This objectivist, experimental study investigated the influence of virtual expert systems (VES) on the decision accuracy of non-expert consultants within a technology consulting contact centre environment. Because of the overwhelming availability of conceptual information, non-expert consultants experience challenges in making accurate decisions, and would benefit from augmented technologies, such as VES. VES hold the ability to capture and scale large volumes of decision variables for consideration by human experts when making decisions. A total of 40 participants were randomly selected from contact centres in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces of South Africa for this study. Human logic was captured and scaled into a technology fault finding virtual expert and administered as an experiment to group participants. The experimental and control group participants were randomly assigned to the respective groups of 20 participants each. The control group was exposed to the paper-based, fault-finding manual. The pre-test and post-test data were collected based on four decision accuracy measures, namely individual performance, average call handling time, first call resolution and customer service. The Clarify performance system of the participating technology consulting company was used as data collection tool to record the findings used for Chapter 5. Statistical data analyses were performed using ANOVA and two-tailed significance tests to test the relationship between VES and decision accuracy in the pre-test and post-test phases of the study. The study found that the participant scores on the decision accuracy measures were only statistically significant on the measure of first call resolution measure (significance score of a p value <.05). On the other (three) measures, the scores obtained from experimental group participants showed more improvement than that of the control group participants. Consequently, the hypothesis that the use of VES enhance decision accuracy amongst non-expert technology consultants was accepted and the alternative hypothesis rejected. Some limitations pertaining to the resultant Hawthorne effect (the effect when some employees work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment) was noted amongst participants. This effect resulted from the use of team leaders in monitoring performance during the experiment and the involvement of the technology consulting company in determining the performance norms of the identified measures. Another limitation of the study related to the size of the sample where only two provinces were included. The limitation may affect the generalisation of results to other future settings when such a study is repeated. It was recommended that future studies in this field should make provision for a larger population, inclusive of other provinces to avoid these limitations.

[pt] Este trabalho tem como objetivo final identificar atributos que determinam a fidelidade de empresas aos seus fornecedores de serviços de consultoria em informática. O estudo inicia com uma pesquisa bibliográfica sobre os conceitos de serviços, qualidade, satisfação, fidelidade, relacionamento, retenção, customer bonding e características do mercado de consultoria. Em seguida, são realizadas entrevistas com executivos de diversos segmentos que serviram de base, junto com a pesquisa bibliográfica, para a elaboração e aplicação de um questionário. Elaborou- se um modelo de fidelidade utilizando as variáveis independentes imagem, relacionamento com a equipe de vendas, suporte, relacionamento com a equipe de consultores, preço, serviço e barreiras de mudança e a variável dependente fidelidade, resultante da aglutinação das variáveis satisfação, recompra e recomendação. A análise dos resultados da pesquisa mostrou que os atributos imagem do fornecedor, relacionamento da equipe de consultores, preço e serviço foram os mais importantes para explicar a fidelidade. O estudo mostrou que 54% dos clientes são fiéis, 19% como prisioneiros (fidelidade espúria), 6% como acessíveis (fidelidade latente) e 21% como de alto risco (ausência de fidelidade). Ele mostrou também que o setor público apresenta menor fidelidade (25%) em relação a outros setores. / [en] The purpose of this study is to identify the attributes that determine the customers loyalty to its IT consulting services suppliers. We started this study with a bibliographical research on the concepts of services, quality, satisfaction, loyalty, relationship, retention, customer bonding and characteristics of the IT consulting market. After that, it carried through interviews with executives from different segments. A survey was elaborated based on the bibliographical research and the interviews. A loyalty model was created using the independent variables brand, relationship with the sales team, support, relationship with the consultants team, price, service, switch barriers and the dependent loyalty variable, resultant of the agglutination of satisfaction, repurchases and recommendation. The research findings showed that the attributes brand, relationship of the consultants team, price and service had been most important to explain the loyalty. The findings showed that 54% of the customers are truly loyal, 19% as prisoners (spurious loyalty), 6% as accessible (latent loyalty) and 21% as of high risk (loyalty absence). It also showed that the public sector is less loyalty (25%) than other sectors.

M. Tech. (Department of Human Resource Development, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / This objectivist, experimental study investigated the influence of virtual expert systems (VES) on the decision accuracy of non-expert consultants within a technology consulting contact centre environment. Because of the overwhelming availability of conceptual information, non-expert consultants experience challenges in making accurate decisions, and would benefit from augmented technologies, such as VES. VES hold the ability to capture and scale large volumes of decision variables for consideration by human experts when making decisions. A total of 40 participants were randomly selected from contact centres in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces of South Africa for this study. Human logic was captured and scaled into a technology fault finding virtual expert and administered as an experiment to group participants. The experimental and control group participants were randomly assigned to the respective groups of 20 participants each. The control group was exposed to the paper-based, fault-finding manual. The pre-test and post-test data were collected based on four decision accuracy measures, namely individual performance, average call handling time, first call resolution and customer service. The Clarify performance system of the participating technology consulting company was used as data collection tool to record the findings used for Chapter 5. Statistical data analyses were performed using ANOVA and two-tailed significance tests to test the relationship between VES and decision accuracy in the pre-test and post-test phases of the study. The study found that the participant scores on the decision accuracy measures were only statistically significant on the measure of first call resolution measure (significance score of a p value <.05). On the other (three) measures, the scores obtained from experimental group participants showed more improvement than that of the control group participants. Consequently, the hypothesis that the use of VES enhance decision accuracy amongst non-expert technology consultants was accepted and the alternative hypothesis rejected. Some limitations pertaining to the resultant Hawthorne effect (the effect when some employees work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment) was noted amongst participants. This effect resulted from the use of team leaders in monitoring performance during the experiment and the involvement of the technology consulting company in determining the performance norms of the identified measures. Another limitation of the study related to the size of the sample where only two provinces were included. The limitation may affect the generalisation of results to other future settings when such a study is repeated. It was recommended that future studies in this field should make provision for a larger population, inclusive of other provinces to avoid these limitations.

Riskhantering i projektbaserade organisationer - En jämförelse av svenska teknikkonsultföretag På 2000-talet har behovet av, och intresset för, riskhantering ökat. Riskerna ökar i projekt och inhyrda konsulter blir vanligare i teknikbranschen. Riskhanteringen blir unik i varje enskilt projekt, varför nya utmaningar kommer med varje nytt projekt. Det gör att det blir viktigt för teknikkonsulter att kunna hantera risker på ett effektivt sätt. Syftet med denna studie är att jämföra hur riskhantering skiljer sig mellan projektbaserade teknikkonsultföretag baserat på deras definition av risk. Hur skiljer sig riskhanteringen mellan stora teknikkonsultföretag? Risk kan definieras som positiv och negativ eller som enbart negativ. Utifrån tidigare studier har organisationens definition av risk, ledningens involvering i riskhantering och organisationens integrering av riskhantering identifierats som variabler för studiens analytiska ramverk. Denna kvalitativa studie är uppbyggd på semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra personer från ledningsgrupper i teknikkonsultföretag för att jämföra likheter och skillnader i deras arbete. Hur en organisation definierar risk är inte avgörande för hur organisationens riskhantering ser ut. Inte heller påverkar det arbetet med hot och möjligheter. Att en organisation har en genomtänkt definition av risk hänger däremot nära samman med att organisationen har en genomtänkt riskhantering.