Understanding specifications for the control of service

The objective of this paper is to realize service operations management knowledge on service control implementation. The findings suggest that different specification elements require differences in control and different management attention. For example, that it may be difficult to control all aspects of a service specification but that having less explicit standards does not necessarily mean to have less explicit measures or control. Furthermore, the study clarified that less explicit elements of specifications seem to be controlled through less explicit means of control, and that more explicit specifications may also be controlled by less explicit means

A methodical procedure for designing consumer oriented on-demand IT service propositions

IT providers are increasingly facing the challenge to adapt their previously resource oriented service portfolios in order to offer their customers services which explicitly support business processes. Such customer centric service propositions, however, seem to contradict the demand for standardized and automated operational IT processes more than traditional IT service offers, as they are even more subject to customer individual reengineering efforts due to permanently changing business requirements. In order to reconcile increased efficiency in operational processes and effectiveness in consumer oriented service propositions, we propose (1) to predefine all service propositions in consideration of both consumer oriented commitments and operational processes, and (2) to allow for standardized customization by offering a selection of complementary service propositions that extend commitments regarding customer oriented functionality and performance. Such service propositions are aligned with a company's entities such as workplaces. Thereby the customer organization is enabled to trace, control and adjust commitments, value and expenses of IT services per entity in its business. We introduce a procedural model for designing and on-demand requesting this kind of service propositions, and we illustrate the model's application and impact by examples taken from two large projects with an associated IT provide

Focusing on IS Skills for the Middle and Senior Level Manager: A New Approach to the MBA Core IS Course

The core information systems (IS) course in an MBA program (the foundations IS course required for all students) is typically one of the hardest to teach. The wide range of student skills and the differing opinions on the content make this course a perennial problem. Who is the target audience? What should be the focus of the course? What is the appropriate course content? What is the proper balance between technical and managerial topics? To help answer these questions this paper investigates the problematic issues surrounding the core IS course and the current pedagogical approaches. An examination of past studies on IS skills seems to suggest academia should consider redesigning the MBA level core IS course. The paper proposes a new IS managerial approach to the course that may better fit the needs of middle and senior managers. This approach differs from previous approaches by making the central focus of the course the skills/knowledge needed by management, particularly general management, for exploiting information technology. A detailed description of a course example following this proposed new approach is provided along with a discussion of the flexibility that this approach offers MBA level IS instructors in achieving various pedagogical objectives. The paper concludes with some limitations associated with the approach and how these limitations can be overcome

Service level agreement em cloud computing : um estudo de caso

Mestrado em Ciências EmpresariaisO cloud computing é um novo modelo de negócio, que pressupõe a utilização de recursos tecnológicos em regime pay-as-you-go, permitindo que as empresas se foquem no seu core business, transformando as despesas de capital em despesas operacionais. Num ambiente cloud computing, o Service Level Agreement (SLA) é um documento que pretende gerir as expectativas do fornecedor de serviços e do cliente, relativamente à qualidade do serviço entregue, medindo e validando se os parâmetros previamente acordados são cumpridos. Com a elaboração deste trabalho pretende-se responder à questão de investigação: "Como negociar um Service Level Agreement para um ambiente cloud computing"?. Desta forma, realizou-se um estudo de caso numa empresa portuguesa, de média dimensão, fornecedora de soluções cloud. Procedeu-se a uma recolha de dados quantitativa e qualitativa, por meio de inquérito aos clientes da empresa, e posteriores entrevistas a um administrador (e responsável estratégico da cloud), e à responsável do serviço de suporte a clientes. Este trabalho contribui com uma reflexão sobre como um SLA deve ser estruturado e qual deverá ser o seu conteúdo; indica o conhecimento que as empresas possuem sobre os SLAs, bem como quais os parâmetros que consideram mais relevantes para a sua organização; e de que forma um SLA deve ser negociado, em regime cloud computing.Cloud computing is a new business model which assumes that technological resources are used under a pay-as-you-go manner, allowing companies to focus on their core business, turning capital expenditures into operational expenditures. Service Level Agreement (SLA) in cloud computing is a document that aims to manage service provider's and customer's expectations regarding the quality of service, by measuring and validating the parameters previously negotiated. This case study focus on answering the following question of investigation: "How to negotiate a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in a cloud computing environment"?. Therefore, it was performed a case study in a Portuguese mid-sized company, and cloud services provider. Thus, there has been collected a certain amount of quantitative data - through a survey to the company's customers. Next step was an interview with an administrator - and cloud manager - and an interview with the Service Desk manager. This study contributes to a reflection on how an SLA framework should be and what should be its content; tries to show what companies think about SLAs as well as which parameters are considered the most relevant to their organizations; and how should an SLA be negotiated in a cloud computing environment

A causal comparative factorial analysis of factors affecting service level agreements in a U.S. Navy enterprise information systems network

This paper presents the results of a research study related to the Navy and Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI). This study used MANOVA and one-way ANOVA, including post hoc tests, to analyze data sets corresponding to service level agreement metrics for over 300 Navy sites. Within the NMCI network, factors size, server farm, Network Operations Center (NOC), area, region, and group are affecting the performance metrics as defined in the service level agreements (SLA). Each one of the factors is statistically disparate for at least one SLA. Checks for normality indicate nonnormal behavior for most data sets. The results, conclusions, and recommendations have been provided to Navy service level managers to improve the system

Diseño de un sistema de servicio para la planificación de materiales

El diseño de un proceso desde la perspectiva de un sistema de servicio debe tener presente la tecnología, información y personas. El reto no es solo modelar la interacción de información y tecnología, sino también los roles de las personas como parte del sistema (Maglio, Srinivasan, & Kreulen, 2006). Con la metodología de Gestión por Procesos del Negocio (Business Process Management BPM) y los aportes de la óptica del servicio como guía, en este trabajo se diseñó un sistema de servicio de planificación de materiales. Se identificó en su estructura la coproducción entre las personas y su relación con la tecnología de información. El objetivo fue demostrar cómo la formalización del sistema es un precursor para la disminución de desperdicios, ubicados en los retrabajos y tiempo de respuesta al cliente. La metodología BPM consta de una serie de fases para el modelado de procesos que visualiza los objetivos de la organización y cómo el proceso participa en la generación de valor; con esto, brindar soluciones a clientes internos y externos, lo cual es lo más importante según la lógica dominante de servicio (Vargo & Lusch, 2004)

Model perjanjian tahap perkhidmatan dalam penyumberan luar perkhidmatan pengurusan fasiliti di universiti awam Malaysia

Service Level Agreements (SLA) are contracts based on performance used in outsourcing facilities management as governance document. In contrast to previous research found SLA focused mostly on the field of information technology, this research focus on facility management to determine the service performance of the appointed contractor. The objectives of this research are to develop the fundamental elements of SLA, to evaluate the effect of these fundamental elements on service performance and lastly to establish the SLA model. Respondents in this study have been chosen among public university in Malaysia. Samples are taken from the university's property management office outsourcing contract to manage the university facility management. Questionnaires were sent to the officer who responsible for facility management outsourcing contract. Development of fundamental elements begin with the method of a systematic literature review and restructured by using Fuzzy Delphi to get expert consensus in building the fundamental elements of SLA. Four fundamental elements consist of the contract information, measurement of service performance, cost of the contract and lastly the terms and conditions of the agreement. In addition, there are ten service performance indicators comprises of customer satisfaction, cost effectiveness, action time period, response time period, reliability of service provided, environmental compliance, employee commitment, client relationship with service provider, health and safety of users and employees and the latter is the use of information technology. Data were analysed by employed Partial Least Square (PLS) Structural Equation Model (SEM) with software SmartPLS version 3.0. The result shows that SLA model developed two fundamental elements that have relationship with service performance namely measurement service performance and terms and conditions of agreement. This SLA model indicates that the measurement of service performance is very important to control and evaluate the performance of the services provided by the contractor. While the terms and conditions of the agreement is aimed to control a contractual governance that affects the performance of the service