Quality Of Service In Terms Research Articles

Service Delivery and Performance of Kenya Commercial Bank Limited: A Critical Review of Literature

The overall goal of any business entity is to have the needs of customers satisfied. In the business world customers are the source of profit and revenue for the service organizations and improvements in service delivery leads to customer loyalty. Rapid developments in the business environment such as globalization have made organizations to adopt a spirit of completion and innovation so as to be able to meet the equally changing customer needs and expectations. In order to compete effectively, it has become essential for businesses to constantly improve on the quality of their products and services by marketing, product differentiation and cost reduction. The changes in the environment is forcing organizations to move from a retail model that emphasizes transaction processing and operational capabilities to one that focuses more effectively on the needs of customers, recognizing that they often vary across segments. In a move to optimize services and diminish costs, banks are regularly migrating towards a twenty four hour service where clients are enjoying the superior sense of independence that this creates. This study seeks to establish the effect of service delivery on performance of Kenya Commercial Bank Limited, Kenya. The review is based on SERVQUAL model Systems, Modelling Theory, Gaps Model of Service Quality and Theory of Performance. The literature reviewed indicates that service delivery by Kenya Commercial Bank improves organization performance. However, the specific service delivery channels and tools are noted to differ from one organization to the next. The level of service delivery will also be different and expected to influence organization performance. This is in line with SERVQUAL that requires assessing level and type of service delivery would lead to higher customer satisfaction and thus organization performance. The level of service quality in term of reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness are crucial to be studied. This review therefore recommends for an empirical study to assess how service delivery affects performance at KCB. KCB management is also recommended to put in place mechanisms of ensuring sustained service delivery and thus maintain above competition organization performance.
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Quality of Service and its Impact in Achieving Competitive Advantage

This study aims to determine the impact of the (QoS) variable on the competitive advantage variable. To achieve this, the study relied on the quality of service in terms of reliability, responsiveness, flexibility, safety and connectivity and its competitive advantage in terms of cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery. The study tried to answer the questions of the problem, the most important of which is the quality of service in the organization in question? What is the level of competitive advantage offered by the organization in question? Is there a relationship between quality of service and competitive advantage in the organization in question? The study was conducted in the General Company for the distribution of petroleum products / Central Euphrates Distribution Authority / Babel Branch. The questionnaire was used to obtain the necessary data, as well as personal interviews. The opinions of 150 workers were analyzed in addition to 35 customers. The simple correlation coefficient was used to measure the correlation between the variables and the (T) test to determine the significance of the simple and multiple regression equations and also to use the analysis of the (Anova). The simulation method was used to generate data (views) of all the resolution sections that were pre-designed according to the five-dimensional Likert scale for the sample size (n=150). The study sought to achieve a set of objectives, the most important of which is to identify the relationship between quality of service, competitive advantage and the impact of quality of service on the competitive advantage, to make some recommendations that can contribute to improving the status of the organization in question. The study concluded with a number of conclusions, the most important of which is the organization's interest in responding quickly to the customer's needs when requesting service, noting the importance of the organization to provide most of the needs of the citizens of fuel on demand despite the difficult conditions of the country. The most important recommendations included the organization's interest in quickly responding to customers' requests, so it is important for them to maintain and develop these gains.

Measuring E-Learners' Perceptions of Service Quality

This article examines the factors of e-learners' perceptions of service quality in terms of the physical appearance of the learning management system, students' assurance of personnel's level of knowledge, and the customized attention to students' needs. The authors use a survey to measure the five dimensions of the SERVQUAL scale, adapted to the e-learning context. A total of 325 responses were obtained. To validate their scale, the authors performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. They found that the most important determining factors for e-learning are: ergonomics, corresponding to the attractiveness of the e-learning system; assurance, corresponding to instructors' ability to satisfy students' needs; and empathy, corresponding to the attention given to each individual student. The authors also found that in the context of e-learning, the relative importance of the dimensions of perceived quality is different from what is typically observed in more traditional services. Their findings enable educational institutions to improve their understanding of the expectations and perceptions of e-learners.

QoS Enabled Improved Location Aided Routing (QEILA)

Background: Transmission of heavy and real-time data over wireless links with Quality of Service in Mobile ad-hoc network is a very challenging task. Bandwidth and battery backup parameters are checks for Quality of Service. To provide the Quality of Service in mobile ad-hoc network, the aliveness of a transmitting node has a great concern. Location-aided routing methods for mobile ad-hoc network have gained popularity because of network’s energy saving. Location-aided routing keeps a minimal number of participating nodes for path construction between source and destination, but they did not consider the health of participating nodes that constitute a path. Objective: The objective of this work is harness the location aided routing and builds a protocol which provides Quality of Service in terms of required battery life and available bandwidth. Method: In this work, various patented and non-patented location-based routing and Quality of Service methods for wireless network have been reviewed. The improved location aided routing protocol has been utilized and equipped with Quality of Service check while selecting the next forwarding node for path construction. A novel path preservation procedure is proposed which repair the broken link locally by utilizing candidate next node table. Results: The simulation reveals that the proposed protocol constructs a reliable path consist of trustworthy nodes in terms of battery life and available bandwidth. Conclusion: Proposed work can be utilized for transmitting heavy data traffic in Mobile Ad-hoc network with Quality of Service in real time situation.

Enhancing Availability for Distributed Replicated Services Considering Network Edge Availability

Mechanism to improve data or service availability is critical for an enterprise to ensure the quality of service in terms of availability. Replication has been used to improve system availability. The number and location of the replicas are two impact factors on availability. In this paper, we will consider the impact of the node and network edge failures on the availability of replicated data or services. The Effective availability modeling approach is designed and efficient availability computing algorithms are developed to model and compute availability of replicated services for systems with the tree topology. The availability enhancement problem (maximizing the objective function) is transformed to a p-median problem (minimizing the objective function) through re-define the availability enhancement problem. An efficient replica allocation algorithm is developed to improve data availability in tree networks, with a runtime complexity of O(K|V|2), where K is the number of replicas and |V| is the number of nodes in the tree network. Finally, experimental studies have been conducted to evaluate how efficient and effective the proposed availability computing algorithm and the availability enhancement algorithm on improving the availability of replicated data or services. The results show that the proposed solutions are efficient and effective on availability computing and availability enhancement

A comparison of LRT with an imaginary BRT system in performance: Bursa example

The increasing usage of private vehicles causes serious environmental, social and economic problems necessitating efficient transit systems for big cities all over the world. Appropriate transit systems require consideration of a variety of service quality criteria. Among them, speed, comfort, economy and safety are the most important ones. Considering characteristics and demand of existing light rail transit system (LRT) of Bursa, Turkey, bus rapid transit (BRT) system, comparatively as a cheaper alternative, is investigated in this study to realize how it would have provided competitive service quality in terms of comfort, capacity and operational cost. First, the existing LRT is evaluated with the current demand. Then, as if it were replaced with an imaginary BRT system, how the BRT system would have responded to the existing demand in terms of capacity and comfort are examined. All models are developed in PTV VISSIM simulation environment. The results are compared and important finding are outlined.

Clustering-based and QoS-aware services composition algorithm for ambient intelligence

Due to the dynamic nature of ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence (AmI) environments, a challenging issue that needs to be addressed is how to construct composite services that satisfy users’ requirements in terms of quality of service (QoS). In this paper, a clustering-based and QoS-aware services composition algorithm (CQCA) is proposed. To increase the composition optimality and reduce the composition time, the candidate services are first partitioned into clusters, where each cluster represents a QoS level. In addition, a new formulation of the utility function based on the use of the characteristics of the resulting clusters is proposed to remove unpromising candidate services in terms of QoS. A lexicographic optimization method is then exploited to filter out candidate services that have low QoS attributes values. Finally, a search tree is constructed to find near-to-optimal compositions. The obtained performance shows that the proposed algorithm outperforms other composition approaches by finding very near-to-optimal compositions in a reduced composition time.

Quality of Service of VoIP over WiMAX

In this paper, the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) was analyzed, and the performance of the quality of service (QoS) parameters obtained through the OPNET simulation software was evaluated. The case study started with the analysis of the network structure .It examined the optimal planning parameters and considered to optimize the performance of the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access network to increase the VoIP service performance. The simulation covered three scenarios with different configurations; each scenario was elevated in term of QoS. The simulations studied various cases including variation in cell radius, different number of users, and different number of cells. Results showed that increasing the cell radius does not increase the quality of the network, and increasing the number of users inside one cell also degrades the quality of the network. By contrast, distributing users into different cells increasesthe network performance but enhances the delay time and increases the throughput.

An Efficient Greedy Traffic Aware Routing Scheme for Internet of Vehicles

A new paradigm of VANET has emerged in recent years: Internet of Vehicles (IoV). These networks are formed on the roads and streets between travellers who have relationships, interactions and common social interests. Users of these networks exchange information of common interest, for example, traffic jams and dangers on the way. They can also exchange files such as multimedia files. IoV is considered as part of the Internet of Things (IoT) where objects are vehicles, which can create a multitude of services dedicated to the intelligent transportation system. The interest is to permit to all connected vehicles to communicate with each other and/or with a central server, through other vehicles. Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication is the main component, because the services encompassed in the IoV are based on the vehicles in question, such as transmitter, relay and receiver. This work is focusing on designing and developing a Quality of Service (QoS) routing scheme dedicated to IoV networks. Especially, we aim to improve the Greedy Traffic Aware Routing (GyTAR) protocol to support QoS in IoV networks. To evaluate the proposed approach in terms of QoS in the context of IoV networks, the performance metrics such as average end-to-end delay and packet delivery ratio are taken into consideration to analyse the network situation.

Survey Energy Management Approaches in Data Centres

Data centers are today the technological backbone for any company. However, the failure to control energy consumption leads to very high operating costs and carbon dioxide emissions. On the other hand, reducing power consumption in data centers can lead to a degradation of application performance and quality of service in terms of SLA Service Level Agreement. It is therefore essential to find a compromise in terms of energy efficiency and resource consumption. This paper highlights the different approaches of energy management, related studies, algorithms used, the advantages and weaknesses of each approach related to server virtualization, consolidation and deconsolidation of virtual machines.

Device-to-Device (D2D) Communication as a Bootstrapping System in a Wireless Cellular Network

Device-to-Device (D2D) communication is considered to be a promising form of technology to distribute video contents to nearby users and devices at a high data rate and with few delays. In this paper, we propose utilizing the D2D services and cache of mobile devices as a bootstrapping system in a cellular network. The main objective of a bootstrapping-D2D (BD2D) system is to improve the quality of service in terms of achieving the minimum startup-time of popular video files in a cellular network. To achieve our objective, we propose a new caching concept for D2D communication in which each mobile device can cache and share the initial video portion or initial segments of the popular video files to other proximate users via a D2D communication link. We formulate an optimization problem that maximizes the cache-hit ratio of initial segments of the most popular video contents. The basic aim is to move the initial segments as close as possible to the wireless users. We also propose a network-assisted D2D architecture called mobile content delivery network-assisted-BD2D and algorithms that assist the BD2D system in the discovery of devices that have cached the initial segments of the requested video files, in cache placement decisions, and also in the registration of potential D2D devices at the core network. We evaluate the performance of the BD2D system and propose algorithms through extensive simulations under real wireless network conditions, such as interference, fading, and shadowing. Our concluding simulation results demonstrate that bootstrapping the initial segments using the short range BD2D system can significantly reduce the average startup-time of video files in comparison with bootstrapping the initial segments from the traditional cellular system.

Service modularity in managing healthcare logistics

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how modularity is used for enabling value creation in managing healthcare logistics services.Design/methodology/approachMaterial logistics of four different kinds of hospitals is examined through a qualitative case study. The theoretical framework builds on the literature on healthcare logistics, service modularity and value creation.FindingsThe case hospitals have developed their material logistics independently from others when looking at the modularity of offerings, processes and organisations. Services, such as assortment management, shelving and developing an information platform, have been performed in-house partly by the care personnel, but steps towards modularised and standardised solutions are now being taken in the case hospitals, including ideas about outsourcing some of the services.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper proposes seven modularity components for healthcare logistics management: segmentation, categorisation and unitisation of offerings, differentiation and decoupling of processes, and centralisation and specialisation of organisations. Thus, this study clarifies the three-dimensional concept of modularity as a cognitive frame for managing logistics services with heterogeneous customer needs in a rapidly changing healthcare environment.Practical implicationsModularity offers a tool for developing logistics services inside the hospital and increases possibilities to consider also external logistics service providers.Social implicationsManaging healthcare logistics services through modularity has potential social implications in developing healthcare processes and changing the usage of health services. On a wider scale, modularity is helping healthcare systems reaching their goals in terms of service quality and cost.Originality/valueThis paper shows the context-specific antecedents of service modularity and the usage of modular thinking in managing healthcare logistics.

Evaluating Perception, Expectation of Students/Pre-service Teachers and Service Quality Gap in Greek Tertiary Education

The main plan of the present article is to explore the inter-relationships of foremost constructs related to students/pre-service teachers as Customer Satisfaction regarding ASPETE services. The aim of the article is to assess the ASPETE service quality in a period of financial crisis and unemployment. The article examines the relationship or the gap between perceived and expected quality of service in terms of all its dimensions such as tangibility, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, empathy and accessibility.
 
 
 Keywords: students/pre-service teachers, satisfaction, ASPETE, quality, services

Task scheduling in cloud‐based survivability applications using swarm optimization in IoT

AbstractInternet of Things (IoT) is dramatically growing in support of the recent revolutionary cloud‐based survivability applications. It has to meet the performance expectations for these applications in real‐time while optimizing the available cloud resources. In this paper, we propose a cooperative resource scheduling in energy‐constrained applications for a reliable and fault‐tolerant performance. We present a task scheduling algorithm based on robust canonical particle swarm optimization (CPSO) and fully informed particle swarm optimization (FIPS) algorithm to solve the problem of resource allocation in both homogeneous and heterogeneous cloud‐based IoT applications. Our objective is to satisfy the quality of service in terms of throughput and delay by performing optimal task scheduling while considering the different experienced data traffic categories. Our results show that throughput and delay can be significantly improved while using the FIPS approach in comparison to the CPSO optimization algorithm.

Guest Editorial: Next Generation Wireless Computing Systems

The three papers in this special section focus on next generation wireless computing systems. An important aspect of the next generation wireless computing to ensure a high computing performance is the quality of service (QoS). Wireless communications hold specific characteristics such as frequent disconnections, channel variation, modest available resources, limited energy sources, inefficient security, and fluctuating quality of service. This Special Issue presents state-of-the art QoS solutions for future generations of wireless networks for improved use of various computing systems. Design, development, analysis, and optimization of communication protocols and some perspective solutions for improved performance of Next Generation Wireless Computing Systems in terms of QoS and energy efficiency are the subject of papers included in this Special Issue. The three papers selected here broadly cover specific areas among the above topics with the consideration of providing high-quality research and practical initiatives in the field.

Agency costs in public transport systems: Net-cost contracting between the transport authority and private operators - impact on passengers

Drawing on an agency theory approach, this paper examines conflict of interests and the resulting agency costs in the provision of urban public transport services in Istanbul's public transport system, particularly the private bus and minibus operators' relationship with local government. The agency problem in Istanbul's urban mobility system shows itself most explicitly in private bus and minibus operators because of the net-cost (NC) contract model in place. The private bus and minibus operators' relationship with local government is examined as a case study of agency relationships. Conceptually, government transport authorities and transport operators, together with the passengers, are the main actors of this urban public transport system. They all have distinct needs, interests and requirements and interact with each other, all embedded in a specific institutional environment. Service quality provided by public transport operators depends on the positive interactions between these actors. Whereas passengers demand reliable, affordable, safe and comfortable mobility services, private bus and minibus operators aim to increase their revenue and maximise their profits. In contrast to this, government bus operators provide in-house bus services without much concern for profitability. Regulators or local authorities, on the other hand, are expected to set up an institutional environment where passengers' and operators' expectations are met in a satisfactory manner. Empirical analyses and interviews with key agents demonstrate that agency costs are shown to be the result of misaligned interests between the government transport authority and private operators that lead to reduced service quality in terms of safety, comfort, reliability and affordability. We conclude that the agency costs of current NC contracting on passengers in Istanbul has deficiencies and propose instead a performance-based gross-cost (PrGC) contracting model. PrGC contracting can alleviate agency costs by changing the incentives of operators where regulatory and financing mechanisms are not enough to handle NC contracting. Istanbul represents some transferable lessons and implications, especially for developing cities around the world.

Strengthening the quality of educator-child interactions in early childhood education and care settings: a conceptual model to improve mental health outcomes for preschoolers

ABSTRACTHigh-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) programmes can strengthen the social, emotional and cognitive skills that are crucial for future learning and wellbeing. Teacher–child interactions are the most vital component of ECEC service quality in terms of children’s social-emotional functioning. However, many children are not consistently exposed to the quality of interactions required for optimal development. We propose a conceptual model to encourage social and emotional learning in preschoolers by targeting the quality and intentionality of teacher–child interactions. We draw upon two frameworks relevant in early childhood settings, the Teaching Through Interactions Framework, describing the type of interactions associated with positive child outcomes, and The Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children, a tiered, systematic approach to implement strategies that improve social-emotional health. This model could inform the development of social and emotional learning programmes that support educators to apply responsive techniques through everyday interactions.

Komunikasi Bisnis dalam Perspektif Islam di Rumah Sakit Muhammadiyah Bandung (Studi Pada Divisi Bimbingan Rohani Rumah Sakit Muhammadiyah Bandung Dalam Peningkatan Kualitas Pelayanan Pasien)

Communication is one of the dimensions that affect the quality of services by providing information to customers. The hospital also needs to improve the quality of service in terms of communication. This research aimed to to describe and analyze business communication in Islamic perspective (study on the spiritual guidance division of Rumah Sakit Muhammadiyah Bandung in improving services quality). This research is descriptive qualitative research. This research collects data through interview, observation, and literature study. The results of this study indicate that one of the forms of communication is communication in spiritual guidance activities as commitment of Rumah Sakit Muhammadiyah Bandung as an Islamic hospital. And as a strategy for improving hospital services in Rumah Sakit Muhammadiyah Bndung 
 
 Keywords: Public Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Image.

Reducing the Service Deficit in M-Commerce: How Service-Technology Fit Can Support Digital Sales of Complex Products

Mobile commerce still experiences high drop-out rates throughout the sales process. This is especially evident for complex products such as insurance, which consumers often initially explore online but complete the purchase offline to enjoy direct human assistance, helping them to better understand the product and reduce associated risks. To facilitate complex product purchases online, this article highlights the need for fit between the type of service and the type of technology used for the purchase, termed as service-technology fit (STF). In particular, the article proposes a comprehensive technological service (CTS); that is, the combination of a technology-mediated service (TMS) and a technology-generated service (TGS) as a central element of a face-to-screen service (FtoS). This experimental study found a significant superiority for CTS in terms of service quality and information quality as well as concerning consumers’ perceived financial risk, psychological risk, ease of use, and purchase intention. In contrast, relying solely on either TMS or TGS reduces the perceived service and information quality and reinforces the perception of several risks. These findings extend the theoretical knowledge on the mechanisms that are inherent to an FtoS service and give concrete practical implications for the future design of service in mobile commerce.

On Enabling 5G Automotive Systems Using Follow Me Edge-Cloud Concept

One of the key targets of the upcoming 5G system is to build a mobile network architecture that supports not only classical mobile broadband applications (i.e., Internet and IMS), but also vertical industry services, such as those of automotive systems, e-health, public safety, and smart grid. Vertical industry is known to have specific needs that cannot be sustained by the current cellular networks. More notably, automotive systems require strict quality of service in terms of ultrashort latency for vehicle-to-infrastructure/network (V2I/N) communications. In this paper, we introduce the Follow Me edge-Cloud (FMeC) concept, leveraging the mobile edge computing (MEC) architecture to sustain requirements of the 5G automotive systems. Assuming that automotive services are deployed on MEC entities, FMeC ensures low-latency access to these services by guaranteeing that vehicles (i.e., as well as user equipment on board vehicles) always connect to nearest automotive service. Besides the FMeC architecture, our contribution in this paper consists in presenting a projection of the FMeC solution on an automated driving use case that integrates automotive and Telco infrastructures, to realize the vision of future 5G automotive systems. We introduce the envisioned software defined networking/OpenFlow-based architecture and our mobility-aware framework based on a set of building blocks that permit achieving the automated driving requirements within 5G network. The evaluation results, obtained conjointly through theoretical analysis and computer simulation, show that our proposed solution outperforms baseline approaches in meeting the automated driving latency requirement and minimizing the incurred global cost.