A newly released study conducted by Computer Economics indicates that most end user organizations do not feel their contract and consulting service providers are delivering as high a quality of service as they would like. The study was conducted in August 2000 and included 30 organizations across a variety of industries.
The satisfaction levels varied considerably depending on the service provider’s area of specialization, with desktop services, network management and e-commerce management providers receiving the highest approval ratings. In each case, 50% of the study group stated they were very satisfied with the quality of service they were receiving from providers specializing in these areas.
Service providers that specialize in IT training, security, and database administration received the lowest percentage of “very satisfied” responses. Considering the increased exposure IT security is receiving throughout all industry sectors, it is alarming to note the low level of end user satisfaction in this area.
What may be most disturbing to many contract and consulting service providers is the large percentage of end users that rated their services as unacceptable. Those companies that most often received the lowest ranking in that category included database design, network design, website development, website maintenance, and database administration.
Figure 1 details the level of end user satisfaction for all of the contract and consulting service providers ranked in the Computer Economics study.
| FIGURE 1 Satisfaction With the Quality of Contract/Consulting Services |
|||
|
Service area |
Very |
Fairly |
Not |
|
Applications development |
27.3% |
72.7% |
– % |
|
Applications maintenance |
– |
83.3 |
16.7 |
|
Contingency planning |
33.3 |
66.7 |
– |
|
Database administration |
25.0 |
50.0 |
25.0 |
|
Database design |
– |
66.7 |
33.3 |
|
Desktop services |
50.0 |
50.0 |
– |
|
E-commerce design |
– |
100.0 |
– |
|
E-commerce management |
50.0 |
50.0 |
– |
|
Network design |
33.3 |
33.3 |
33.3 |
|
Network management |
50.0 |
50.0 |
– |
|
Security management |
20.0 |
80.0 |
– |
|
Security planning |
40.0 |
40.0 |
20.0 |
|
Telecommunications design |
33.3 |
33.3 |
33.3 |
|
Telecommunications management |
– |
100.0 |
– |
|
Training |
10.0 |
90.0 |
– |
|
Website development |
– |
75.0 |
25.0 |
|
Website hosting |
42.9 |
42.9 |
14.3 |
|
Website maintenance |
– |
75.0 |
25.0 |
October 2002
