Identifying the factors affecting the quality level of services in enterprise resource planning consultancy services - a case study on post implementation support

Abstract

Businesses commonly seek support from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) consultancy firms to evade the risk of ERP implementation failure. These consultants are involved in both implementation and post implementation phases. The aim of this study is to identify the factors that impact service quality in post implementation ERP support. A structured questionnaire with 46 questions was used to collect the data from 87 consultants working in a consultancy firm. The questionnaire consisted of 8 general questions related to the background of the consultant and 9 independent variables (Knowledge of the Consultant, Job satisfaction, Clear communication of the Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Internal communication, Project Management techniques, Customer culture, Customer knowledge, Clear communication of the incident, X first level support strength within the customer organization) and 4 dependent variables (Responsiveness, Reliability, Goodwill, Escalations) were considered. The 9 independent variables were further segregated in to two factors as internal (Consultant Knowledge, Job satisfaction, Clear communication of the Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Internal communication, Project Management techniques) and external factors (Customer culture, Customer knowledge, Clear communication of the incident, First level support strength within the organization).Correlations among independent and dependent variables were studied and it was identified that each of the 4 dependent variables had a significant correlation between each of the independent variable identified except for the correlation between Responsiveness and Knowledge level of the consultant variables. From the 9 independent variable 2 internal independent variables (Knowledge of the consultant and Clear communication of the SLA s) and 3 external independent variables (Customer knowledge, Clear communication of the incident, first level support strength) were identified using Stepwise Regression analysis to explain the variability of the dependent variables (Responsiveness, Reliability, Goodwill, Escalations). Therefore, it can be concluded that both internal and external factors are important to maintain the service quality..