Coreejes, Adrian.
Abstract:
Customer satisfaction is a critical component of a business's competitive strategy. Autolab Csi, a division of the South African Sugar Association, is operating in a deregulated market environment and thus has to ensure that customers are always satisfied with the quality of service received. Poor service can threaten the viability of a business and Autolab Csi need to establish suitable and effective service delivery mechanisms and minimise the threat of competitors entering the sugar industry laboratory systems services market. Customer satisfaction is dependent on the quality of service that a service provider has to offer its customers. Autolab Csi have embarked on a programme to adopt best practice Information Technology (IT) service process as described in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) model as a means to improve customer satisfaction. The ITIL model consists of twelve service processes that are grouped into four categories namely, Service Delivery, Service Support, Service Desk and Security Management. ITIL is not recognised by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) as an international standard for IT service delivery. The British Standards Institute standard BS 15000 had been released to address the need for a recognised standard and is shortly due to be adopted by the ISO. The study hypothesises there is adoption of all twelve service processes by Autolab Csi but not all processes have been completely and/or successfully implemented. Compliance of the ITIL Service Delivery process to the BS15000 standard is reviewed concomitantly with the ITIL adoption assessment. As part of the process of implementation of the ITIL framework, Autolab Csi had faced challenges to the process yet had also benefited. The study investigates these benefits and challenges from the perspective of understanding how success can be achieved with the implementation of ITIL processes. The study shows that Autolab Csi has made measurable progress in the implementation of all twelve ITIL service processes. The service process areas of Security Management, Service Desk and some processes of Service Delivery show the highest levels of ITIL compliance. Service Support shows the lowest levels of ITIL compliance in particular, the Change and Release Management processes. The presented data allows for the development of targeted strategies to continuously improve Autolab Csi's service delivery mechanisms.
