Visual Firewall Log Analysis - At the Border Between Analytical and Appealing

Exploring the impact of communication effectiveness on service quality, trust and relationship commitment in IT services

Cloud-based digital transformation is having a profound impact on new and incumbent information technology service providers. In transitioning from traditional to cloud-based service provision, some IT service providers are experiencing substantial difficulties in realizing effective business models. Taking the perspective of 20 large business model mature and small and medium enterprise born-on-the-cloud multinational IT service providers, this focus group study contributes to the dearth of research examining the broader impact of cloud computing on IT service providers' business model. The study provides two core insights. First, using the STOF business model framework, the paper provides a vivid contextual understanding of the nuanced impact of cloud computing along four core business model domains: service, technological, organisational and financial. Second, the study identifies a number of salient challenges which are impacting IT service providers' efforts to effectively leverage the benefits of cloud-based digital transformation.

Continual service improvement within IT service management is an important research topic. Nowadays, IT services should be actively developed and improved in order to increase quality and cost effectiveness. Continual Service Improvement enables identification of bottlenecks and weak areas in the services. The research problem of this study is: what types of challenges exist in the IT service management from IT service provider's perspective? The main contribution of this study is to present ITSM challenges in two IT service provider companies in Finland. In order to categorize results, we used the three core perspectives of ITSM people, process, and technology. These three areas provide inputs to the continual service improvement lifecycle phase which controls and manages the identified improvements. Data for this study were mainly collected through interviews with 21 IT service management specialists.

Purpose: The rapid pace of digital transformation has significantly impacted the IT services sector, particularly in emerging markets, such as Indonesia. This thesis explores the strategic challenges faced by Indonesian IT service providers as they navigate a competitive landscape characterized by evolving customer demands, technological advancements, and market dynamics. This research aims to prioritize strategic initiatives that align with market needs and enhance the competitive positioning of these providers. Research Methodology: By integrating strategic management frameworks such as Porter’s Five Forces, Value Chain Analysis, and SWOT Analysis with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), this study addresses the issue of stagnant revenue in PT ABC, a leading IT service provider in Indonesia. The findings indicate that AI-based product innovation and the development of low-code solutions are critical strategies for driving sustainable growth and meeting the increasing demand for advanced technological solutions. Conclusions: PT ABC should prioritize AI-based product innovation to meet the growing market demand for advanced and easily integrated technological solutions. The development of low-code platforms is essential to enhance customization capabilities and accelerate delivery times, addressing customer expectations for scalability and efficiency. Market Demand & Growth Potential, along with Operational Efficiency & Scalability, are the key strategic criteria guiding PT ABC’s innovation and service enhancement priorities. Limitations: This study underscores the importance of customer-centric approaches and continuous adaptation to maintain a competitive edge in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. Contributions: This research contributes to the strategic management literature by demonstrating the practical application of AHP in the context of digital transformation within the IT services sector, and provides actionable insights for IT service providers in emerging markets facing similar challenges.

Yield management of workforce for IT service providers

The main objective of the Service Level Management process is to ensure that an agreed level of IT service is provided for all current IT services and that future services are delivered to agreed achievable targets. The number of agreed SLAs has rapidly increased in the IT industry while more and more IT customers have become aware of Service Level Management best practices. IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is the most widely used IT service management framework that provides best practices for implementing IT service management processes including Service Level Management. The research problem of this study is: how Service Level Agreements can be implemented with an IT service management tool. We use a combination of IT service management and knowledge management approach to study the problem. The main contribution of this paper is to present results of a case study that focused on improving Service Level Management practices in a Finnish IT service provider company Tieto.

Through Continual Service Improvement (CSI), IT service providers aim at identifying, documenting, evaluating and prioritising improvement areas in services and service processes. CSI plays a crucial role in managing service and process quality as well as transforming improvement suggestions and ideas into concrete actions and product features. Unfortunately, many companies lack the systematic CSI approach and tools. This may lead into lost business opportunities, long processing times in implementing customers’ change requests and finally losing key customers. Additionally, digital transformation creates a need for more agile and flexible CSI. Therefore, CSI is an actual and interesting research target from service quality perspective. In this paper, CSI practices of a Finnish IT service provider company are studied. The research problem is: How IT service provider organizations perform Continual Service Improvement methods as part of daily service operation management? The main contribution of this paper is to present findings from a case study with a ISO/IEC 20000 compliant service organization. We focus on exploring how the quality of CSI targets is monitored, how CSI is organized and deployed into practice and how service-related improvements are managed.

The perceived comfort zone in a customer relationship between small and medium sized companies and their IT service providers is often deceptive. Organizations risk their competitiveness with deficient IT systems and accept the inherent risks. This business model is still a test bench for IT service providers. More than 500 IT service providers have to give up every year due to inadequate customer loyalty and lack of sustainable customer relationships. ITFLAT.de® provides the opportunity to escape the red ocean and instead become immersed in a blue ocean by adapting the sustainable business model framework providing opportunity for a service-oriented customer relationship.

End users have expectations regarding services and support, and the quality thereof, provided by the supplier. They compare their expectations to the received service to assess the service quality (Coye, 2004). In order to ensure that the service supplied by the service provider meets the expectations of end users, a successful service level agreement (SLA) is required. Quality SLA’s clearly define, amongst many other elements, the commitments and responsibilities of the IT service provider and end users within the service delivery processes (Larson, 1998). One method of measuring the success of SLA’s is by using service metrics with regard to the availability, reliability, serviceability, response, and user satisfaction of the SLA (Larson, 1998). Therefore, the success of the SLA depends on a clear, common understanding of the services and service quality between the service provider and end users. Furthermore commitment, trust, and cooperation between all parties is necessary to achieve success with SLA’s (Hiles, 1994). However, in this paper it is argued that all these soft issues can only form a basis when sound relationships are established and maintained between the IT service provider and end users (Leonard, 2002). This paper aims to determine how the establishment of a sound IT-end user relationship can add value to the SLA for both the IT service provider and the end users, and increase the success of SLA’s.

IT service management is a focal point of interest for practitioners, managers and researchers. In this chapter, the authors outline the field of IT service quality management - a topic that has not been adequately discussed in research literature to date. The authors introduce a framework for IT service quality management and show how the framework can be applied to different phases of an IT service lifecycle. Furthermore, they illustrate possible effects of IT service quality on business performance. For this reason, they define indicators, which are effective measures of business performance, and the relations between indicators and IT service quality. Due to the increased use of modular IT services and the high pressure on IT effectiveness and IT efficiency, IT service quality management has the potential to become a highly relevant topic for IT service providers and IT departments within enterprises.

In recent years, intensive debate has raged over the significance of knowledge management within the business context. The adoption of knowledge management as a business imperative has relied heavily on its ability to deliver tangible value to businesses in the newly established knowledge economy. As with any other value-based initiative, it is necessary to measure knowledge management using explicit valuation methods. This requirement is particularly necessary within the IT service industry, where considerable opportunity exists for the use of knowledge resources. Wide-ranging studies by subject matter experts have been conducted into valuing knowledge management over the last two decades. In most cases, the research addressed the practical business challenges in relation to valuing knowledge. To realise the full impact of knowledge management requires expanding its value domains to encompass business relationships, human competence and organisational structure. The purpose of this research is to assess widely recognised methods and propose a consolidated methodology to measure the benefit value of knowledge management in an IT service provider environment. The resulting integrated knowledge benefit value model allows IT service organisations to select the aspects of measurement that are most appropriate and provides a planning and management tool for them to improve on their handling of knowledge resources.

The use of information technology in an organization's business processes does not guarantee that the organization has been able to provide good IT services. This service needs to be measured from the level of maturity. Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a framework that can be used to measure the maturity level or intended maturity level. Accurate measurements certainly depend on a valid and reliable measuring instrument. The ITSM matrix is a measuring tool that has been internationally recognized in the ITSM and ITIL concepts. This research makes XYZ Higher Education the object of research. The basis of taking XYZ Higher Education is because these universities have used information technology in their business processes. However, problems are still found in the provision of IT services that have not met the expectations of IT Division and users. This can be seen from the percentage of reports on disruption that can be completed on time, only around 60% of the total reports submitted, and there is also a handling of reports of improper disturbances ranging from 19 - 29%. This is certainly a big concern that needs to be resolved by measuring the current level of IT services. After the measurement results using the ITSM matrix and guided by CMMI, it was found that the maturity level of the current IT service is still at level 1 (initial) where the??? service process runs ad-hoc and chaotic, and the success of the organization still comes from individual competence. This shows that XYZ universities, especially IT Division, need to improve IT services at a higher level in order to continue to improve IT services to users.

Since IT Outsourcing has been popular, the competition among IT service providers became to be intensified as winning contracts is the critical success factor for them. Thus, this paper identified the factors that influence the selection of IT service providers via the related literature review and in-depth interviews with related experts with more than 10 years of rich experience in the industry. The review and interviews resulted in the establishment of the AHP analysis model consisting of 5 criteria with 17 sub-criteria. Based on the analysis of the data collected from this research, the sub-criteria were weighted and the characteristics of the IT service industry were reflected, indicating that the sub-criteria of high importance were applied strategically depending on various environmental characteristics.

The context: the selection of a maximum value IT service portfolio is a major challenge to be faced by IT executives, during the Service Strategy phase of the IT service life cycle defined in ITIL. The problem: ITIL states that the value of an IT service should be estimated based on the improvement of customers' outcomes brought by the service. It is hard to apply this approach due to difficulties to access data related to customers' outcomes and to precisely isolate the influence of IT on the improvements of customers' performance. Our proposed solution: in this work, we propose the application of a formal business value model to quantify the business value of IT services, so as to pave the way for the definition of a maximum-value portfolio. The quantification method presented estimates the value of IT services through low-intrusion interactions between the IT Service provider and its customers. Validation: our approach was applied with success to the IT department of a multinational manufacturer. Results from the experiments enabled higher expected IT ROI through the use of a value-based portfolio definition process.

This paper will discuss how and Exploration & Production Companies / National Oil Companies (NOCs) can leverage global Information technology services companies from India (or other talent surplus countries), to virtually expand the existing talent pool of the Industry. Exploration & Production industry trends, contrasts between the developed and developing markets such as India, capability of Indian IT services sector, and areas where IT services can make a contribution will be discussed. Based on the above factors, the potential of the IT services sector to build IT Solutions and create new talent for the industry will be analyzed. Outsourcing of services to Oilfield Service Providers has been one of the strategies used to solve some of the people shortage problems in the industry. This has also allowed E&P companies to focus on their ‘core competency’ which is the exploration and production of oil and gas. A similar strategy which global Exploration & Production companies are tending to adopt in Information technology is IT Services Outsourcing. This helps the companies use their existing manpower, reduce costs, as also to let IT service companies do more of the ‘digital’ type work in E&P. Although IT outsourcing may have started purely based for cost reduction, IT outsourcing now has the strategic advantage of better access to talent and capabilities1. IT service providers can help in areas like Remote management of operations, basic collaborative operations, problem solving, leveraging associated Knowledge Management, and real time Data Management - which require a mix of Exploration & Production industry domain and IT experience. An increasing number of people with such experience would be required by the Industry with the increasing importance of IT function as a strategic part of business, and with the ‘Digitization’ of many functions. The combination of a growing Exploration & Production Industry, Operators, NOCs as well as Vendors combined with the growth of the global software services sector and the availability of a large labour force in developing countries has the potential to contribute IT solutions and create an extended talent pool of professionals who can serve the global Exploration & Production industry and help solve the looming ‘crew change’ crisis.