looked upon as it is a main priority for any
national economy. Omantel is the flagship company and the pioneer in telecommunication
sector in the Sultanate of Oman and is currently the market leader. However, it is facing stiff
challenges from the time when telecommunication sector got opened for private players.
Assessing this situation there is a strong trigger to adopt automation process for its
operations, especially in the wholesale department. This project attempts to investigate how
significant the various triggers effect the decision of adopting automation process in Omantel
Wholesale department. Then, it attempts to statistically quantify the influence of various key
factors that affects the adoption of process automation in the Omantel wholesale department.
Lastly a decision would be recommended by testing of hypothesis either in favour of adopting
automation process or accepting the alternative that adopting automation process is not
required for the time being.

Introduction
Telecommunications sector is often considered as one of the most rapidly changing dynamic
industries in the world. Products and services of this sector are changed very quickly. Moreover,
the business of the telecommunications company develops and progresses through many internal
processes and technologies at its core. The success of any enterprise in this dynamically developing
external environment is decided to a great extent on its ability to adapt to swiftly in accordance
with the changing market needs. Adopting automation process is one of the key strategy that is
adopted by many enterprises that is most effectively functioning in the modern telecommunications
industrial sector. The growth of the telecommunications sector in any country is highly looked upon
as it is a main priority for any national economy. Omantel is the flagship company and the pioneer
in telecommunication sector in the Sultanate of Oman and is currently the market leader. However,
it is facing stiff challenges from the time when telecommunication sector got opened for private
players. Assessing this situation there is a strong trigger to adopt automation process for its
operations, especially in the wholesale department.Oman Telecommunication Company (Omantel)
is the first telecommunication provider in Sultan of Oman since 1970s.

Since establishment, Omantel has been providing the widest as well as the latest communication
solutions to its customers. Omantel is working smart to meet the customer need by adopting
technologies in their daily process and achieving the profitability growth. Varity customers in
region leads Omantel to structure based on the customer demand and functionalities. Therefore
Omantel have three sale units: Consumer, Enterprise and Wholesale (Omantel, 2019). Omantel
Wholesale is one of the sale unit. The main function of Omantel Wholesale is to provide Omantel

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Fourth Middle East College Student Research Conference, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

services to the internal and external licensing telecom company. Omantel Wholesale is leading the
market with wide challenges over the world by delivering the efficient telecommunication services
with best customer satisfaction experience (Wholesale, 2019).

Automation plays a very important role in the working of most companies. Hence most of the
companies adopt modern technologies to increase profit, reduce labour cost, improve quality,
increase the efficiency and reduce timeline. (Nguyen Van Tran, et al., 2019). This paper will aim at
identifying the factors that affect the adoption of automation technology in Omantel Wholesale.

Aim of the research

The aim of this research is to identify the factors that drive Omantel Warehouse to adopt any
automation technologies. If the driving factors are identified then it becomes easy for the
organization to handle the changes adopt technological changes easily.

The main aim will further be subdivided into the following objectives for the purpose of the study.

1. Identify the factors that drive and restrain omantel wholesale to adopt automation
technologies
2. Evaluate how Omantel Wholesale could deal with these factors in order to facilitate the
adoption of any automation technologies

Scope of the study

In order to answer the research questions, deep focus in Omantel Wholesale with emphasis on the
adoption of automation technologies in the selling system. To have a clear overview about all
factors affecting adoption of any automation technologies in Omantel Wholesale, the main focus on
the top management as they are decision maker, middle management as the main link between the
top management the workers and lower floor as employee who is dealing with technologies in daily
bases. Culture and innovation processes of Omantel Wholesale not including which their theories
would not belong to the scope of the research. However, there will be a briefly explained how these
aspect will drive to restrain the adoption of any automation technologies to have overall respective
picture.

Research Methodology
The study has made use of Simple Random sampling to draw 50 samples from the population which
comprises of the employees of Omantel Wholesale. Simple percentage method will be used to
analyze the collected data.

Theoretical Framework of the research

Several authors have been suggested different reason why the companies automate their system.
Goran Krpan pointed out lead time, quality and flexibility are some of the factors why companies
looking for automation on their process (Goran.Krpan, 2018).Groover and Dr.R.S. Bridger have
contributed more to discussion of automation and reasons behind automation (Groover, 2016),
(Dr.R.S.Bridger, 2018).

With term of flexibility and efficiency the automation technology provide a competitive advantages
on the economies for the organization with high labour cost countries. (Advameg, 2016). The
automation technologies offer a quick production, more customization, more variety and fast
responses to the customer equipment with lower labour cost (Nguyen Van Tran, et al., 2019).

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According to Groover,2007 the following are the factors that trigger automation in any industry.

Increased labour productivity, Reduced labor cost, Reduced Routine manual or clerical tasks,
Reduced Operation time, Improved Quality and accomplish processes that cannot be done
manually. In addition to the reasons that have been given above, other researchers have also
pointed out the triggers of automation (Olheger, 2010).

The adoption and use of automation technology by companies is a product of a series of different
decisions, which most often comes from the comparisons of the benefits and the cost of the
introduced automation technology. (Sonny Ariss, 2000)

Apart from the factors studied by various researchers, the following are few of the other factors
that have been identified by the researcher. The Technology Acceptance Model (1989) and the
Innovation Diffusion Model (1983) are the basis for the study and have been studied in depth to
understand the factors affecting technology adoption.

The factors that influence can be divided into (i) Internal Factors and (ii) External factors

Internal Factors External Factors

a) Culture b) Novelty c) Administration d) Company Size e) a) Country Rule and Regulation b) Technology Suppliers c)
Human Resource Customer d) Competition

Table 1.

Based on the survey that had been conducted, the following are the results that were obtained and
are given in the annexure.

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Figure 1. Findings of the study

Empirical Findings of the Study

The empirical findings of the research paper clearly shows that there is good awareness among the
employees of Omantel Wholesale on the factors that affect the adoption of technology. The
awareness is equal for both the internal and external factors. This enables us come to a conclusion
that since there is good awareness, it is easier for the organization to educate and train the
employees to adopt to the change. Out of the internal factors identified, Innovation and Human
Resources have the highest degree of awareness, followed by the size of the organization and the
administrative changes. Culture does have an influence, but the degree of influence according to
the respondents is comparatively low. So irrespective of the organization culture, the employees
are convinced that the technology can be and should be adopted to improve the performance of the
organization.

With regard to the external factors, competition influences and triggers the adoption of better
technology by the organization, followed by the technology adoption of the suppliers. The next
influencing factor is the rules and regulations imposed by the country.

The overall understanding that can be derived is that the external factors and the internal factors
have an equal influence on the adoption of technology. The employees feel that there is no
significant difference on the influence exerted by internal or external factors.

Conclusion
The aim of this research was to understand the awareness of the employees on the factors
influencing the adoption of technology in Omantel Wholesale. A simple questionnaire was framed to
understand the awareness percentage of the employees. The employees believe that the internal
and external factors equally influence the adoption of technology. Hence when training needs to be
given to employees when a new technology is being adopted it makes it easier for the organisation
to train the employees. Even adoption of newer technologies can be made keeping in mind the
influencing factors.

Works Cited
Advameg, 2016. Automation - advantage, type, cost, types of automation. [Online] Available at:
https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/A-Bo/Automation.html [Accessed 12 September 2019].

Dr.R.S.Bridger, 2018. introduction to Human Factors and Ergonomics. Fourth Edition ed. U.S: CRC
Press, Taylor and Francie Group, LLC.

Goran.Krpan, 2018. Key Success Factors for Implementing Crm in Sales Departments of B2B
Companies. First Edition ed. United Sates: Diplom.de, 2018.

Groover, M. P., 2016. Automation, Production Systems, and Computer-Integrated

Manufacturing. Fourth Edition ed. United States of America: Pearson Higher Education.

N. V. T., M. A. & Q. V. T., 2019. Labour quality and benefits reaped from global economic
integration: An application of dynamic panel SGMM estimators. Economic Analysis and
Policy, Volume 63, pp. 92-106.

Olheger, J., 2010. The role of the customer order decoupling point in production and supply chain
management. Computers in Industry, pp. 863-868.

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Omantel, 2019. Omantel. [Online] Available at:

https://www.omantel.om/wps/portal/Omantel/About%20us [Accessed 23 August 2019].

Sonny Ariss, T. R. A. K., 2000. Factors Affecting the Adoption of Advanced Technology in Small
Firms. SAM Advanced Management Journal .

Wholesale, O., 2019. Omantel Wholesale. [Online] Available at:

https://www.omantel.om/wps/portal/Omantel/Wholesale/overview [Accessed 25 August 2019].

Annexure

Criteria Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

There are quite a 25 12 7 6 0
lot of forces that
drive the
automation of
Omantel.
There is a strong 25 16 4 5 0
awareness of the
internal factors that
affect the
automation
Culture of the 19 11 12 4 4
company affects
the automation
process
The degree of 30 11 4 5 0
innovation is quite
high and it has an
impact of the
degree of
automation
The company 21 12 10 4 3
administration
influences the way
the automation
happens in the
telecom industry
The automation 20 16 4 5 5
process in Omantel
Wholesale is
comparatively
quicker and easier
because of the size
of the organization
The Human 29 11 10 0 0
Resources of the
company has
influenced the
adoption of
automation in
Omantel Wholesale
The external 25 16 4 5 0
factors that affect
the automation
process can be
easily related to
The rules and 20 12 10 4 4
regulations that
govern the telecom
industry influences
the extent to which
automation is

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encouraged in the
organization
The level at which 21 19 5 5 0
technology is
adopted by
suppliers also
influences the
adoption of
technology by
Omantel Wholesale
Customers also 18 12 10 6 4
influence the
adoption of
technology in
Omantel Wholesale
Existence of 25 15 5 5 0
competition has an
impact of the
technology that is
adopted
Table 2.

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