A2thOS: availability analysis and optimisation in SLAs

Information technology (IT) service availability is at the core of customer satisfaction and business success for today's organisations. Many medium‐ to large‐size organisations outsource part of their IT services to external providers, with service‐level agreements describing the agreed availability of outsourced service components. Availability management of partially outsourced IT services is a non‐trivial task since classic approaches for calculating availability are not applicable, and IT managers can only rely on their expertise to fulfil it. This often leads to the adoption of non‐optimal solutions. In this paper we present A ²thOS , a framework to calculate the availability of partially outsourced IT services in the presence of SLAs and to achieve a cost‐optimal choice of availability levels for outsourced IT components while guaranteeing a target availability level for the service. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From desktop to data centre — addressing the OSS challenges in the delivery of network-centric ICT services

With increased commoditisation of traditional services, telecommunications service providers are exploiting their core network-centric strengths and targeting increased revenues from ICT-based services. Aimed at enterprise-scale customers, these services range from the provision of IP-VPNs to full IT outsourcing, and span the range of infrastructure domains from desktop to data centre. The primary challenge lies not in the ICT infrastructure itself, but in the increasing demands placed upon the operational support systems (OSS) to deliver services holistically across the range of ICT operations. Based on BT’s experience with corporate and government customers, this paper presents a detailed study of the ICT challenges on the OSS in achieving an end-to-end view of ICT service management. It proposes an architectural route forward and highlights BT’s work on policy-based service management solutions.     

Measurement of software service quality for largetelecommunications systems

Attention is given to software service quality measurement in the telecommunications switching environment. Environment dynamics and the composition of customer satisfaction are explained. Measurements are made at gaps in the software delivery process, and management is responsible for the success of the measurement process. It is concluded that software service quality measurement can be a strategic tool that can help increase a supplier's competitiveness     

From application service provision to service-oriented computing: A study of the IT outsourcing evolution

IT outsourcing is not a new concept. Originating from the early 60’s in the form of time sharing, IT outsourcing has evolved to the application service provision (ASP) model, in the late 90’s to pure services in the beginning of the century. Services, and their major representative web services, are actually the next phase of the movement toward Internet-based componentized software, known in the not so distant past as ASP. As the continuous expansion of the Internet and its relating technologies creates new marketing opportunities, traditional monolithic architectures are giving way to service-oriented computing (SOC), the architecture that enables service provision. SOC permits the utilization of large systems which are comprised of self-containing building blocks: services. Services may be made public, searched, reused and combined to form complex business processes while in the same time retaining a significant level of flexibility. Services and SOC have emerged as a response to a fundamental shift in enterprise business culture that started at the late 90’s. Although they are promising as an IT outsourcing enabler, many issues need to be dealt with before they can be considered suitable for wide adoption. These issues are of technological, business, economic and cultural nature and they were also faced by ASPs in the past. It is worth revisiting the successes and failures of the ASP model in order to get a better understanding of the evolving IT outsourcing industry. In this work, we describe the evolution of service provision from its initial form as software application, through the application service provision era and towards the new trend of web services.     

欧美客服与计费外包市场的对比分析

对比欧洲的运营商,美国的运营商更热衷于将自己的客服和计费业务外包出去。将客服和计费业务外包可使运营商降低系统运维成本,专注其核心业务。运营商外包客服和计费业务时可有多种选择:一是运营商在外包业务提供商服务中心的托管平台上直接开展其客服和计费应用;二是利用ASP对客服和计费应用进行远程托管;三是将整个计费业务的经营外包给一家独立的服务公司。     

Facial-expression recognition: An emergent approach to the measurement of tourist satisfaction through emotions

PurposeThe employment of facial-expression recognition to analyse emotions constitutes a potential instrument for the measurement of customer satisfaction in the tourism sector. The study aims to assess the functionality of Artificial Intelligence to measure tourists’ emotions and hence their satisfaction with the quality of the service provided on a guided tour when visiting a UNESCO heritage site.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology comprises the following stages. Firstly, the emotions are analysed through data recorded by using a software application on facial-expression recognition on a sample of tourists visiting a heritage site. Secondly, the tourists were asked to rate their overall satisfaction with the guided tour visit. Finally, a structural equation modelling approach is used to validate the strong relation between emotions and satisfaction.FindingsThe results achieved confirm that the information obtained from facial-expression recognition demonstrated that it is as valid an instrument as that offered by the self-administered questionnaires for the measurement of customer satisfaction. The findings from the application reveal that a change in the scientific and professional field is emerging in the measurement of customer satisfaction focused on the emotions from a digital approach.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is mainly based on the use of specific software for facial-expression recognition with its intrinsic measurement of emotions with and in a specific heritage scenario. Other scenarios and software of a more sophisticated nature implemented in the tourism and hospitality industry are necessary for the in-depth comprehension of the significant role played by emotions in the improvement of service quality.Practical implicationsThe recent application of recording emotions in the Tourism Industry provides practitioners with useful insights for the detection of deficiencies in their services and therefore the means to boost their reputation and destination image.Originality/valueArtificial Intelligence presents a new paradigm in the measurement of satisfaction by substituting self-administered surveys with a method based on the use of innovative software that recognizes faces and detects emotions through facial expressions. The paper contributes to the literature by using an Artificial Intelligence approach to measure satisfaction through emotions in the tourism sector.     

移动云在运营商移动业务发展中的应用

IT产业价值比重日益从运营商转向OTT,在这种情况下,运营商必须迎接移动云,充分认识到移动云在增加收入和节约成本上的重要作用,并借助移动云技术和原有价值优势,培养出一个广泛的、快速增长的移动消费市场。这将是未来运营商在竞争中取得胜利的关键。     

信息技术服务运维支撑平台的设计与实现

设计并实现了基于成都市电子政务网的信息技术服务运维支撑平台,包括服务质量评价系统和运维服务交付系统.该平台符合国家信息技术服务标准,对电子政务网的服务外包企业进行服务交付过程监督和服务质量评价,有效地提升电子政务网对外提供服务的水平和能力,也为标准验证与试点提供技术载体.     

Innovative usage of information technology in Singapore organizations: do CIO characteristics make a difference?

Based on the upper echelon theory, this paper studies the relationship between the individual characteristics of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and organizational innovative usage of information technology (IT) by examining both the CIO's demographic characteristics and personality traits. Survey results from 89 CIOs strongly support our proposition. A CIO's personality traits of openness and extraversion and CIO's demographic characteristics of educational level have strong impact on the organizational innovative usage of IT even after controlling for organizational variables such as the organization's business strategy, outsourcing of IT operations, IT department age, and IT budget relative to revenue. This paper contributes to the age-old debate on whether managers matter in deciding an organization's strategy.     

QoE in video streaming over wireless networks: perspectives and research challenges

The deployment of 3G/LTE networks and advancements in smart mobile devices had led to high demand for multimedia streaming over wireless network. The rapid increasing demand for multimedia content poses challenges for all parties in a multimedia streaming system, namely, content providers, wireless network service providers, and smart device makers. Content providers and mobile network service providers are both striving to improve their streaming services while utilizing advancing technologies. Smart device makers endeavor to improve processing power and displays for better viewing experience. Ultimately, the common goal shared by content providers, network service providers, and smart device manufactures is to improve the QoE for users. QoE is both an objective and a subjective metric measuring the streaming quality experience by end users. It may be measured by streaming bitrate, playback smoothness, video quality metrics like Peak to Signal Noise Ratio, and other user satisfaction factors. There have been efforts made to improve the streaming experiences in all these aspects. In this paper, we conducted a survey on existing literatures on QoE of video streaming to gain a deeper and more complete understanding of QoE quality metrics. The goal is to inspire new research directions in defining better QoE and improving QoE in existing and new streaming services such as adaptive streaming and 3D video streaming.     

Evolutionary gaming approach for decision making of Tier‐3 Internet service provider networks migration to SoDIP6 networks

With the increasing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, current networking world is suffering in terms of management and operations with lack of IPv4 addresses leading to issues like network address translation (NAT) proliferation, security and quality of services. Software‐defined networking (SDN) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) are the new networking paradigms evolved to address related issues of legacy IPv4 networking. To adapt with global competitive environment and avoid all existing issues in legacy networking system, network service providers have to migrate their networks into IPv6 and SDN‐enabled networks. But immediate transformations of existing network are not viable due to several factors like higher cost of migration, lack of technical human resources, lack of standards and protocols during transitions, and many more. In this paper, we present the migration analysis for proper decision making of network transition in terms of customer demand, traffic engineering, and organizational strength with operation expenditure for network migration using evolutionary gaming approach. Joint migration to SDN‐enabled IPv6 network from game theoretic perspective is modeled and is validated using numerical results obtained from simulations. Our empirical analysis shows the evolutionary process of network migration while different internal and external factors in the organization affect the overall migration. Evolutionary game in migration planning is supportive in decision making for service providers to develop suitable strategy for their network migration. The proposed approach for migration decision making is mostly applicable to fairly sustained service providers who lack economics, regulation/policy, and resources strengths.     

Management of service level agreements for multimedia Internetservice using a utility model

The efficient management of a quality level of Internet service is becoming increasingly important to both customers and service providers. This article describes how service level agreements for multimedia Internet service can be managed and controlled. We first present a literature survey on the problems of SLA management: SLA parameter definition, SLA measurement, and QoS management. We present a utility model to capture the management and control aspects of SLAs for multimedia Internet service. This utility model has been used in microeconomics theory, but here we have applied it to SLA management. This model provides a computationally feasible solution for admission control and quality adaptation for multimedia Internet service and SLA management. It also allows management policies to be flexibly expressed by service providers. Finally, we apply the utility model to the SLA management of VoIP service and describe how to use it for admission control, dynamic quality adaptation, and resource allocation for SLA assurance     

Transformation of a health care information system: aself-assessment survey

US health care providers are seeking to reduce costs while simultaneously maintaining quality of care. One strategy for the reinvention of the health care industry is the more effective use of new quality and information technology solutions. Results are presented from a survey of 98 top executives at Baylor Health Care System (BHCS), a large, multifunction health care organization in Dallas, TX. The survey sought to assess the executives' perceptions of current BHCS quality practices. The study used a survey developed for the health care industry based on the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) criteria. This paper reports findings related to the quality of BHCS internal and external data and information quality. Factor analysis and regression models using the survey data were used to highlight findings that include: (1) the need for a $50+ million information system transformation at BHCS as an essential action item to achieve the organization's critical success factors, and (2) the importance of internal and external data and information in achieving business process redesign and a quality transformation at BHCS. Results highlight the need for further research investigating the dimensions associated with the MBNQA criteria and their relationship with the information and analysis component     

Understanding outsourcing partnership: a comparison of three theoretical perspectives

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to building a successful partnership between the customer and supplier of the information systems (IS) outsourcing services. The sources of influence in successful information services outsourcing partnerships were explored by means of a study of Korean firms involved in such activity. Six major partnership-related variables were identified, and three alternative models were formulated based on 1) a behavioral-attitudinal theory which considered mutual benefits, commitment, and predisposition as intervening variables between the action-based factors of shared knowledge, mutual dependency and organizational linkage, and outsourcing success; 2) a simple direct effects model without such intervening variables; and 3) a model is based on a theory of reasoned action where the roles of the need-based psychological factors and the action-based factors were reversed. The three models were compared using a survey of 225 organizations in Korea that have outsourced their IS functions to external service providers. The findings indicate that the first model built on the behavioral-attitudinal theory best explained outsourcing success.     

中小企业第三方数据存储与灾备服务需求研究

以我国中小型企业数据存储服务与灾备状况的调查为研究背景,结合国内外数据存储服务与灾备发展趋势和应用现状,从企业宕机成本、灾备投入、数据服务外包的促进与制约因素等多方面探讨了我国企业第三方数据存储与容灾备份服务的现实状况,通过分析灾备市场,提出第三方数据存储与灾备服务的未来发展建议。     

基于虚拟仪器技术的音频扫频信号测量仪

针对目前音频扫频信号的测量的局限性,利用NI公司的PXI-5124数据采集卡,在LabVIEW2012开发环境下,开发了基于虚拟仪器技术的音频扫频信号测量仪,实现了音频扫频信号的直接测量。介绍了开发过程,并给出了基本程序,通过系统测试证实该仪器功能正常,测量结果准确,为音频扫频信号发生器的计量校准提供了新思路。     

产品外包质量控制研究

为提高组织的效益,”外包”已成为组织的选择措施之一。因此,外包过程也成为组织质量管理体系所需过程的重要组成部分。为此,必须识别本组织外包过程的种类,针对不同外包类型,分别采取不同的控制方法,才能达到有效控制的目的。     

A Study on the Use Intention of Long Term Evolution Mobile Service

The rapid development of ICT is bringing about a digital transformation. The digital transformation affects all areas, and ICT is at the center of many technologies. In particular, the importance of technical services for wireless communications is being increasingly emphasized. Thus, the qualities of technical services for wireless communications have effects not only on the companies who provide services but also on the consumers who receive them. As technologies develop, consumers want to receive more stable and higher quality services. In this regard, this study classified the qualities of LTE service into call quality, speed quality, and user support quality, investigated their influential factors on perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and playfulness, and analyzed their causal relationship with satisfaction and continuous use intention. As a result of analysis, all the hypotheses were accepted; except for the one that call quality will have effects on perceived usefulness (H1-1), except for the one that social influence will have effects on user satisfaction (H7-2), except for the one that customer membership will have effects on perceived usefulness (H8-1), except for the one that social influence will have effects on perceived usefulness (H8-2). The results of this study provided practical guidelines to service providers through the causal relationship analysis of various variables affecting LTE services satisfaction and constant services.     

Technical Communication Outsourcing: The Twelve Driver Framework Tutorial

Almost all IT, engineering research, financial analysis, and manufacturing industries are confronted with a question: to outsource or not? The outsourcing and offshoring trend is inspired by success stories of huge cost savings, decreased time-to-market, and better quality. Simultaneously, outsourcing-gone-bad stories highlight how hidden costs exceed benefits, cross-cultural problems impact quality, and intellectual property risks shadow project lifecycles. Managers in companies are presented with a confusing picture for which there are no easy answers. Companies, vendors, and policymakers need a framework to understand the outsourcing phenomenon and plan implementation strategies for outsourced projects. At present, many companies go with the gut based on the experience of others and media reports. But very rarely are two technical documentation tasks alike and never are the concerns of two technical communication tasks the same. This tutorial presents the twelve driver framework and the driver-model percentage matrix to assess the benefits and risks of outsourcing a technical communication task. In the end, qualitative decision-making will determine an organization's decision about outsourcing, but the use of such a framework and related metrics will greatly enhance the quality of the final choice.