Analysis of the dearth of IT professionals to work as application support engineers in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka has become one of the best IT knowledge bases to which most organizations worldwide outsource software projects. For any IT company that undertakes such projects, providing after sale support to the customers is also as important as developing and implementing the systems. Thus it will be beneficial to see how the Sri Lankan IT industry can improve their customer support service which will ultimately affect the customer satisfaction. This research focuses on the 'perception' that IT professionals have regarding customer support and the level of job 'satisfaction' the present support engineers have regarding their job. This study is conducted by gathering data from Sri Lankan support engineers and other engineers (called non-support engineers) who are working in IT companies that provide support to their customers. The author has analyzed the 'job perception' through two questionnaires, one given to support engineers and the other to non-support engineers. Perception is measured through support engineers' and non-support engineers' feelings regarding the recognition of the job combined with the level of awareness among non-support engineers towards the job. Job satisfaction is analyzed from the data gathered by support engineers through a questionnaire distributed to them. Satisfaction of the job is measured by analyzing the satisfaction of working on shift / roster basis, satisfaction of the job title and the satisfaction of the salary compared to other IT professions in the Sri Lankan IT industry. According to the results of the analysis, the author has identified with 95% confidence level that the job perception of support engineers is low or not good. The perception of non-support engineers towards the job is also identified as not good. The job satisfaction that the current support engineers pursue in terms of shift work is good. However the title and the salary of support engineers should be improved to make the support engineers feel satisfied with their job.