Service level objective

About: Service level objective is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 7894 publications have been published within this topic receiving 218701 citations.

Combining subjective and objective QoS factors for personalized web service selection

Abstract: Web service is an emerging Internet technology to dynamically describe, discover and communicate. According to the Web Service Architecture (WSA) published by W3C, users can find services through the repository Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI). However, the UDDI may find many web services with similar functions without considering the nonfunctional quality of service (QoS) information. Under such circumstances, users may have difficulty deciding which service is suitable. This paper proposes a fuzzy-based UDDI with QoS support. Unlike many similar researches, the proposed method tries to consider not only the objective factors described by service providers but also the subjective information with trustability evaluations from users who use those services. Genetic algorithm (GA) is adapted to learn user preferences, and fuzzy logic is applied for making decisions. With a fuzzy query interface to input subjective and objective factors, users can determine the most suitable web service for personal use.

Planning for service quality: an integrative approach

Abstract: Studies focusing on service quality management suggest that service firms spend too little effort on planning for service quality. The ensuing costs associated with poor service quality planning lead to lower profitability as part of the “cycle of service failures”. Examines how a quality planning technique (quality function deployment) (QFD) can be modified and adapted for use in a service environment to help prevent service failures. Illustrates the potential for the quality function deployment process as an effective tool at both the strategic planning level and the tactical level using the front‐desk activities in a hotel as an example. Also discusses the potential application of the QFD process to other design and planning challenges.

Resource, service quality and performance triad: a framework for measuring efficiency of banking services

Abstract: In this paper, we present the development of a theoretical framework for measuring the efficiency of banking services taking into account physical and human resources, service quality and performance. Expenditures on quality improvement efforts and the impact of service quality on financial outcomes have long intrigued researchers. Banks have traditionally focused on how to transform their physical resources to generate financial performance, and they inadvertently ignored the mediating intangible factor of service quality. A theoretical framework on the optimization triad of resource, service quality and performance is proposed here, thereby linking the marketing variables to the financial metrics. A measure for the return on quality is developed as the ratio of the potential improvements in financial performance by enhancement of service quality to the observed performance figures. Empirical results obtained from a study of 27 Indian public sector banks and their customers allow us to measure the impact of service quality on financial performance, optimal level of service quality that can be generated using existing resources and the opportunity cost for sub-optimal service delivery. Banks delivering better service are shown to have better transformation of resource to performance using superior service delivery as the medium. Our results confirm the linkage between resource, service quality and performance for services.

Distributed Coordination of Internet Data Centers Under Multiregional Electricity Markets

Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of electricity cost management for Internet service providers with a collection of spatially distributed data centers. As the demand on Internet services and cloud computing has kept increasing in recent years, the power usage associated with IDC operations has been uprising significantly. The cyber and physical aspects of IDCs interact with each other, and bring unprecedented challenges in power management. While most existing research focuses on reducing power consumptions of IDCs at one specific location, the problem of reducing the total electricity cost has been overlooked. This is an important problem faced by service providers, especially in the present multielectricity-market environment, where the price of electricity may exhibit temporal and spatial diversities. Further, for these service providers, guaranteeing the quality of service (QoS; i.e., service level objectives) such as service delay guarantees to the end users is of critical importance. This paper studies the problem of minimizing the total electricity cost geared to QoS constraint as well as the location diversity and time diversity of electricity price under multiregional electricity markets. We jointly consider both the cyber and physical management capabilities of IDCs, and exploit both the center-level load balancing and the server-level power control in a unified scheme. We model the problem as a constrained mixed integer programming based on generalized benders decomposition (GBD) technique. Extensive evaluations based on real-life electricity price data for multiple IDC locations demonstrate the effectiveness of our scheme.

A staged service innovation model

Abstract: Drawing from the new product development (NPD) literature, service quality literature (SERVQUAL), and empirically grounded research with 53 service innovation decision makers, we develop a staged service innovation model (SIM) for decision makers. We tested the model using empirical data from 329 firms across five industries. The empirical results show that integrating prelaunch service quality training into new service development process leads to successful service innovation. The model developed in this article can be used as a decision support tool and diagnostic model for assessing service innovation ideas, evaluating performance of ongoing service innovations, allocating resources, and improving success rate of service innovations. Decision makers can use the measures developed in this study as a checklist to identify their strengths in delivering service quality to their own customers as well as areas of improvement. This article extends service innovation research by combining NPD and service quality development into a single study and opens the door to further work that could help improve the success rate of service innovations. The model can serve as a base model for future research extensions in service innovation research. A major takeaway for the academic reader is that the SIM demonstrates the value of using the SERVQUAL literature to understand how best to provide excellent quality that results in more fully satisfied customers and, ultimately, improved service performance.