University of Twente Student Theses

Improved service performance? : The development on an enabling Performance Measurement System for the IT department of a Water Authority to measure and improve customer satisfaction

Rondeel, N.M.B. (2013) Improved service performance? : The development on an enabling Performance Measurement System for the IT department of a Water Authority to measure and improve customer satisfaction.

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Abstract:	This thesis presents a detailed description of the approach for the successful development of an enabling Performance Management System (PMS) for the IT Department of Waterschap Rijn & IJssel, a Water Authority in the Netherlands. A Performance Management System gives insight into the performance of the IT department by means of critical or key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs enable this department to become transparent in their contribution to the primary process of the Water Authority. An enabling PMS in this case, also means that employees are better equipped to execute their tasks and are enabled to continuously improve their service performance. The research method that has been used is called ‘Action Research’. The use of this method in this project derives from the fact that the researcher used a scientific approach to IT department to solve challenges, together with the employees. The IT department of Waterschap Rijn & IJssel experimented with KPIs to obtain management information of improved quality two years before the start of this project. KPIs were recorded by the use of several systems. Unfortunately these lists were recorded manually, which made the process very time consuming and resulted in unreliable data. Also no one turned out to take responsibility for keeping the records updated. This made the use of KPIs for reflection in team meetings to be forgotten soon. To be able to improve the PMS it was important to sustainably set up trustworthy KPIs. This led to the following research question: How could one develop and organize a sustainable performance measurement system for an IT department of a Water Authority that can 1. give insight into their direct contribution to the primary process and 2. continuously improve their service performance? At the start of this project it was decided that the PMS should give insight into the customer satisfaction and the service quality of the IT Department. For this task I have set up three performance teams that have supported me during the Action Research process. These three teams were responsible for developing the KPIs for the sub-units Documentaire Informatie Voorzieningen (DIV), Geo informatie beheer (Geo) and the Servicedesk. By means of interview sessions with important internal customers/employees of departments within the organization we have determined several possibilities for service improvement and in the current process. Parallel with the interview sessions an organization-wide questionnaire was used to measure the (internal) customer satisfaction and the service quality. For the development of the KPIs the results of both the interviews and the questionnaires were used as resources. From this research three conclusions could be drawn: 1) The involvement of an experienced employee at the beginning of this Action Research that experienced the total development cycle and that takes over the role of the researcher, is useful for the continuous development and improvement of the PMS. N.M.B Rondeel - The participatory development of an enabling PMS v 2) A periodic questionnaire that measures what the organization thinks of the service performance delivered by the IT department combined with performance teams that are provided with enough time and space by the IT department to actually improve and measure the service performance, ensures that the IT department has accurate insights in their own performance and can improve continuously. 3) The service performance items used in the questionnaire are a good start to measure customer satisfaction. It seems that IT satisfaction can be explained for more than 66% by measuring these items. The research paper ends with some limitations and recommendations.
Item Type:	Essay (Master)
Faculty:	BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:	85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:	Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/63577
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