Abstract Determinants of Service Quality in Software An Empirical Analysis.pdfVIP

Determinants of Service Quality in Software : An Empirical Analysis Mayuram S. Krishnan e-mail: mskrishnan@cmu.edu Ph : 412-268-5799 PhD Student Graduate School of Industrial Administration Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA 15206. Abstract Once a software product is delivered to a customer, the quality of service provided plays an important role in retaining that customer. In this paper, we identify certain key factors that impact the service quality in commercial software products. Our analysis is based on data collected from over 1000 customers of one of the leading software vendors. Our results show that quick response to service calls and the quality of the solution provided to the customer are dominant drivers of service quality. We also find that the effect of these factors depends on the service providers and on the business area of the customer. 1. Introduction The software industry has grown multifold in the last couple of decades,and the estimated sales worldwide are over $250 billion [Leebaret etal., 1995]. This increase in sales is fueled by the need for innovativesoftware applications and growth in the number of software development vendors. Moreover, the role of softwarein the efficient operation of any organization has grown considerable in the last decade. In order to run corporationsefficiently, customers mandate quality products and service support fromthe