Showing papers on "Service level objective published in 2015"

Relationships between rail passengers’ satisfaction and service quality: a framework for identifying key service factors

Abstract: Increasing the use of public transport is one of the most convenient strategies for alleviating the problems resulting from the excessive use of the private car in most metropolitan areas (congestion, pollution, noise, etc.). In order to improve public transport, developing appropriate tools for measuring and monitoring service quality is necessary. Among the various methods for measuring transit service quality the authors choose to adopt a method based on customer perspective because they retain that customers have the right elements for appropriately judging the used service. Specifically, a structural equation model is formulated to explore the impact of the relationship between global customer satisfaction and service quality attributes, such as safety, cleanliness, main and additional services, information about the service, and personnel, and to verify which of these attributes are key factors of service quality. Services offered by rail operators in Northern Italy are analysed (32 regional lines, 9 suburban lines, 2 express lines). Data collected by a survey addressed to a sample of more than 16,000 passengers are used for calibrating the model. The proposed model can be useful both to transport agencies and planners to analyze the correlation between service quality attributes and identify the most convenient attributes for improving the supplied service. The main findings are that information, cleanliness, and service characteristics like punctuality and frequency of runs have the highest positive effect on service quality. In addition, the authors experimented with the introduction of indicators explaining the endogenous latent variable different from the traditionally used indicators, such as an index based on both satisfaction and importance rates.

The role of service fairness in the service quality – relationship quality – customer loyalty chain

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend the well-established nomological network of service quality-relationship quality-customer loyalty by introducing service fairness – a distinct service evaluation concept. Specifically, the study aims to investigate the impact of service fairness on relationship quality as a complementary to service quality driver, and the direct and indirect effect of service fairness on customer loyalty in the presence of service quality and relationship quality in a no failure/recovery effort service context. Design/methodology/approach – A telephone survey of a random sample of 408 customers of auto repair and maintenance services was implemented using a structured questionnaire with established scales. Data were analyzed with partial least squares path methodology, a structural equation modeling methodology. Findings – Interactional fairness is the most important formative determinant of customers’ overall fairness perception, followed by procedural and distributive fai...

SelCSP: A Framework to Facilitate Selection of Cloud Service Providers

Abstract: With rapid technological advancements, cloud marketplace witnessed frequent emergence of new service providers with similar offerings. However, service level agreements (SLAs) , which document guaranteed quality of service levels, have not been found to be consistent among providers, even though they offer services with similar functionality. In service outsourcing environments, like cloud, the quality of service levels are of prime importance to customers, as they use third-party cloud services to store and process their clients’ data. If loss of data occurs due to an outage, the customer’s business gets affected. Therefore, the major challenge for a customer is to select an appropriate service provider to ensure guaranteed service quality. To support customers in reliably identifying ideal service provider, this work proposes a framework, SelCSP , which combines trustworthiness and competence to estimate risk of interaction. Trustworthiness is computed from personal experiences gained through direct interactions or from feedbacks related to reputations of vendors. Competence is assessed based on transparency in provider’s SLA guarantees. A case study has been presented to demonstrate the application of our approach. Experimental results validate the practicability of the proposed estimating mechanisms.

Scalability, Elasticity, and Efficiency in Cloud Computing: a Systematic Literature Review of Definitions and Metrics

Abstract: Context: In cloud computing, there is a multitude of definitions and metrics for scalability, elasticity, and efficiency. However, stakeholders have little guidance for choosing fitting definitions and metrics for these quality properties, thus leading to potential misunderstandings. For example, cloud consumers and providers cannot negotiate reliable and quantitative service level objectives directly understood by each stakeholder. Objectives: Therefore, we examine existing definitions and metrics for these quality properties from the viewpoint of cloud consumers, cloud providers, and software architects with regard to commonly used concepts. Methods: We execute a systematic literature review (SLR), reproducibly collecting common concepts in definitions and metrics for scalability, elasticity, and efficiency. As quality selection criteria, we assess whether existing literature differentiates the three properties, exemplifies metrics, and considers typical cloud characteristics and cloud roles. Results: Our SLR yields 418 initial results from which we select 20 for in-depth evaluation based on our quality selection criteria. In our evaluation, we recommend concepts, definitions, and metrics for each property. Conclusions: Software architects can use our recommendations to analyze the quality of cloud computing applications. Cloud providers and cloud consumers can specify service level objectives based on our metric suggestions.

Service Selection for Web Services with Probabilistic QoS

Abstract: Web services can be specified from two perspectives, namely functional and non-functional properties. Multiple services may possess the same function while vary in their non-functional properties, or called quality-of-service (QoS). QoS values are important criteria for service selection or recommendation. Most of the former works in web service selection and recommendation treat the QoS values as constants. However, QoS values of a service as perceived by a given user are intrinsically random variables because QoS value prediction can never be precise and there are always some unobserved random effects. In this work, we address the service selection problem by representing services’ QoS values as discrete random variables with probability mass functions. The goal is to select a set of atomic services for composing a composite service such that the probability of satisfying constraints imposed on the composite service is high and the execution time is reasonable. Our proposed method starts with an initial web service assignment and incrementally adjusts it using simulated annealing. We conduct several experiments and the results show that our approach generally performs better than previous works, such as the integer programming method and the cost-driven method.

How Much Compensation Should a Firm Offer for a Flawed Service? An Examination of the Nonlinear Effects of Compensation on Satisfaction

Abstract: This research examines the nonlinear effects of compensation on customer satisfaction in order to determine the optimal compensation after a flawed service. As our core contribution, we argue that the nature of this nonlinear effect depends on the way customers handle a flawed service. Building on the Service-Dominant (S-D) logic, this research introduces two specific failure handling tactics—when customers reject versus accept a flawed value proposition—that affect the shape of the nonlinear function of compensation on satisfaction. Our key hypotheses are tested with two experiments that manipulate 11 compensation levels (0–200%) and the two failure handling tactics (rejection vs. acceptance). Consistent with our logic, both studies reveal an S-shaped curve progression for service rejection and a concave shape for service acceptance. For service rejection, the highest incremental effect of compensation on satisfaction lies in between 60% and 120%. For service acceptance, the highest return in satisfactio...

On the fair optimization of cost and customer service level in a supply chain under disruption risks

Abstract: This paper presents a new decision-making problem of a fair optimization with respect to the two equally important conflicting objective functions: cost and customer service level, in the presence of supply chain disruption risks Given a set of customer orders for products, the decision maker needs to select suppliers of parts required to complete the orders, allocate the demand for parts among the selected suppliers, and schedule the orders over the planning horizon, to equitably optimize expected cost and expected customer service level The supplies of parts are subject to independent random local and regional disruptions The fair decision-making aims at achieving the normalized expected cost and customer service level values as much close to each other as possible The obtained combinatorial stochastic optimization problem is formulated as a stochastic mixed integer program with the ordered weighted averaging aggregation of the two conflicting objective functions Numerical examples and computational results, in particular comparison with the weighted-sum aggregation of the two objective functions are presented and some managerial insights are reported The findings indicate that for the minimum cost objective the cheapest supplier is usually selected, and for the maximum service level objective a subset of most reliable and most expensive suppliers is usually chosen, whereas the equitably efficient supply portfolio usually combines the most reliable and the cheapest suppliers While the minimum cost objective function leads to the largest expected unfulfilled demand and the expected production schedule for the maximum service level follows the customer demand with the smallest expected unfulfilled demand, the equitably efficient solution ensures a reasonable value of expected unfulfilled demand

Aggressive Resource Provisioning for Ensuring QoS in Virtualized Environments

Abstract: Elasticity has now become the elemental feature of cloud computing as it enables the ability to dynamically add or remove virtual machine instances when workload changes. However, effective virtualized resource management is still one of the most challenging tasks. When the workload of a service increases rapidly, existing approaches cannot respond to the growing performance requirement efficiently because of either inaccuracy of adaptation decisions or the slow process of adjustments, both of which may result in insufficient resource provisioning. As a consequence, the Quality of Service (QoS) of the hosted applications may degrade and the Service Level Objective (SLO) will be thus violated. In this paper, we introduce SPRNT, a novel resource management framework, to ensure high-level QoS in the cloud computing system. SPRNT utilizes an aggressive resource provisioning strategy which encourages SPRNT to substantially increase the resource allocation in each adaptation cycle when workload increases. This strategy first provisions resources which are possibly more than actual demands, and then reduces the over-provisioned resources if needed. By applying the aggressive strategy, SPRNT can satisfy the increasing performance requirement in the first place so that the QoS can be kept at a high level. The experimental results show that SPRNT achieves up to 7.7 $\times$ speedup in adaptation time, compared with existing efforts. By enabling quick adaptation, SPRNT limits the SLO violation rate up to 1.3 percent even when dealing with rapidly increasing workload.

The performance impact of industrial services and service orientation on manufacturing companies

Abstract: Purpose – Product-manufacturing firms are increasingly positioning themselves as providers of industrial services and solutions. Despite the increasing conceptual interest in industrial services, empirical evidence about the factors that mediate the relationships between industrial services and firm performance remains limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between industrial service offerings, service orientation and firm sales and profit performance. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses data from 115 manufacturing firms and adopts a structural equation modeling technique to test a set of hypotheses on service offerings, service orientation and company sales and profit performance. Findings – The results underline the importance of implementing service orientation in employees’ behavior, recruitment, training, and assessment. Service orientation is demonstrated as an essential mediator for the relationship between service offerings, revenues, and profits. The result...

Product service systems, after-sales service and new product development

Abstract: After-sales service is a critical element in the successful marketing of many products. Capital goods, for example, manufacturing equipment, require after-sales service such as maintenance and repair in order for customers to get the full value from them. Some manufacturers have started to offer customers an integrated product and service, termed a product-service system in the academic literature. However, in order to deliver such integrated offerings, a different approach to new product development (NPD) is required. This is because the product design influences after-sales service requirements, and so this needs to be considered during NPD. However, researchers have largely ignored the relationship between NPD and service. To address this gap, six in-depth case studies were conducted at leading companies that offer a combined product-service offering, to identify how service requirements are typically evaluated at the design stage. The results show that at companies where after-sales is an important el...

CloudScope: Diagnosing and Managing Performance Interference in Multi-tenant Clouds

Abstract: Virtual machine consolidation is attractive in cloud computing platforms for several reasons including reduced infrastructure costs, lower energy consumption and ease of management. However, the interference between co-resident workloads caused by virtualization can violate the service level objectives (SLOs) that the cloud platform guarantees. Existing solutions to minimize interference between virtual machines (VMs) are mostly based on comprehensive micro-benchmarks or online training which makes them computationally intensive. In this paper, we present CloudScope, a system for diagnosing interference for multi-tenant cloud systems in a lightweight way. CloudScope employs a discrete-time Markov Chain model for the online prediction of performance interference of co-resident VMs. It uses the results to optimally (re)assign VMs to physical machines and to optimize the hypervisor configuration, e.g. the CPU share it can use, for different workloads. We have implemented CloudScope on top of the Xen hypervisor and conducted experiments using a set of CPU, disk, and network intensive workloads and a real system (MapReduce). Our results show that CloudScope interference prediction achieves an average error of 9%. The interference-aware scheduler improves VM performance by up to 10% compared to the default scheduler. In addition, the hypervisor reconfiguration can improve network throughput by up to 30%.

The complex role of complexity: How service providers can mitigate negative effects of perceived service complexity when selling professional services

Abstract: During professional service encounters, integrating customers into the process of service provision is both important and challenging, as the complexity of professional services can impair value cr

From Service Level Agreements (SLA) to Experience Level Agreements (ELA): The challenges of selling QoE to the user

Abstract: In contrast to the rather network-centric notion of Quality of Service (QoS), the concept of Quality of Experience (QoE) has a strongly user-centric perspective on service quality in communication networks as well as online services. However, related research on QoE so far has largely neglected the question of how to operationalize quality differentiation and to provide corresponding solutions tailored to the end users. In this paper, we argue that the introduction of Experience Level Agreements (ELA) as QoE-enabled counterpiece to traditional QoS-based Service Level Agreements (SLA) would provide a key step towards being able to sell service quality to the user. Hence, we investigate various ideas to exploit QoE awareness for improving SLAs (ranging from internal aspects like SLOs by service providers to completely novel definitions of ELAs which are able to characterize QoE explicitly), and discuss important problems and challenges of the proposed transition as well.

Exploiting Cloud Heterogeneity to Optimize Performance and Cost of MapReduce Processing

Abstract: Cloud computing offers a new, attractive option to customers for quickly provisioning any size Hadoop cluster, consuming resources as a service, executing their MapReduce workload, and then paying for the time these resources were used. One of the open questions in such environments is the right choice of resources (and their amount) a user should lease from the service provider. Typically, there is a variety of different types of VM instances in the Cloud (e.g., small, medium, or large EC2 instances). The capacity differences of the offered VMs are reflected in VM's pricing. Therefore, for the same price a user can get a variety of Hadoop clusters based on different VM instance types. We observe that the performance of MapReduce applications may vary significantly on different platforms. This makes a selection of the best cost/performance platform for a given workload a non-trivial problem, especially when it contains multiple jobs with different platform preferences. We aim to solve the following problem: given a completion time target for a set of MapReduce jobs, determine a homogeneous or heterogeneous Hadoop cluster configuration (i.e., the number, types of VMs, and the job schedule) for processing these jobs within a given deadline while minimizing the rented infrastructure cost. In this work,1 we design an efficient and fast simulation-based framework for evaluating and selecting the right underlying platform for achieving the desirable Service Level Objectives (SLOs). Our evaluation study with Amazon EC2 platform reveals that for different workload mixes, an optimized platform choice may result in 45-68% cost savings for achieving the same performance objectives when using different (but seemingly equivalent) choices. Moreover, depending on a workload the heterogeneous solution may outperform the homogeneous cluster solution by 26-42%. We provide additional insights explaining the obtained results by profiling the performance characteristics of used applications and underlying EC2 platforms. The results of our simulation study are validated through experiments with Hadoop clusters deployed on different Amazon EC2 instances.

Why wait? Impact of waiting lines on self-service technology use

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of the present study is to examine the effect of waiting lines on customers’ decisions between using a self-service alternative and using a service employee. As self-service technologies are expensive and time-consuming to design and implement, service providers need to understand what drives customers to use them. Service operators have the most control over waiting lines and flexibility in expanding capacity, either by adding service employees or by adding self-service kiosks. Design/methodology/approach – The study used online scenario-based surveys following a 4 (number of customers waiting for the self-service technology) × 4 (number of customers waiting for the service employee) design. A binary dependent variable was used to record participants’ choice of service delivery alternative. Findings – Using logistic regression, the authors found that customers are increasingly motivated to use self-service technology as the waiting line for the service employee grows longer. This ef...

Supply Chain Contracting for After-sales Service and Product Support

Abstract: markdown Over the past decades, business model innovation in product and its service has been growing rapidly, especially for durable goods Companies shift their strategies from selling physical products to delivering solutions and performance for customers Within this context, the outcome-based service contracts, such as Performance-based Logistics and Power-by-the-Hour, have been developed in both public and commercial industry At the same time, traditional service contracts such as Warranty and Time & Material contracts are still being used in many occasions Under various business models, managing the after-sales service and product support becomes increasingly challenging In this thesis, we study several important service contracting problems concerning optimal design of contract terms, spare parts inventory and service capacity management, and service outsourcing management We provide managerial insights for selecting the best service contract, choosing the right performance measurement, optimally managing the service resources (spare parts and repair capacity), and incentivizing the supplier to improve the profit of the after-sales service and product support supply chains

Imperialist competitive algorithm with PROCLUS classifier for service time optimization in cloud computing service composition

Abstract: CSSICA is proposed to find the lowest service time for cloud composite services.PROCLUS is used to divide service providers into 3 categories based on service time.Selection probability of categories is calculated using their average service time.Utilizing achieved categories CSSICA has been able to make more conscious selections. Aiming to provide satisfying and value-added cloud composite services, suppliers put great effort into providing a large number of service providers. This goal, achieved by providing the "best" solutions, will not be guaranteed unless an efficient composite service composer is employed to choose an optimal set of required unique services (with respect to user-defined values for quality of service parameters) from the large number of provided services in the pool. Facing a wide service pool, user constraints, and a large number of required unique services in each request, the composer must solve an NP-hard problem. In this paper, CSSICA is proposed to make advances toward the lowest possible service time of composite service; in this approach, the PROCLUS classifier is used to divide cloud service providers into three categories based on total service time and assign a probability to each provider. An improved imperialist competitive algorithm is then employed to select more suitable service providers for the required unique services. Using a large real dataset, experimental and statistical studies are conducted to demonstrate that the use of clustering improved the results compared to other investigated approaches; thus, CSSICA should be considered by the composer as an efficient and scalable approach.

Study on e-government services quality: The integration of online and offline services

Abstract: Purpose : E-Government, as a new bond linking the government and the public, has gradually become the focus of innovation in government services. The paper focuses on the e-Government service quality issues from the perspective of users. Design/methodology/approach : From the aspects of online service quality perception and offline service quality perception, based on IS Success model and SERQUAL model, e-Government Services Quality model has been set up with information quality, system quality and service quality as key factors. Then, the survey method was applied to collect data and then to test the model. Findings : It was found that users’ perception of offline service quality has a significant effect on improving their perception of online service quality, and online service quality perception has a significant effect on public satisfaction of e-Government services; information clarity, system security and stability, interactive services and “one-stop” services all have a significant effect on public satisfaction of e-Government services. However, offline service quality perception has certain positive effect on public satisfaction of e-Government services but not dramatically. Research limitations/implications : Mobile e-Government as an important direction of the development of e-Government, in the future, we will study more about mobile e-Government services channels. Originality/value: This study further develops the theory of information system service quality, and also provides a theoretical reference for government departments. On the one hand, based on the characteristics of e-government system, information quality, system quality and service quality in the previous system service model are further discussed; on the other hand, both online and offline services are taken into consideration in the information system service model, thus establishing the e-government services quality model and making an in-depth study of the integration effect of online and offline services. Its conclusions can be references for the application of traditional information system service model in the field of e-government.

A Review of Service and E-Service Quality Measurements: Previous Literature and Extension

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to show the requirement of industry-specific national service quality indices for measuring quality in both traditional and electronic services in various industries in a country. In this study, the literature about service and e-service quality measurements was reviewed, and a three-dimensional framework was developed. It was found out that the dimensions of each service quality measurement were all different from each other due to the different characteristics of the industries that each study has been conducted in. The study showed that there is a need for an industry-specific national service quality index and suggested that national customer satisfaction indices which have existed in the literature can be a model for industry-specific national service quality indices. An industry-specific national service quality index enables national companies to understand their unique industrial characteristics that needed to be improved continuously in order to increase service quality and gain competitive advantage. The index which was proposed to develop in the future was suggested for the first time in this study. Keywords: Service quality; E-service quality; Service quality dimensions; National customer satisfaction indices; Turkish Customer Satisfaction Index (TCSI).

PuLSaR: preference-based cloud service selection for cloud service brokers

Abstract: Over the last few years, the vast increase of cloud service offerings that are available from heterogeneous cloud vendors, has made the evaluation and selection of desired cloud services, a cumbersome task for service consumers. In that respect, there is an increasing need for user guidance and intermediation during the service selection process but also during the cloud service consumption that should always refer to the best possible choice based on user preferences. In this paper, we discuss the Preference-based cLoud Service Recommender (PuLSaR) that uses a holistic multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach for offering optimisation as a brokerage service. The specification and implementation details of this proposed software mechanism are thoroughly discussed while the background method used is summarised. Both method and brokerage service allow for the multi-objective assessment of cloud services in a unified way, taking into account precise and imprecise metrics and dealing with their fuzziness. We cope with the fuzziness of imprecise metrics in the sense that this approach deals with linguistically expressed preferences and cloud service characteristics that lack a fixed or precise value and entail a level of vagueness which can only be captured using the Zadeh’s Fuzzy Set Theory. Furthermore, this paper reports on a number of experiments that were conducted in order to measure PuLSaR’s performance and scalability.

Performance Comparison of Reservation Based and Instant Access One-Way Car Sharing Service through Discrete Event Simulation

Abstract: A car sharing service has been highlighted as a new urban transport alternative for an environmentally friendly economy. As the demand for the service from customers increases, car sharing operators need to introduce a new service such as a one-way option that will allow customers to return the car to different stations. Due to the complexity of the one-way system, it needs to be managed and optimized for real cases. This paper focuses on developing a simulation model in order to help operators evaluate the performance of the one-way service. In addition, this research demonstrates a strategy for an open one-way service that can increase revenue and customer satisfaction. A real case dataset is used for investigation to find the best result from the simulation. The result showed that the total number of cars, number of one-way reservations and station size have an impact on one-way performance. Thus, company profit and customer satisfaction can be maximized by optimizing these factors.

A fuzzy approach to service quality diagnosis

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify service quality dimensions that could enhance the level of services provided by a variety of carriers and rank them, accordingly. Design/methodology/approach – This research aims to identify service quality dimensions that could enhance the level of services provided by a variety of carriers and rank them, accordingly. Findings – The results show that “safety,” “timeliness,” and “variety and type of airplane” are the most important service quality criteria from the passengers’ viewpoint. It also indicates that the most and least important dimensions of service quality are “tangibles” and “responsiveness,” respectively. The results ranked the airlines from one to three as Emirates Airline, Mahan Air, and Iran Air. Originality/value – Most of the service quality criteria are descriptive and are stated using lingual expressions (cardinal or ordinal scales). Therefore, evaluation of perceptions and expectations of customers regarding service quality using non...

Managing Service Quality: Dimensions of service quality: a study in Egypt

Abstract: Service quality has played an essential role in the hotel industry for decades. Accordingly, it is essential that service providers recognize customer perceptions and expectations in addition to the factors that influence their satisfaction with the service provided. Hotel industry is growing in Egypt. Taking into consideration the competition among hotels, hotel managers are concentrating on enhancing the factors related to service quality for the hotel industry customers' in Egypt. The hotel industry service quality is an essential factor of flourishing business. By o0ffering quality service, companies can maintain customers’ loyalty and competitive edges more than their competitors. This study explores the effects of different hotel industry factors that affect customer satisfaction. Mostly all researchers adopted Parasuraman, Zeitaml, & Berry’s (1988) service quality model and adopted their SERVQUAL instrument, based upon the conception that service quality varies among industries. This study includes additional dimensions, identified by customers, which supposed to be integrated into the service quality construct it measures the level of importance of each particular dimension for the of hotel services users in Egypt. Keywords- Service quality, Hotel Industry, Customer Satisfaction.

Perceived service quality models: are they still relevant?

Abstract: This paper reviews the concept of perceived service quality and provides an update to the body of service quality knowledge. It consolidates the pathway of perceived service quality concept, from its emergence to the research model’s development. It also critically reviews service characteristics as prerequisites of perceived service quality conceptualisation. The examination of six perceived service quality models is intended to identify a superior model that could be used by further research. Yet, overall, the paper challenges the relevance of existing models for the current stage of service quality research. It also justifies the need to move towards a revised, service-driven framework and to consider perceived service quality through the lens of the customer.

Evaluating customer-perceived service quality in business management education in India

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the question of service quality in the higher education sector in the business management area, with the research objective to explore the dimensions of service quality and assess performance of higher educational institutes (HEIs) in business management across customer-perceived service quality dimensions. Design/methodology/approach – A modified SERVQUAL instrument was used to capture customers’ perceptions of service quality with a sample size of 1,152 customers. Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used to holistically evaluate the performance of the HEIs. Findings – The current research develops a scale for measuring service quality in the area of business management education and reinforces the fact that service quality is a multidimensional construct. It suggests that customers distinguish four dimensions of service quality in the case of the higher education industry in business management. TOPSIS analysis pro...

Benchmarking the service quality of airlines in the United States: an exploratory analysis

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to help airlines gain a better understanding of passengers’ service concerns, identify opportunities for continuous service improvement, and then develop service benchmarking standards that can be a yardstick for the airline’s competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops a set of target performance standards that helps airlines monitor their service delivery process, identify relative weaknesses, and take corrective actions for continuous service improvements using exploratory data analysis and competitive gap analysis. Findings – This study reveals that a service attribute considered most important to the airline customers’ impressions of service quality are air safety. This result reflects a growing concern over potential terrorism against airlines in the wake of the September 11 incident. The authors also found that proper baggage handling, competitive airfare, and on-time arrival/departure were next most important service attributes, whereas...