Measuring the Service Quality of Services

SERVQUAL and e-SERVQUAL have been considered the most effective and powerful approaches in evaluating the quality and gaps in the service delivered in traditional and electronic services, respectively, but neither SERVQUAL nor e-SERVQUAL can measure the overall service quality of the firm. Therefore, this chapter aims to propose and test a new scale that can measure the overall service quality of the firm.

Towards a Customer-Centric Framework for Evaluation of E-Health Service Quality

As the awareness of the importance of healthcare service quality and pressures from stakeholders continue to grow, healthcare service providers have no option except to develop appropriate service quality evaluation procedures. Patient satisfaction is imperative, and has become a critical issue especially in e-health services. Although healthcare service providers have become aware of the need for improving customer experience through provision of customer-centric services, virtually none of the existing e-health quality evaluation frameworks are grounded on customer-centric metrics. In this chapter, a critical analysis of existing evaluation initiatives is presented from the context of e-health services. Critical areas of e-health service are investigated to determine quality dimensions that influence customer experience. From this analysis, a customer-centric evaluation framework is proposed, comprising four e-health service quality scales. The framework provides a platform for continuous improvement in e-health service.

Appraisal of Transactional Data Through Visualisation for SMEs

E-commerce has proven to play a pivotal role in the economy growth. One of the key e-commerce functions is the collection of the vast amount of useful transactional data to help businesses in understanding their consumers' behaviour. With the rapid and large volume of data collected, it is posing a great challenge for businesses to analyse the data on a day-to-day basis. The key issue is not in the generation or collection of data; it is in the manipulation of the collected data to churn out new and insightful information. Information visualisation is an effective tool in converting data into interactive interfaces to unearth hidden trends. It provides a platform to explore the data in a more rapid and intuitive approach. There are several existing techniques to analyse multidimensional data. This chapter seeks to introduce a comprehensive and robust visualisation model and framework for adoption. The visualisation model consists of four major layers, which include acquisition and data analysis, data representation, user and computer interaction, and result storage.

Importance of Big Data and Hadoop in E-Servicing

Consumers are spending more and more time on the web to search information and receive e-services. E-commerce, e-government, e-business, e-learning, e-science, etc. reflect the growing importance of the web in all aspects of our lives. Along with the tremendous growth of online information, the use of big data has become a vital force in growing revenues. Consumers are today shopping multiple products across multiple channels online. This transformation is substantial and many of the e-commerce companies have now turned to big data analytics for focused customer group targeting using opinion mining for evaluating campaign strategies and maintaining a competitive advantage, especially during the festive shopping season. So, the role of intelligent techniques in e-servicing is massive. This chapter focuses on the importance of big data (since there is a large volume of data online) and big data analytics in the field of e-servicing and explains the various applications, platforms to implement the big data applications, and security issues in the era of big data and e-servicing.

Manufacturing Information and Database Systems Adoption and Usage Trends in Developing Countries

Data and information has become a central productive and strategic asset, and the success of the organization depends on its ability to gather, produce, maintain, and disseminate this information for its benefit and those in its value chain. The chapter details the results from a study concerning different types of software packages used by manufacturing and engineering firms in developing countries. The participants were categorized into six industries: academic, power generation, manufacturing chemicals, manufacturing engineering, mining, and transportation. The study revealed that 97% of the companies had a software package installed for their operations. The “big six” software packages found to be in use are Syspro, Sage, SAP, ELLIPSE, Navision, and SCADA DELTA. In the manufacturing sector, Syspro has the largest market share: 86%. ELLIPSE is largely used in the mining sectors. Companies spend about $20,000 as initial investment on the software and about $2,000 annually on license fees. More than 50% of the software users are satisfied with the performance of their software packages.

Enterprise Information Systems and Digital Marketing

With the support of modern technologies, enterprise information systems (EISs) and digital marketing are the significant approaches in modern business and can lead to the establishment of a consolidated business system toward improving the business performance. EISs and digital marketing are related to enterprise resource planning (ERP), electronic commerce (e-commerce), cloud computing, and social media platforms. EISs and digital marketing help modern businesses gain the rapid access to the mass market at an affordable price, increase business profit, and attract new customers in a timely and effective manner. EISs and digital marketing allow managers and executives to establish their profitable strategies and to find various business opportunities in the competitive business environments.

IoT and Smart Manufacturing

Internet of things (IoT) is a concept of providing uniquely identifiable objects connectivity to the internet. Under the roof of IoT, it is predicted that above 28 billion devices will be connected to the internet by the year 2020. When billions of things connect, it will be difficult to manage and analyze huge amount of data as each object will send and retrieve data. Smart manufacturing is an emerging concept where the manufacturing process is supported by technology and the required information is made available during the manufacturing process to get the flexibility and the product as per customer changing needs. Internet of things (IoT) may provide a good platform to enhance the manufacturing process into smart manufacturing. The advantages of smart manufacturing include the higher quality of a product, improved productivity, increased energy efficiency, enhanced scalability in manufacturing process, etc. This chapter presents in depth the IoT and smart manufacturing concepts, their requirements, relevance, and available solutions.

Design of Cloud-Based CAPP System to Aid Process Planning for Sheet Metal Products

In the design of new products, it is usual for different planners to specify different processing routes for the same part, which do not always incorporate the optimal solution to the problem. Computerization of process planning has evolved as a solution to speed up planning for new products. The essence of the chapter is to explore machine capabilities, parameters, and constrains inherent in sheet metal forming processes and then illustrate CAPP software design for process sequencing for new products to support standardisation of production routes. The verification of the designed CAPP system has realised significant savings of 40% reduction in process planning effort, 5% in material, 15% in scrap and 10% in tooling. In order to design the cloud-based CAPP system, data was gathered on the machinery capabilities for the sheet metal operations in a case study company that manufactures sheet metal accessories for the construction industry. A computer-based system was developed to store the machinery tool capabilities and their functional parameters and to facilitate sharing of information across the system modules. Autodesk Inventor® was used as the source of input for the CAD models into the system. Visual Basic.NET programming language was used to design a module for feature recognition (FR) to capture characteristics from a CAD model drawing of the new sheet metal product. A module was then developed to sequence the process operations for the CAD model based on the part features. The process sequencing system helps designers and process planners to link the new model design with the production path, the tools, and equipment required in order to improve their design and planning in the early stages of the product life cycle.

Open Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) for Cloud Manufacturing and Cloud-Based Maintenance Integration Using XML

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is concerned with managing all the processes of product transition from cradle to the grave. Phases of a product life are inception, engineering design, manufacture, service, and disposal. A product passes through different systems, organisations, and users as it completes the life cycle. Global markets of today have increased the complex nature of a product path. All the life cycle phases rely upon product data for efficient management. In order to ease the strain of managing products throughout the lifecycle, a common product data schema is needed. Currently many platforms for product design use different proprietary schemas that make it difficult to have smooth lifecycle management. The chapter illustrates applications of an open source, XML-based schema for product lifecycle management. The main focus is on the inclusion of the Cloud in order to have new generation cloud product life cycle management (CPLM). The main driver of CPLM is cloud-model-based systems engineering (CMBSE). Within the framework of CMBSE are cloud-based design (CBD), cloud manufacturing (CM), and cloud-based maintenance (CBM). The three subsystems of CMBSE can be combined to form a single term, cloud-based design, manufacturing, and maintenance (CBDMM). Cloud computing, manufacturing, and maintenance are not new concepts, but many enterprises have not yet embraced them because of lack of complete seamless integration across various levels and processes in the product life. Many systems are still being run in silos of automation. CPLM is a service-oriented (SOA) model comprised of a pool of technologies such as cloud computing (CC), IoT, virtualization, and service-oriented technologies to support collaboration, sharing, and management across PLM phases.

An Analysis of Customers' Acceptance of Internet Banking

The aim of this chapter is to provide insights into the causal factor of people's internet banking acceptance. It endeavors to address a research need for extending the technology acceptance model (TAM) by adding contextual variables and its implication on e-customer satisfaction and e-customer loyalty. As trust and service quality has never failed to be a significant predictor in e-commerce research, this study proposes to integrate trust and service quality into the TAM to get a better understanding of e-banking adoption. A research model reflecting the effect of e-trust and internet banking service quality dimensions on TAM constructs is proposed.