Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Impact of Service Management and Marketing on Business
Case Study of Siemens and Habib Bank
Humaan Siddiqui
Impact of E-Commerce aService Management and Marketing on Business
Performance
Case Study of Siemens and Habib Bank
Limited (HBL)
Business Administration
Master’s Thesis
15 ECTS
Term: Spring 2012
Supervisor: Lars Haglund
Page | 1
Commerce and Service Management and Marketing on Business
Case Study of Siemens and Habib Bank
Spring 2012
Lars Haglund
Page | 2
Acknowledgements
Initially I am extremely thankful and bent down my head with great regard in front of
Almighty Allah who gave me the strength and spirit to complete this thesis. After that I
would like to thank my family who is always been the constant source of inspiration and
admiration for me in every endeavour of my life.
Now most importantly, I would like to give very special thank to my supervisor Mr Lars
Haglund, Mr Arne Fagerstrom and the examiner Miss Gunnel Kardemark who kept proper
check and balance on my submitted work. Along with that they are the only ones who
constantly guide me on how to furnish my thesis according to the right guidelines and
international standards. So thank you so much for all your advices and useful instructions that
proofed fruitful to finish this thesis.
Lastly I would like to thank all the interviewees for giving me their precious time for the
interview to develop the case study.
Page | 3
ABSTRACT
World Business has been changed drastically in the previous two decades because of the
immense spread of the E-Commerce- different information systems. So that no one can deny
the enormous and sheer power of the information technology. Because those information
engines adhere responsibly and gigantically for the effective establishment of the service
management and marketing function at its entirety. And at the end of the day everything
becomes organized, systematic, controlled and clear for the ease of human species. And that I
think is very important to watchdog the direction of the whole business enterprise that where
it becomes headed towards.
Purpose of the paper is to explore the industrious advantages that how E-Commerce and
service management and marketing affect the business performance of the enterprises in a
productive manner. Because IT strategy enables the business strategy to create competitive
edge through the right required adaptation of necessary information systems and also seek
innovation in services. And there is also a need to recognize that how it works for the severe
benefits of the stakeholders.
Paper presents the empirical investigation of two companies. One is multinational Company-
Siemens and second is Pakistan’s largest Government Bank named- Habib Bank Limited
(HBL). The use of E-Commerce and services management and marketing functions of these
two businesses are analysed in detail with respect to the relevant literature discussed in the
theoretical framework. Qualitative Research approach has been adapted and Case study of
Siemens (SAP project) and HBL also been included from its stakeholder’s perspective. Both
cases project and reflect upon the strong impact of the crispier and spicy impact that those
information systems create, to sharpen and poise the built of the stakeholders in the business.
Conclusion is presented at the end to describe the giant power of these systems. That how the
role of E-Commerce-information systems used by these businesses for the benefit of its
stakeholders. It is concluded that E-Commerce has the positive impact on the service
management and marketing of both Habib Bank Limited and Siemens. And Further more the
use of E-Commerce works effectively for the service quality of the banking sector in terms of
security, access, communication, reliability, responsiveness and perceived customer services.
Page | 4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page No:
1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................7-12
1.1. Background..............................................................................................................8-12
1.1.1. E-Commerce………………………………………………………….………8
1.1.2. Service Management and Marketing…………………………………….…..9
1.1.3. Service Quality……………………………………………………………9, 10
1.1.4 Service Quality in E-Banking………………………………………………..10
1.1.5. Problem Discussion……………………………………………………...10, 11
1.1.6. Research Purpose…………………………………………………………….11
1.1.7. Reason Why I choose this Topic?.………………………………………….12
2. METHODOLOGY................................................................................................13-17
2.1. Reasons of selecting a methodology......................................................................13-14
2.1.1. Research Approach…………………………………………………………..13
2.1.2. Research Purpose…………………………………………………………13, 14
2.1.3. Deductive and Inductive Research…………………………………………..14
2.1.4. Research Strategy………………………………………………………….…14
2.2. How the job is done?………………………………………………………….…15-17
2.2.1. Case study…………………………………………………………………….15
Page | 5
2.2.2. Data collection methods…………………………………………………………15
2.2.3. Choice of companies……………………………………………………………16
2.2.4. Choice of respondents…………………………………………………………..16
2.2.5. Data analysis…………………………………………………………………….16
2.2.6. Validity and reliability………………………………………………………..…17
3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK-LITERATURE REVIEW………………....18-27
3.1. Approaches and service management and marketing related issues and topics apparent in
the literature and articles...............................................................................................18-27
3.1.1. Service concept, service perspectives and service logic………………………...18
3.1.2. Service dominant logic (SDL)………………………………………………..18, 19
3.1.3. The development and emergence of service marketing thought………….…20, 21
3.1.4. Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing………………………………..22
3.1.4. Value co-production- Intellectual origins and implication for practice and
research..............................................................................................................................23
3.1.5. Whither service marketing? In search of a new paradigm and fresh
perspectives………………………………………………………………………23, 24, 25
3.1.6. Service innovation………………………………………………………………..26
3.1.7. Service innovation in financial industry…………………………………...…26, 27
4. EMPIRICAL FINDINGS...........................................................................................28-35
4.1 SIEMENS- Company Introduction.........................................................................28-33
4.1.1. Managing today’s business challenges ………………………………………...29
4.1.2. SAP ECC 6.0 solution software for every business and process……………29, 30
4.1.3. SAP ERP functionality for business process excellence………………..30, 31, 32
4.1.4. Foundation of innovation………..………………………………………32, 33
Page | 6
4.2. HABIB BANK LIMITED (HBL)- Company Introduction…………………….34-35
4.2.1. HBL online banking service………………………………………………….34
4.2.2. HBL internet and mobile banking…………………………………………….34
4.2.3. HBL ATM card and phone banking………………………………………….35
5. ANALYSIS…………………………………………………………………………36-46
5.1. Case study of Siemens- SAP World Bank project in Pakistan…………………..36, 37
5.2 Case study of Habib Bank Limitd (HBL)……………………………….………..37-42
5.3. Personal reflection, ideas and suggestions on the main results, models and concepts
developed…………………………………………………………………..................42-46
6. DISCUSSION……………………………………………………………………..47-48
6.1. Identification of some problems………………………………………….........47, 48
6.2. Recommendations and further scope of Research………………………………….48
7. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………..49
REFERENCES………………………………………………………….......................50-55
Page | 7
1. INTRODUCTION
Chapter will provide the deeper and essential glance on the selected research area. At first
description of background is elaborated by later headed towards problem discussion, research
purpose and the reason that why I choose this topic. Background will provide a reader the
strong basis and antecedents of the research concepts. Afterwards, major impact of E-
Commerce and the service management and marketing on the business performance will be
found out.
With the advancement of Information Technology, today in the Global era customers
required higher and better services in this information age which in turn saves their time and
convenient as well (Kotler & Keller 2006). Because of the Competitive environment in the
marketplace, knowing customer is the important issue of marketing to better understand the
customer needs and wants or to generate the kind of services that become their desired wants.
Today businesses moved their focus from products and sales to customer oriented marketing
(Lin 2003).
It is important for businesses to design their action plan in a way that improves customer
services by offering them what their needs and wants. Today term customer service emerged
as a strong competitive weapon for companies to gain competitive edge and also for their
survival motive (Hanson 2000). So with all this importance of customer Service it is also
important for businesses to focus on the service quality (Eppinette & Inman 1997).
To understand customer is very important method of marketing and good service marketing
headed towards profitability. So as a student of business administration I want to explore the
ways to improve the service quality of the businesses. And E-Commerce has done enormous
role and change the way the corporation work with their stakeholders through the use of
information systems and outside by creating innovative products and services. The paper is
made to understand that how E-Commerce affects the service quality at Siemens and Habib
Bank Limited.
Information Systems immensely improve several factors in service quality and service
marketing and management that includes communication, responsiveness, accuracy of
information etc.
Page | 8
1.1.Background
This section incorporates the background of the research undertaken. Section contains the
general ideas regarding e-commerce, service management and marketing, and service quality
along with the service quality in E-Banking and customer satisfaction from stakeholder’s
perspectives. These all concepts are integrated together like a mixture of strong fragrances
that we can’t separate from each other. So it’s important to have the strong influx of these
concepts to answer the research question. Because if I detach and not describe one part then
the whole perfume will not give it’s enticing, alluring or tempting effect.
1.1.1. E-Commerce
Advanced studies in the field of Electric Commerce are becoming attractive with the
increasing development of information technology. So now companies can better take care of
their customers by offering better solutions that they have never before (Wigand 1997). There
are different definitions of E-Commerce. According to Zwass (1996) it’s the information
sharing, relationship enhancing and transactions handling through the internet based
technology.
E-Commerce can also be defined from different perspectives such as commercial,
communication, business process and service perspective. Like from the service perspective
it’s a tool that adheres responsibly according to the desires of the Government, consumers,
firms, institutions and management that fastens the speed of service delivery via improving
customer’s service. And most important it reduces the cost of the service and makes it more
convenient for the customers (Turban et al. 2004). According to Lin (2003), it includes
information exchange about the products and services and the use of internet for electronic
communications. It also includes business transactions for ordering and payment over the
internet.
E-Commerce brings enormous advantages for customers and suppliers. Like benefits for
suppliers includes low cost, efficiency, 24-hours services, extended market covering,
influence customer purchases, adjustments to market requirement and improved customer
services. Its benefits towards customers include streamlined process, convenience, low
procurement costs, instant private shopping and transactions etc (Kotler 2003). Turban et al.
(2004) also enlist several E-Commerce benefits to business organizations and customers. For
Business organization it first leads to the reduction of cost then customization, extended
Page | 9
hours, supply chain management, lower organization cost, improved customer relations,
efficient procurement and rapid time to market etc. Customer benefits include cheaper
products and services, availability of information, fast delivery, auctions participation, fewer
hassles etc.
1.1.2. Service Management and Marketing
Since 2000 there is an immense growth of internet technology users, because it is quick and
saves time and convenient as well. And Service Management and Marketing is continuously
growing drastically in emerging and developing countries constantly day by day. And
increasing trend of service industry is the reason of growing this field in those countries. And
today most of the companies are becoming more and more service oriented (Lovelock &
Witz 2007). Companies are not only offering the goods but the services that these goods are
generating and these companies started associated them as service companies (Edvardsson &
Echeverri 2002). To define service there has been number of definitions and the early
definitions based on the differences between goods and services. These differences most of
the times states that the services are difficult to visualize, understand than the inventory
(Lovelock & Witz 2007). Another difference is related to the process like customer is the part
of the process and they are involved in co-production (Lovelock & Witz 2007; Edvardsson &
Echeverri 2002). But with more research we have seen that these differences are not
applicable to all types of services. Services are the economic activities that are offered by the
businesses to its customers which are performed in real time to bring out the outcomes that
satisfy customer’s desire and expectation (Lovelock & Witz 2007).
1.1.3. Service Quality
Service Quality is the determinant of the competitiveness for developing and sustaining
strong relationships with customers (Johnston 1997). There are different perspectives on
service quality. European perspective states that service quality should include three
dimensions that include functional and technical quality with corporate image (Gronroos
1983; Lethinen & Lethinen 1982). American perspective states that service quality evaluated
on the functional quality dimension that described through five components that include
reliability, responsibility, tangibility, empathy and assurance (Kang & James 2004).
According to Parasuraman et al (1985) Service Quality is the customer’s comparison between
service expectation and service performance. Because of the increasing growth of the E-
service Quality on the web, it makes businesses more appealing and effective by helping
Page | 10
them to gain higher levels of customer retention. So the E-Service Quality is the extent to
which website facilitates effective shopping and delivery of products and services.
Service quality remains one of the important aspects of the services marketing literature
(Johnston 1997). Main challenge of managing service quality lies on the great importance to
customer satisfaction. So service managers exactly need to know their customers desired
wants because service quality revolves around exceeding and meeting desired customer’s
expectations. Academics are concerned to measure service quality to better understand its
consequences and antecedents, in order to built new ways of improving service quality to
achieve customer satisfaction and gain competitive advantage. (Palmer & Cole 1995)
1.1.4. Service Quality In E-Banking
Development of the internet completely changed the way banks operate their businesses with
their valuable customers. And Service quality besides mainly used to evaluate the operations
of the banking services via using information systems. So now bank has channels that
provide 24 hours services to their customers. Customers are also provided with the access to
more financial information with broad range of services. According to the previous research
it is found that banks competitive advantage over internet based on the services provided
through E-Commerce and not only the attraction of Internet (Furst et al. 2002).
E-banking is the use of internet as the transactions channel for banking services. So through
that way bank innovate their offerings. This includes traditional services like deposit account
opening, transfer of funds among different accounts along with new services like E-Bills
payments etc (Jun & Cai 2001).
Customer Expectation and perception of the internet service will change over time. Quality
remains is the important issue and banking industry is no exception. Introduction and
customer acceptance of the E-Banking bring drastic change in the way banks maintain their
strong relations with their customers these days (Jun & Cai 2001).
1.1.5. Problem Discussion
Businesses try to seek differentiation in services because they think it’s difficult to compete
on physical products these days, so through that way companies are in the position to better
respond to the customers through giving accurate information, quality services with quicker
information channels, developing human resources in a manner that are able to cope with the
Page | 11
customer problems. Today services gain much more attention for researchers and business
executives, because of the increasing competition in the market, and delivery of the quality
services also headed towards greater profitability (Kotler 2003).
A good customer quality service is the major issue for the businesses who are operating in E-
Commerce, because their success and failure depends on this channel. So maintaining good
customer relations through providing effective services is the key towards success in the E-
Commerce and in Services marketing (Kotler 2003).
Because of the internet Banks offer and market their services to their valuable customers who
are able to access their accounts 24/7 and do transactions via sitting anywhere anytime. So
this new customer services channel involves non-human interactions with the customer and
banks online information systems (Furst et al. 2002).
Problem statement or basic research questions for the study are:
What is the role of organizations Service IT Strategies on the well-being of its stakeholders to
gain competitive edge?
What is the impact of E-Commerce on the Service Quality of an enterprise?
How does Service Management and Marketing and E-Commerce affect the way do
companies work?
1.1.6. Research Purpose
The main purpose of IT strategy is to enable the business strategy to create competitive edge
through the use of IT and seek innovation in services because companies are moving from
product centric to customer centric. According to (Turban et al. 2004) E-Commerce is the
whole process of buying, selling, exchanging and transferring information, products, services
and business transaction via computing networks through internet technology.
Purpose of the paper is to find out that how E-Commerce and services management and
marketing effects the business performance both inside (from employees perspective) and
outside (from customers perspectives). Inside Stakeholders include the employees of both
companies and how they get benefited by reducing the workload of their jobs. So because of
E-Commerce it is possible for having a quick look and tracks of the required available
information though just one click. Outside stakeholders include the banks customers and the
Page | 12
employees at the district account offices of Pakistan. So it will be found out that how E-
Commerce and Service management and marketing works for the utility of its stakeholders at
Habib Bank Limited and Siemens.
1.1.7. Reason Why I Choose This Topic?
My personal motivation and reason of choosing this topic is that I studied and grasped so
many wonderful service and management related courses in Karlstad University. So I really
wanted to incorporate my understanding of that knowledge in to my thesis. Plus I added the
concept of E-Commerce in relation with the Service management and marketing. Because I
think that today in this modern business world everything is systemized on to the interrelated
networks with computers. Lastly I also discussed this topic with my supervisor Mr Lars
Haglund in detail because I really wanted to work on something that is current and fresh that
works all the times in the future. And I also wanted to work something that will fit in my
future career.
According to Venkatraman (2000), today in this Global era with the industrious spread of the
internet, Businesses step towards adoption of Information Technology has been grown
immensely day by day. So IT entirely changed the way corporations think and conduct their
businesses. So the biggest advantage of the internet for the companies is that they have new
ways to offer and market their services to keep up with the competing arena against their
competitors. So in that way businesses practices through the use of IT and Information
Systems is becoming an important subject for studies to measure the impact of E-Commerce
on the Services marketing and management of the business performance. One of the best
advantages of the internet is that it provides advanced options to the organizations in
exploring new ways of conducting businesses to compete effectively with its competitors. So
in that regard businesses practice via E-Commerce today becoming the important subject for
studies, for evaluating the impact of E-Commerce and service management and marketing on
the business performance.
Page | 13
2. METHODOLOGY
Research process will be described in this chapter in detail. The methods will be used and
why they were selected will also be discussed.
2.1. Reason of Selecting a Methodology
2.1.1. Research Approach
To conduct scientific research there are two approaches to choose Qualitative or Quantitative
Research (Yin 1994). So the decision of the approach depends upon the characteristics of the
gathered information. And one important difference between the approaches is that how do
we used the numbers and statistics. Quantitative approach mainly relies on numbers and
statistical data that at the end finally crunched into figures. While Qualitative approach uses
method of deep description of facts that are based on theoretical words and language
(Marshall & Roseman 1999). So the use of an approach depends on the research problem.
Qualitaitve approach provides better understanding of the phenomena under investigation
(Marshall & Roseman 1999). So based on the research question qualitative research approach
is the most appropriate to develop an understanding on how E-Commerce affect the service
management, marketing and innovation in the service quality of a business under
investigation. And it is also Qualitative in a way because it gives the consumers evaluation of
the information systems. And it is also not possible to convert the data into statistics and
numbers because it is more about the feelings and attitudes of the people.
2.1.2. Research Purpose
There are three different research strategies to choose from descriptive, exploratory and
explanatory depending upon the research problem. Exploratory research has been used to
investigate some phenomenon with the aim to develop suggestive ideas and also to clarify
ambiguous problems. Descriptive approach is used to describe various phenomena that is
related to individuals, situations or events that occur and also used when developing
empirical generalizations that requires explanation to further theory development.
Explanatory Research is used to develop more precise theory to develop empirical
generalizations and for that researcher need to develop hypothesis which are then tested
empirically through having those generalizations as a major foundation (Zikmund 2000).
Purpose of this research is to find that how E-Commerce affects the services management and
marketing of the Business. So in this way this research is partly exploratory and partly
Page | 14
descriptive. According to Saunders et al. (2003) exploratory studies are valuable means of
finding out what is happening to explore new insights and new questions to assess the
theories or phenomenon in the new light. And there are three ways to conduct exploratory
research. Those were focus groups interviews, talk to expert in a subject and a search of
literature. So in that way it’s possible to find out new insights on the service quality and the
impact of E-Commerce on the customer side in both of these companies. Moreover the study
is also descriptive because it describes phenomena and situations that are connected to
individuals and also empirical generalization are developed. More Specifically characteristics
of the systems will be explained, its user friendliness approach etc by answering questions at
the end.
2.1.3. Deductive and Inductive Research
When researcher used already established literature and theories as a basis of their research
and also finished the work with the observations compared with the literature and the existing
theories is called Deductive Research. And in Inductive Research, researchers draws their
conclusions from empirical findings and usually used when there are few established theories
in the field of research and the researchers aim is to create new theories (Zikmund 2000).
I have written this thesis with the deductive-inductive approach. How- by first studying the
available literature and theories that are previously written by some authors in these areas to
build strong foundation for the research. And the research is deductive indeed because the
research question is theoretical. However I have been adding my own theories that are based
on the findings of my analysis. So in that way it’s a bit inductive as well.
2.1.4. Research Strategy
It is the general plan that how to carry out the research by answering the research questions
set by the researchers that include clear objectives from the research question and also specify
the sources in which researchers needs to collect data. Yin (1994) identified five research
strategies that are based on three conditions. Those are type of research questions, the control
the investigator has on the behavioural events and the focus on contemporary historical
phenomenon. Experiments, Surveys, archival analysis, histories and case studies are five
research strategies. Important thing is to choose the research strategy that identify the type of
research question being asked. For this thesis the companies are supposed to be investigated
in depth, so case study is more appropriate for this qualitative study.
Page | 15
2.2. How the Job is Done?
2.2.1. Case Study
Case Study is suitable when the research is focusing on few objects and when a researcher
wishes to gain a rich understanding of the context. Case study investigates an empirical
enquiry of the contemporary phenomenon in real life context. And a case may be an
individual and some entity or event that are not properly defined than the single individual
(Yin 1994). Case study is also appropriate to observe the inaccessible phenomena and also
include the things like present situation analysis of the things and systems like how it’s going
on.Then finding some problems by observing the phenomena in an good light. After that
decision can be taken by properly grasping the situation and problems in a meaningful
manner. And then proposed solution can be given after analysing all the things in a deeper
manner.
Yin (1994) explained that through multiple case studies conclusions deliberating from two
companies cases will become more powerful rather than one single case, so multiple case
study has been used in this study so the findings will become automatically more powerful by
analysing and comparing the results among two cases and that in turn also gives the
opportunity to better understand the findings and detect the similarities among the cases.
2.2.2. Data Collection Methods
There are six different ways to collect data for the case studies that includes documentation,
interviews, archival records, direct observation, participant observation and physical artefact
(Yin 1994). So from these six I used three ways to collect data that includes documentation,
interviews and direct observation.
Primary Data will be included by interviewing the managers at Siemens and Habib Bank
Limited and my own direct observation because I have been working for these two
companies previously. For this thesis I conduct Telephonic interviews and I send the
questionnaire to the respondents some days before calling them so they can think more about
the answers of the questions. I conduct the interviews with more open ended questions so
they can answer freely about the user interface, service facilitating systems they want to talk
about in detail. Secondary Data is included in the theoretical part by including some scientific
journals and will be compared with the empirical part and in the analysis by reviewing
company’s information systems and its online documentation regarding their information
Page | 16
systems. I have also used literature in the Karlstad University library databases by using
general databases, Emerald, Ebrary and other sources.
2.2.3. Choice Of Companies
The companies that I have selected for the empirical investigation are Siemens and Habib
Bank Limited. Siemens is the Multinational Company operating in Pakistan on several
projects. And Habib Bank Limited (HBL) is the Government Bank operating in Pakistan.
This thesis contains the study of information systems at Siemens and Habib Bank Limited.
And how these information systems and services management and marketing of these
companies affects the business performance in a better way.
2.2.4. Choice Of Respondents
Respondents include the people and managers at Siemens and Habib Bank Limited because
they are the ones who are familiar with the functionality and usability of the systems. And
they also know that what benefits it provides in terms of the service management and
marketing of the companies. At Siemens I choose to interview both with the manager and
employees at district account offices, who are in turn the users and customers of those
information systems in order to get better understanding of the impact of E-Commerce on the
service management and marketing of these companies. At HBL I choose to interview service
and operations manager along with two customers at HBL.
2.2.5. Data Analysis
All the data collected needs to be interpreted in a meaningful and fair manner to produce
compelling conclusion. For case study there are two analytical strategies to analyse data. One
is developing a case description and second is relying on theoretical proposition. Relying on
theoretical proposition is normally the commonly used strategy in which the result is the
collection of data based on research question. And after that, finding will then compared with
the results from previously conducted studies. Developing a case description is used when a
little research is done previously. There are three phases of data collection and analysis that
are open, axial and theoretical coding. In open coding I did preliminary phase of analysis
from the interviews and other information collected. Secondly in axial coding I saw if there is
any connection between the interviewees answers and how these connections could be
Page | 17
explained. Finally in theoretical coding that is the evolution of the paradigm, in which I
compared the analysis with the theory for further verification or rejection (Zikmund 2000).
2.2.6. Validity And Reliability
According to Saunders et al (2003) there is a need to pay attention on the validity and
reliability of the data collected in order to minimize the tendencies of getting incorrect
information.
Validity is concerned with the findings collected that are appeared to be true or not. It is
regarding the data collection methods that it should specifically measure what they truly
intent to measure. Different steps can be taken to ensure the validity of the study like
information was collected from the senior managers of the companies who know the systems.
And open ended questions have been included to take rich response from them. Furthermore
interview question being made according to the theoretical framework to maintain the
validity of the findings (Saunders et al. 2003).
Reliability means that all the data collection methods must needs to produce consistant results
and there must needs to be good sense that one can clearly saw that there is a clear
transparency reached in conclusion drawn from the collected data. Reliability is assessed by
looking at the measures needs to produce the same results in other occasions, similar
observations are related to other observers, taking of notes during the interview to note
important points and cross check etc (Saunders et al. 2003).
Two companies have been used to conclude the results more authentic and effective to ensure
that the findings are same. Selected theories for the study are described clearly and data is
drawn from the theories in the theoretical framework.
Page | 18
3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK-LITERATURE REVIEW
So based on the research problem, it is needed to explore that how E-Commerce and service
management and marketing impacts the reliability, communication, security, access and
responsiveness at Siemens and Habib Bank Limited. So theories in the study will be
presented to build the theoretical framework.
3.1.Approaches and Service Management and Marketing Related Issues and Topics
apparent in the Literature and Articles
3.1.1. Service Concept, Service Perspectives and Service Logic
Generally, services are different. Services are intangible created at the point of use. They
consumed at the moment of creation- cannot be stockpiled or owned. Services nature sparks a
glimpse of continuous research in the future. Its contents mainly focus on: History of service
management and marketing. The service concept and service logic include: Production,
delivery and consumption that are overlapping processes and customers as co-producer.
Services are intangible and therefore, difficult to explain and assess. And they are closely tied
to the employees (inseparable) of the service provider. Some authors define service as a
perspective on value-creation focusing on value in use of customer.
Service perspectives and service concept; the difference put special demands on marketing
and development of service. Service perspectives are the foundation for service management
and marketing. Service management and marketing itself focuses on understanding the main
perspectives on service and on the central concepts within the field. The concept of service
has been defined in different ways. Gronroos (2001) and many other scholars stress the
process nature of services. He defines the service concept “as an activity or series of activities
of a more or less intangible nature that normally, but not necessarily, take place in the
interaction between the customer and the service employees and/or physical resources or
goods and/or systems of the service provider, which are provided as solutions to customer
problems”. Here, there are core dimensions in this definition activities; Interactions- which
could be said the ones that separate services from physical products and solutions to customer
problems.
3.1.2. Service Dominant Logic(SDL)
Service Dominant Logic claims that service forms the basis of all economic exchange. SDL
distinguishes service from the provision of services by defining service singularly as the
Page | 19
application of competences for the benefit of another party (Vargo & Lusch 2008) and is
therefore not intrinsically linked to a service context as distinct from a manufactured product
or goods context. Indeed, as Vargo and Lusch point out, the services versus product
dichotomy is an economic one, not driven by customer value and therefore ‘binds us to the
fundamental nature of exchange and, thus, to opportunities in innovation’. It is therefore
appropriate to consider the relevance and appropriateness of the propositions embedded
within SDL for the consumer services marketing context.
Three aspects of SDL are of particular interest to the consumer services context. First, that
value is co-created with customers. Secondly, that value occurs at the time of use,
consumption or experience and is therefore value in use. Like for this first and second aspect
value is co-created and consumed when customer used the online Habib Bank innovative
services. Thirdly, those operant resources are the fundamental source of competitive
advantage (Vargo & Lusch 2008). It is important to distinguish between co-creation and co-
production because the terms are not interchangeable within SDL. Co-creation relates to the
value received by the customer through usage, consumption or experience. Co-production
relates to specific tasks undertaken by customers which may occur prior to or during usage,
consumption or experience.
Operant resources are defined as the knowledge, skills, expertise, capacity and time of people
and in the context of SDL relate to both co-creation parties: customers as well as the service
organization. It is the combination of the reliance on the operant resources of customers in
order to co-create value that warrants further consideration. Brown (2007) notes that SDL
requires empirical testing to build our knowledge of how customers participate in co-creating
value or make sense of any role they play in co-creation value or how they evaluate the
respective roles within the value creation process or whether increasing or decreasing their
role influences, their overall perception of value gained from use, consumption or experience.
Considering consumers to be partial employees is not a new idea in services marketing as a
result of the inseparability characteristic and the frequent need for a proactive co-production
input to receive the services (Bitner et al, 1997; Kelly et al. 1990).
The discussion above suggests there is a need to ensure that the customer perspective does
not get lost as service organizations fall over them to apply scientific understanding to
advance their ability to design, improve, and scale service systems (Maglio & Spohrer 2008).
Practitioners involved with the provision of consumer services may need to act with caution
Page | 20
when using the language and adopting the principles of SDL. These, particularly the role of
operant resources to co-create value in use, may actually provide a more effective way of
bringing the customer into sharper focus within a product manufacturing or physical goods
context than within a consumer services environment. This appears apparent viability of the
provision of consumer services with balancing the need to understand how consumers make
sense of service experience where co-creation requires greater co-production (Vargo & Lusch
2008).
3.1.3. The Development And Emergence of Service Marketing Thought
Service marketing began to emerge in 60s and this article focuses upon the evolution of the
services marketing literature that tracked across three metaphorical evolutionary stages from
its early beginnings in the Crawling out Stage to the most recent publications in the Walking
Erect stage. As with human evolution, the outcomes at each of the three stages would have
been difficult to predict precisely at an earlier stage (Fisk et al. 1994).
This article has speculated on future literature, it could not give a precise label or time frame
for the next phase of the evolution. The face of the literature at each stage, the ideas that
emerged, and even the contributors who chose to write in the field truly evolved and were
shaped by a variety of forces (Berry & Parasuraman 1993). So the Crawling Out era is from
the 1953 to 27 years. During this era lots of author discussed about the issue of service
marketing and the outcome of this discussion had a large impact on the future of the services
marketing and its development (Fisk et al. 1994). Risk taking of services marketing
researchers particularly in the Crawling Out phase was a key element shaping the literature.
However, as the debate over whether service marketing is distinct eventually died out, it
became somewhat less risky for academics to enter the field. During the Scurrying About
phase, specific problems faced by business practitioners in service industries influenced the
large numbers of topics that were researched.
The problems first identifies in Scurrying About phase were carried forward in the Walking
Erect stage, and in fact the roots of all the major topic areas such as service quality, service
encounters, internal marketing can be tracked to this phase. As the term Walking Erect
implies, the literature published during the most recent evolutionary phase stands on its own
and is a solid contribution to management practice and academic theories of marketing in a
variety of topic areas. In the Walking Erect stage, scholars achieved a respected stance as
service marketing became an established field within the marketing discipline. The
Page | 21
publication on many of the primary topics matured considerably. As with human evolution,
evidence of past stages is always apparent in later evolutionary stages. The entrepreneurial
spirit of the early services marketing researchers in the Crawling Out stage was still evident
in the topics selected for research and in the excitement and enthusiasm with which they are
pursued. So, this article tells us stressing how the service marketing is increased form
different eras and how it is developed (Fisk et al. 1994).
According to this article, service marketing is quite old topic of discussion and has been
emerging with the passage of time. As its history is not old than 1950s but now it is fully
grown research field. The article clearly depicted the three eras of development of service
management so as to show how service marketing is evolved. It majored topics (service
quality and service encounters/experiences) that have gained substantial attention which
rooted in relatively isolated pieces of research published during the preceding periods.
However, not until the Walking Erect period could a cohesive core of research be identified.
As mentioned earlier, the major specific topics in the article were Service Quality and
experience. Service Quality is the most researched area in services marketing to date. The
interest in service quality parallels the focus on quality, total quality management, and
customer satisfaction in business during the last decade. The roots of the service quality
research reside in early conceptual work from Europe (Lehtinen & Lehtinen 1982), and
customer satisfaction theory (e.g, Oliver 1980). Most of the recent work on service quality in
marketing can be credited to the pioneering and continuing contributions of A. Parasuraman,
Leonard Berry and Valarie Zeithaml.
Another prominent stream of research relates to service encounters/experiences called
“moments of truth” (Carlzon 1987). The underlying assumption is that customer perceptions
of service encounters are important elements of customer satisfaction, perceptions of quality,
and long term loyalty. Service encounter research focuses on the interactions between
customers and employees in service firms. Adding to it, the entire evolution of service can be
inferred that it is brought up by risk-taking researchers who had both the lens to see service as
distinct marketing discipline and/or marketing physical goods and the strength to challenge
the existing pervasive marketing philosophy (Fisk et al. 1994).
Page | 22
3.1.4. Evolving to A New Dominant Logic For Marketing
Where did the IHIP characteristics come from? Analysis of numerous publications by service
marketing and operations scholars during the 1970s and early 1980s reveals very few
citations of references predating the 1960s. Nevertheless, the concepts of intangibility,
inseparability, heterogeneity and perishability actually originated in classical and new
classical economics. Origins of the Intangibility, Inseparability, and Perishability concepts
are neither marketers nor operations specialists who can create the distinction between
tangible goods and intangible services (Solomon & Stuart 2003).
This article states that in the era when there was too much focus on the production of goods
and tangible products, the model related to economics and marketing developed to support
this trend. In relation to this the most of the marketing models are suitable for the goods only
as compare to the services. With the changing nature of economy and increasing of number
of services the focus has shift towards the more intangibility. Now the knowledge, skills and
relationship becomes more important. By seeking this marketing dominance has also shifted
towards the exchange of intangibles as compare to the exchange of tangibles goods (Vargo &
Lusch 2004).
According to the authors the new perspectives is coverage to form a new dominant logic for
marketing, one which service provision rather than goods is fundamental to economic
exchange. In the article the author states that new perspective in world is converging to a new
dominant logic for marketing where services are becoming fundamental of exchange rather
than goods. The article has also discussed the marketing mix Ps and explain the situation
where they are applicable or where they are not. The article has discussed the marketing
theories during the year in early 1800 and provides some description related to developments
in marketing theory (Vargo & Lusch 2004).
The services being a totally different in nature with goods also require the different type of
strategies and techniques to market. Between goods and service centred view there have been
lot of comparisons and these comparisons are based on six different attributes. Along with
this there are eight different foundational premises which present the mix of the rising
dominant logic and explain the differences between goods and services. The examples of the
foundational premises are all economies are service economies- customer is always a co-
producer and knowledge is the fundamental source of competitive advantage (Vargo & Lusch
2004).
Page | 23
3.1.5. Value Co-Production: Intellectual Origins And Implication For Practice and
Research
In this article the old view which was formulated in the industrial value creation has been
compared. The old value creation states that consumers are destroying the value which
producers had created for them. The author has proposed as alternative and new value
creation view that he has called the value co-poduction. In this article the history relating to
value creation has been presented along with that the developments related to alternative
view of value creation has been discussed. The author has highlighted the history by taking
into account different views like value, consumption by customers, service and value co-
production. The author has given emphasis on how can value co-production can be utilized
for describing and understanding of the business opportunities, organizational practices and
management. The author claims that actors hold different roles in relation to different
counterparts in value co-production. By underrating this role system the company can make
the value creation process more efficient. According to author the co-produced value creation
framework is a higher logical type then the industrial (Ramirez & Rafael 1999).
This article is very up-to-date about value production and it has given important information
related to the area. The article has discusses about the different actors in the co-production
process and their possible relationship with each other in this process. I completely agree
with the author that the industrial view of value production could not cover the new aspects
of the value production process. The value co-production view is much wider and takes into
account all types of services (Ramirez & Rafael 1999).
3.1.6. Whither Service Marketing? In Search of A New Paradigm And Fresh
Perspectives
In this article the authors have made discussion and evaluation relating to the IHIP if it really
works for the generalization of the differences between services and goods.
Are IHIP Characteristics Generalizable?
Despite an undercurrent of skepticism about the component elements (Gronroos 2000;
Lovelock 1983, 2000) and a highly critical stance by (Gummesson 2002), the IHIP remains a
unifying theme for services marketing. It continues to be the heart of services. I believe that
IHIP is applicable to all services because it is basically a common ground for all service
types. Yet, one might contend that services are uniquely different on the four specific IHIP
Page | 24
characteristics. No matter how services are unique, it could not be always supported by the
evidence; it might be only true for certain types of services, as it was for some goods. Hence,
the claim is even less valid now than when services marketing were in its infancy. My review
of this section has surfaced me to a single conclusion, i.e., the communality of IHIP
characteristics to all services is unquesionable which in turn encouraged me saying IHIP
characteristics are Generalizable. Now, it would be better to delve in to each characteristic in
turn.
Intangibility
Intangiblity emerges as an ambiguous and surprisingly limited concept. It appears to be
primarily associated with pre-purchase activities where customers have no prior experience
with the service in question- a situation that is equally valid for some goods. Many services
involve tangible performance activities that users experience during delivery through one or
more of their five senses. In fact, for services such as surgery, haircuts, health clubs, cleaning,
repair, or land scalping, customer’s key goals are to obtain tangible changes in themselves or
their possessions. The tangible outcomes of such changes- a feeling of physical well-being
following a message, a clean office, a sporty new haircut, a newly mowed lawn, or restored
mobility following hip replacement surgery-will range from ephemeral to permanent and
irreversible. The degree of mental intangibility inherent in a service is not necessarily
correlated with physical intangibility.
Perishability
The generalization that inherent perishability makes services distinctively different from
goods. Because services require significant qualification, for it is a multidimensional concept
encompassing productive capacity, the producer’s output, the performance experienced by
customers, and the output they obtain from the service. From the customers’ perspective,
some service output is durable and may even be irreversible. An important exception to the
generalization that all services are perishable is found among information based services in
re-playable media for later re-sale and re-use. In these instances, the producers output is
durable and replicable, and the customer can enjoy the performance again and again.
Variability
Although the reap pears to be a consensus that variability is an inherent characteristic of
labor-intensive services, no such claim is made for machine-intensive service operations.
Page | 25
During the past two decades, there has been a significant trend toward replacing labor by
automation to improve productivity and achieve standardization in service delivery, thus
making variability less of a problem than previously. In manufacturing industries, despite
efforts to improve physical product quality, variability is evidenced by consumer complaint
data, product recalls, and negative product evaluations from testing organizations like the
Consumers Union. Variability also remains an ongoing problem for food and other products
subject to rapid physical deterioration.
Inseperability
Inseparability of production and consumption is linked to the concepts of interaction and the
service encounter (Czepiel et al. 1985). In many separable services, there is an inevitable
decoupling of production and consumption. Consider cleaning, repair, and maintenance
services, where consumption of the benefits can only take place after the customer reclaims
the item, typically sometime after production has been completed. In a few instances,
consumption of benefits actually precedes production, as in banking when a customer pays a
bill by writing a check that may not be processed until several days later. Simultaneity of
production and consumption is a distinctive characteristic for inseparable services, with
important implications for marketing and operations strategy, including the role played by
customers. As such, it is a very important concept. However, there could be far too any
separable services to justify the generalization that inseparability is a distinctive characteristic
of all services.
Conclusion on the Generalizability of the IHIP Characteristics
Replacement of human inputs by automation and rigorous application of quality
improvement procedures have substantially reduced variability (heterogeneity) of output in
numerous service industries. Outsourcing by companies can greatly expand the incidence of
separable services. And advances in information technology and telecommunications, notably
the development of the Internet and digitization of text, graphics, video and audio, have made
it possible to separate customers in both time and space from the production of numerous
information based services, may seem destroying the twin constraints of both inseparability
and perishability. As a paradigm, the notion that the four IHIP characteristics make services
uniquely different from goods is deeply flawless.
Page | 26
IHIP Characteristics look plain but understanding of how intangibility, heterogeneity, and
inseparability could affect many services that would lead a host of service researchers to
recognize that knowledge about achieving quality in manufacturing. This looks sufficient to
understand service quality; as a result, it might initiate a rich and productive research stream
dedicated to service quality improvement (Berry 1990). Each of the four IHIP characteristics
taken separately- and sometimes in partial combination-are relevant to specific service
industries, categories, and situations.
3.1.7. Service Innovation
What I grasp and extract from the literature regarding Service Innovation is more about
changing attitudes of society and foremost the role of Information Technology enforced into
these sectors is enormous. Service innovation is a new or significantly improved service
concept that is taken into practice. A service innovation benefits both the service producer
and customers and it improves its developer’s competitive edge. A service innovation is a
service product or service process that is based on some technology or systematic method. In
services however, the innovation does not necessarily relate to the novelty of the technology
itself but the innovation often lies in the non-technological areas, novel application of
technology in the service process, new forms of operation with the supply chain or new ways
to organize and manage services. Mr. Edvardsson summarized services in three dimensions
as “in time and space linked activities and interactions provided as solutions to customer
problems. The service is most often co-produced by the customer. Customers define service
on the basis of value-in-use and the resulting customer experiences” (Edvardsson, B. 1997).
Service sector has dominated the world economy. In most countries, services nowadays
contribute to more economic values than agriculture, raw materials and manufacturing all
together. Service economies dominant position is more apparent in developed countries. Up
to three-quarters of the wealth and 85% of employment are generated by services (Tidd &
Hull 2003), and most new job growth comes from services.
3.1.8. Service Innovation in Financial Industry
Financial services industry innovation is a very important ability of their company to meet
short and long-term performance targets. Respondents, who represent public and private
firms in retail banking, asset management, investment banking, insurance, and other financial
Page | 27
services, consider product innovation to be very important and view business model
innovation as growing in importance.
Today E-Commerce and E-banking encompasses a broad area within financial services, from
smart cards to internet banking and mobile banking, each providing a specific set of services
to meet the business requirements of the end user. The cost of handling cash is being reduced
by replacing cash-payment with E-Payments such as credit cards and smart cards. For
example, Master cards with Pay pass and Visa with pay Wave are new contact-less
technologies to pay for your small day to day items. It helps to reduce queue times as
customers do not need to waste time looking for change or mess with PIN numbers. On the
other hand, however, it can increase costs for the acquirer and card issuers. Mobile banking is
making an impact on the financial services landscape; for example, anyone with access to a
cell phone has a place to keep his or her savings without needing a traditional bank account.
So through this mobile banking- today we do everything at home and we don’t need to visit
our banks, so life becomes easy and it saves time by having these kinds of service
innovations. Other financial innovations include new Front office concept in which
everything is available on the computer systems and by just one click you have all the figures
available that you want rather than go back office calculations. Micro banks who gave loans
to poor, ATMS, Buy now pay later and so on (Tidd & Hull 2003).
What I get, grasp and extract from the literature and service related articles is that service
management and marketing is more about changing behaviours of people and role of
information technology and E-Commerce that are enforced into these sectors are enormous.
Page | 28
4. EMPIRICAL
4.1.SIEMENS-Company Introduction
Siemens Information Technology Services (ITS) is the Pakistan’s biggest information
services and solutions provider of the country. Their main focus is on offering innovative and
quality infrastructure solutions for their customers. Siemens offer flexible software, hardware
and networking solutions that adheres to the business needs of their valuable customers. ITS
Siemens main priority is the customer’s success. Siemens addresses technological edge,
reliability, scalability, performance and security as the major cornerstones for all the solution
and services that they offer. Siemens serves their businesses operational needs by providing
meaningful technological solutions (Siemens 2012a).
Siemens Information Technology Services includes:
SAP Center of Enterprise, SAP Authorized Training Center, IT Infrastructure Solutions, SAP
Support Services, Networking Solutions (LAN, WAN, WLAN, MAN, SAN, IPT, VOIP) and
Hardware Solutions that includes PCs, Servers, peripherals (Siemens 2012a).
Siemesn Global Alliances with corporations include Systimax(Avaya), Cisco, Nortel,
Panduit, Fujitsu, 3Com, Sun Microsystems, HP, Motorola and full back-end online support
from Siemens AG (Siemens 2012a).
Systems Applications and Products (SAP) provides its targeted businesses with the enterprise
resource planning (ERP) software that is mainly required to gain strategic insight, increase
productivity, and respond flexibly according to changing market situations to compete
effectively. SAP® ERP software proofed beneficial in enhancing employee productivity. And
along with that it also enabled informed decisions that set businesses apart from their
competition. SAP ERP software enables automation of end-to-end business processes that
extend to the entire business value chain, including partners, suppliers, and customers
(Siemens 2012a).
Reason that why I choose Siemens as a company for my thesis is because that Siemens is a
good reputable multinational company. And I also choose Siemens because I previously
worked for the Siemens as their financial consultant. So in that way I know the mechanism of
their working operations that I include in the case study of SAP implementation in the
District Account Offices of Pakistan.
Page | 29
4.1.1. Managing Today’s Business Challenges
Today’s business climate includes dust of increased customer expectations, era of
globalization, compressed business cycles and businesses own demands for increased
profitability. So to tackle these challenges businesses need to be able to respond flexibly
without sacrificing profitability, transparency, or internal control (Siemens 2012b).
With the right ERP software, businesses can boost their performance by passing through the
following major hurdles:
• Simplified reporting across complex corporate structures.
• Strong bondage with suppliers and customers to improve business processes.
• Acceleration of time to the market and value with more personalized products and
services.
• Gain nimbleness and speed in operations to perfect the use of corporate resources and
assets.
• And delivery of high chunks of services to enhance customer satisfaction (Siemens
2012b).
SAP Enterprise Resource Planning application has wide range of functionality that includes
personalized information access and tailored reporting to help businesses in all these areas. It
also scales to support business requirements of midsize and large organizations, whatever
their industry or global reach. SAP ERP provides a ground foundation for growth, innovation,
and process excellence with full support to integrate core business processes. That includes
Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management and product life-cycle
management (Siemens 2012b).
4.1.2. SAP ECC 6.0 Solution Software for Every Business and Process
Large and small Businesses discovered that SAP ECC 6.0 is the world's most comprehensive
adaptive business applications that provide best breed functionality for the enterprise. This
software is built for complete application integration, unlimited scalability, and easy
collaboration over the Internet to facilitate the stakeholders (Siemens 2012c).
Individually, SAP ECC 6.0 applications help businesses to manage critical business
processes. And collectively they form a tightly integrated business application suite that adds
Page | 30
value to every facet of the organization and to the businesses external value chain. These SAP
6.0 applications are based on the SAP Net Weaver and integration and application platform.
This reduces total cost of ownership across the entire IT landscape and supports the evolution
of SAP ECC 6.0 applications to a services-based architecture (Siemens 2012c).
Businesses can always improve their operations and strategies, enhance productivity and
that’s the power that businesses get with the enterprise resource planning software from SAP
to adapt flexibly with the changing industry requirements. SAP Net Weaver helps
organizations to align IT effectively with their businesses. This is the perfect way for
organizations to enhance and compose business applications instantly by using enterprise
services. SAP Net Weaver allows businesses to evolve current IT landscapes into a strategic
environment that drives drastic business change (Siemens 2012c).
4.1.3. SAP ERP Functionality For Businesses Process Excellence
SAP ERP provides businesses with the following functionality that is easy-to-use self-
services and role-based access to information:
Financial management –SAP ERP provides wide variety of financial management solutions
for complex businesses. It addresses critical financial functions: such as financial and
management accounting and reporting, financial supply chain management, working capital
management, treasury and risk management, regulatory compliance, risk and integration with
SAP solutions for governance (Siemens 2012d).
SAP ERP helps to increase finance department value by automating labour-intensive
transaction processing and reporting functions. Freeing skilled finance professionals from
routine activities enables them to provide greater value to the organization. That is done
through operational insight, strategic action, and better understanding of the drivers for value
and improved performance (Siemens 2012d).
Human capital management –SAP ERP Human Capital Management solution offers
integrated kit to businesses to manage important assets of the organization. Automation of
core human resource processes includes: employee administration, payroll, and legal
reporting that increases efficiency and supports compliance with changing global regulations.
For example, it is possible to create project teams based on skills and availability. And
Page | 31
monitoring of teams progress on specific projects, tracking of their spending time, and
analysis of their previous results. Integrated talent management functions in SAP ERP give
HR managers a good insight organizational talent to plan, align, acquire, educate and retain
the talent more effectively to maximize the effectiveness of the organization. Identifying top
performers and potential successor’s also helps organization to minimize disruption when
executives and senior managers leave or retire (Siemens 2012d).
SAP ERP supports shared services and business process outsourcing (BPO), thereby reducing
the cost and risk for deployment models. Whether businesses outsource some part or all HR
operations, they have access to an ecosystem of partners whose BPO services are powered by
SAP software (Siemens 2012d).
Procurement and logistics- Operations help businesses no matter whatever industry are
they from, it quickly minimize cost savings.Among this integrated management solution
businesses are able to manage end-to-end procure-to-pay and logistics business processes for
complete business cycles. Solution also helps to optimize the physical flow of materials This
is ranged from self-service requisitioning to flexible invoicing and payment altogether.
(Siemens 2012d).
Product development and manufacturing- Through using modernized new-product
development and introduction processes, SAP ERP shorten the time to the market by
providing high end products, quick respond to the demand changes and make sure the
delivery of promised orders on time. Businesses improve transparency across shop floor
processes through superior driven performance across both local and global plant operations
(Siemens 2012d).
SAP ERP provides many benefits by streamlining entire manufacturing processes varying
from planning and scheduling through sequencing and execution to monitoring and analysis.
This improves efficiency along entire value chain. This software supports customer oriented
manufacturing approach and compatible with just-in-time methodologies. By using real-time
tracking and analysis, businesses can identify and fix problems before they become customer
issues (Siemens 2012d).
Page | 32
SAP ERP improves demand volatility responsiveness through accelerating planning process
with fast changes in product execution. By addition to that this software ensures product
quality and regulatory compliance via monitoring and scanning applicabilities across all
plants and businesses operations (Siemens 2012d).
Sales and service This software help to simplify the entire order to cash cycle by delivering
orders on time and provide benefit from profitable sales and interaction channels. As a result,
Customer satisfaction will be improved that will result in increasing sales and profit margins
and it also accelerate business processes by reducing operational costs and boosting
productivity (Siemens 2012d).
SAP ERP works efficietly for the sales organization to effectively manage complete sales
order cycle by posting sales activities. Application supports customer focused processes from
selling products and professional services to delivering services and handling aftermarket
processing of warranty claims, returns and other service orders (Siemens 2012d).
Corporate services-Corporate Services solution of SAP take control of the businesses cost
intensive corporate functions. This includes enterprise asset management, project and
portfolio management, environment, health, safety, compliance management and quality
management. Software streamlines activities along with maximizing their transparency
through drastically increasing the effectiveness of business operations. In that way it is
possible to reduce financial and environmental risks by enhancing the safety of businesses
employees. And this also ensures the company policies that are applied to all processes. SAP
ERP corporate services tightly integrated with business software solutions in order to process
the span of the entire enterprise (Siemens 2012d).
4.1.4. Foundation of Innovation
SAP ERP delivers proven dynamic solutions with extended cross enterprise functionality.
Businesses are now able to manage corporate assets and critical business processes in a much
better manner. SAP ERP provides the tool kit to leverage the skills and training of the staff.
Through the emergence of new business scenarios and technologies, it’s possible to find that
SAP ERP positioned organizations for drastic change (Siemens 2012d).
Page | 33
SAP ERP delivers integrated, cross-functional business processes and businesses can gain
the following benefits that include:
Financial Management Enhancement
With integrated business analytics financial management skills can be enhanced. Actions can
be taken to enhance the overall profitability and performance to employ comprehensive
analytics and reporting functionality to ensure regulatory compliance (Siemens 2012d).
Management of Valuable Assets
Employee support has been possible from recruitment and training to development and
promotion in each and every stage. So it’s possible to empower global workforce via easy to
use services. And single point of contact for all HR service requests through an employee
interaction centre. Tracking of costs also been possible through ROI associated human
resources projects (Siemens 2012d).
Faster Response and Further Reach
One of its benefits is that it empowers people in the organization by providing them with the
right information that they required. So in return they will respond proactively to market
changes and competitive challenges and cope effectively. Businesses can also reach the
extention of their business processes and collaborate with easy access to a consolidated
consistent view of business processes beyond their own enterprise. It also enables partners,
suppliers, and customers to engage in real time (Siemens 2012d).
Smoothening Business Insight
Across each and every business strong master analytics and performance management
proactively identify opportunities and align strategies. Effective operations via using modern
dashboards are good to communicate strategic decisions (Siemens 2012d).
Improve Extensibility
Business can improve their extensibility by including the right mix of customer relationship
management, supply chain management, product life cycle management and other
functionalities. Because all businesses needs to evolve with the passage of time through
implementing the SAP xApps™ that is family of composite applications high-quality
software (Siemens 2012d).
Page | 34
Information above all these software applications has been collected in detail via interview
from the Siemens manager along by visiting their web page.
4.2.HABIB BANK LIMITED (HBL)-Company Introduction
Habib Bank Limited (HBL) is the Pakistan largest Government Bank and started its
operations in 1947 with the headquarters in Karachi. HBL established its first international
branch in Columbus-Sri Lanka in 1951. HBL also expanded its international operations in
USA, Belgium, Oman, Singapore, Seychelles, Maldives and Netherlands (Habib Bank
Limited HBL [HBL] 2012a).
Reason that why I choose this Bank for my thesis because this bank has a biggest network
and one of the largest internet banking services provider in Pakistan. And I think its quite
good to grasp the strong holding function of that E-Commerce function of that bank to
include in the thesis.
4.2.1. HBL Online Banking Service
HBL online banking system improves the service quality and service marketing for its
valuable customers. And in that way it enhances customer satisfaction and experience
through these innovative services via E-Commerce (HBL 2012b).
HBL offers vast amount of intricate designed services for its customers that are mainly aimed
at providing hassle free and quicker and dynamic banking experience. So no matter whether
you are at home, on the way, HBL provides easy banking solutions like Internet Banking,
Mobile Banking, ATM, Phone Banking And Debit Card facilities to its valuable customers
(HBL 2012a).
4.2.2. HBL Internet and Mobile Banking
HBL Internet and Mobile Banking features are the same and life is as easy as you desire to be
at your convenience through lots of tremendous breakthrough options. Those include faster
funds transfer under one link network, payment of utility bills, top up of Ufone and Warid,
purchase of different mobile prepaid vouchers like Mobilink, Zong, Ufone, Warid, Telenor,
PTCL, VPTCL, Credit Card Bill Payment, know credit card balances online. Other options
include are the printing out of credit card statements via viewing your accounts online,
Page | 35
cheque book requests and also the maintenance of your account personal settings (HBL
2012b).
4.2.3. HBL ATM Card and Phone Banking
HBL ATM card is used for cash withdrawals, mini account statements, funds transfer, utility
and credit card bills payments, balance enquiry and pin change. HBL phone banking features
includes services of banker’s cheque request, quick account information, balance enquiry,
stop cheque payment requests, cheque book request etc. It also includes debit and credit cards
activation and deactivation, E-Banking Support and account or service settlement requests
(HBL 2012b).
Page | 36
5. ANALYSIS
5.1.Case Study of Siemens-SAP World Bank Project in Pakistan
The information in this section comes from my own personal experience because I previously
worked in Siemens as a financial consultant.
SAP abbreviated as Systems Applications and Products. Implementation of SAP is the World
Bank project in Pakistan under the multinational company Siemens. Siemens started this
project by first hiring lots of financial and Human Resource SAP certified consultants. The
role of all these consultants is to implement the SAP in to all Districts Account offices in
Pakistan for smoothening the payroll of the entire Govt Offices in Pakistan.
It’s a fully funded project from the World Bank. Siemens first started it by building well
structured designed laboratories in all the regions of Pakistan. These laboratories are made
according the right guidelines and maps on the agreed upon parameters. These laboratories
are fully air conditioned and contain the number of smart built in SAP installed workstations
for around 30 people in one Lab. Large professional Printers and other sound accessories etc
are also fully established in the laboratories according to the desired requirements of the
stated procedures mentioned under the contract. And also the big UPS is also installed in
front of each lab to tackle the emergency electricity issues.
Along with the building of the laboratories Siemens started hiring SAP certified financial and
human resource professionals. MBA and BBA qualified fresh candidates were also hired to
work for this project. Two MBA and BBA qualified employed worked under each SAP
certified professional in each district. Along with that large number of key punch operators
with higher secondary education was also hired. After the recruitment and selection of all
these candidates, they all put forwarded on training for one month. In those training sessions
lectures were given to the trainees on daily basis. And practical application of the SAP
software were also included to get them acquainted with the system in order to make them
ready to start the operations effectively in practice.
Before consultants go and put the system in to practice in each district, all key punch
operators in the main office at Siemens Islamabad punch all the data of the started site and
district into the systems. After that minimum two and maximum four consultants were
appointed to go into each district to start loading the system and put it in to the practice. So
these consultants spend minimum one and maximum two months in each district. And during
Page | 37
that period first they update all the records and give the required commands to the system.
And along with that, they show the regular working employees over there that how to do all
these tasks. And in next month they sit along with the local regular working employees in
district account offices and help and trained them if they stuck somewhere during the
implementation of it. Because from afterwards those regular local employees need to update
the systems by themselves and keep on to practice after every single month. So it is required
for the working employee to get acquainted with the system as soon as possible and have a
good command on to it for the coming future period onwards.
5.2.Case Study of Habib Bank Limited
Case study is developed by talking to an in depth interview with the person who is the
customer at HBL from last couple of years. This customer has long term experience in
internet banking services and he has been using the banking internet services since 2001.
According to the customer e-banking is the reliable for transactions. He said he completely
relies on the functionality of the bank website. He said he experienced some problems in the
beginning when HBL first started their online operations, but now he completely satisfied
with the transactions. He said that he has strong confidence on the services of HBL and also
bank have a good reputation since long time. He said that it is difficult for anyone to choose
e-banking services for the bank that is not reputable enough. But he is satisfied with both the
online and offline banking services of HBL. He is not afraid to use the e-banking services of
the HBL because he trusts the bank. He said that if the loss happened for customers at HBL,
HBL always tries to compensate the loss. He said that when he makes payment, he prints the
page of transfer and the bank will later also confirm the payment of transfer.
Customer said that e-banking improves the responsiveness of the banking services. And he is
becoming more satisfied now because it is quicker now. He said previously mail bill takes
time and was inconvenient, but for now he pays quickly. He said that now there is
automatically direct transfer among various different accounts over internet that is more
direct and prompt. When I asked him the question regarding the service management of the
HBL employees that whether employees are willing to help, he replied that he experienced
some problem with some software. Then he called the bank and bank responds quickly and
solved the problem in few days. And he is satisfied with the service management of both the
bank employees and the banks online system as well. He said that HBL always pay attention
of improving the support functions of the bank all the times. Bank develops software that is
Page | 38
easy to use and adapt that makes internet banking much simpler now. In that way e-banking
services are becoming more accessible for the customer.
He said security is very important issue, and bank makes internet services safer. For logon
purposes customers has personal identification number along with the password and code. So
if someone even steals his personal identification number and code card, that person cannot
be able to login because password is the thing that a customer has on his head. He said he is
not worried about the privacy matters because he trusts on the bank and believes that bank
will not misuse his personal information. He said that internet also improved the
communication and more information is provided to the customers. Customer said that e-
banking is much more convenient for him. And before this e-banking he has to especially
take his time out to drive to the bank, but now he can do it anywhere with internet
connection. So it is time saving and convenient. Bill can also be paid anytime he wants. So
overall e-banking services can become easily accessed by the customers.
So regarding the impact of e-commerce and e-banking on the service quality, customer come
up by concluding some benefits of e-banking that are controlling freedom anytime anywhere,
convenience and low time consuming. Convenience is the most basic reason for him to
choose e-banking services. He said that e-banking improved service management and quality
of a bank because of the factors like access, security and responsiveness. He further states
that security and responsiveness is very important along with reliability and accessibility.
Second interview was conducted of a Phd student of Bahria University, Islamabad Pakistan,
who was the customer of HBL for more than 6 years. He explained that he is satisfied with
the service management and marketing aspect of the bank. He said whenever HBL started
any new service offering, he is always been contacted by the bank regarding the new e-
banking service offerings by the bank. Employees in the bank are very professional and
handle the service management aspect of the bank right in time. He said that he did not
experience any difficulty or error via doing transactions through internet. He said that he is
sure that bank employees will cover the loss if he experienced any trouble because he
strongly believes on the service management and quality aspect of the bank. He said that he
would like to meet physically with the banks personnel if he experienced any trouble. But
then he quoted the example that once he faced some trouble and called the bank. Then bank
employee transferred his call immediately to the right concerned person who deals the
problem. And that person solved his problem quicker than what he expected by also giving
Page | 39
him some additional advice. So now he also has a strong confidence on the service
management personnel of a bank who provides good quality backup support services.
He said that he felt secure whenever he is doing any transaction physically or via internet. He
felt secure by providing his personal information because he has confidence on the bank that
bank will not misuse his information. But he further said along that if bank will misuse his
information than he would never ever use that service again. He said that bank takes care of
his customers and banks personnel always give him personal attention and let him know
regarding the important updated information. He further said that e-banking improves the
communication by providing information quickly.
Customer explained that how e-banking changed his way of using the banks services and in
turn brings more convenience for him. He explained the difference of physical bank with e-
bank. He said previously he needs to take his time out, drive to the bank, fill out the form,
and wait in queue than talk with employee to draw the money and for other services. And he
finds it complex. And now he said that I just need 10 minutes to do anything he wants to by
sitting at home, office anywhere. He said that he is satisfied with the service management and
marketing aspect of the e-banking services. Moreover he said that bank interface is working
perfectly fine every time he goes on to the banks website. He said it is easy for him to find
the answer of his questions and for other information on to the banks web page. Customer
said that all the factors of service quality reliability, communication, security, responsiveness
and access improved since he started using e-banking services. For him communication and
access is the most important dimension. He said that if personal communication via online
can be achieved, than it would become more convenient for him to solve his problems online.
Security and responsiveness were also important for him. But he is heavily relied on the
personal contact if something goes wrong. Overall he is happy with the service management
and marketing functions of HBL e-banking services.
Third interview is the interview of the operations and service manager of the HBL who
worked for the bank for more than 15 years and also represents the internal customer. He said
that HBL has the biggest network of its customers and the aim is to provide easy to use
financial services. He said strength of the bank is based on the design of the comprehensive
design of branches and developed opportunities for customers to have access through internet
and telephone banking. He said that it is important that customers need to feel reliable
towards the banking services. And he said that well service management staff is of having
Page | 40
paramount importance to achieve this. Because whatever service employees do in a bank
have huge impact on the service quality of the banking services.
Regarding e-banking services he said that customers usually solve their problems by
searching information on our website. He said that online system is very promptly designed
by their efficient service IT department. And it is easy for their customers to find accurate
information regarding their concerns. Regarding responsiveness of the E-Banking services he
said that loss will be recovered if customer experienced any problem. And bank continuously
working around for improving service efficiency. He said that we have well trained
employees who are always willing to help customers. Although responses from e-banking
services are more accurate and efficient than employees. But if problem arises than customer
prefers employees to help than the internet.
Regarding security he said that customers feel secure when they do transaction via e-banking.
Because HBL has a strong name and good reputation in the banking sector. He said that our
service management personnel is well trained and always answers the customer queries
promptly that makes customer feel secure and confident. Regarding communication in
service management and quality of the e-banking services he said before internet employees
spend their time by replying to letters, meeting people, phone calls and fax. But now days
because of different communication channels communication are internet and telephone and
rarely meeting. So banks website helps customers to find their problems by themselves. But
for further queries telephone can be chosen. And to deal with big issues like investments
customer need to visit the bank and have a meeting with bank personnel. He said that e-
commerce bring more convenience at the end of all the stakeholders both internal and
external. He said that now we have more time to spend on focusing and solving other
important issues as well.
Regarding access he said that branches network is very well designed in order for a bank to
become easier to reach. And other opportunities are also available via e-banking and
telephone services. He said that customers can always reach the bank for the whole day even
after having internet services. And customer can do their business transactions online 24/7
without being worrying about the security. Overall he said that service management and
service quality of e-banking helps to manage the bank enormously in a good way. It saves
time and work more efficient.
Page | 41
Research problem of the study was developed to get deeper understanding of the impact of e-
commerce and the service management and marketing on business performance. In order to
fulfil the purpose some questions were developed that are based on the literature review.
Question that were included during the interview are
What is the impact of e-commerce on the business performance?
What is the impact of e-banking on the business performance?
How e-banking impact on the reliability aspect of the customer expectation?
How e-banking support the security aspect in the banking sector?
How e-commerce impact on the communication factor of the business performance?
How internet impact on the access factor in e-banking?
What is the impact of the e-commerce on the service management of the stakeholders?
Cases were developed to answer these above questions from both internal and external
perspectives.
Regarding the service quality dimensions of reliability, customers are concerned regarding
the reliability of the virtual service providers. It is extremely important for the bank to
conduct business via both offline and online, to instil customer confidence on banking back
up services if they experienced any trouble via doing online transactions. So reliability has a
significant importance in terms of the physical bank along with e-bank. And based on the
theoretical review it is cleared that reliability is the important dimension to evaluate service
quality in previous researches (parasuraman et al., 1985; Johnston 1997). So it is identified
that just doing transactions via e-commerce is not just enough. And along with it businesses
service management and marketing staff also has great importance to conduct the operations
in a successful manner. Service management and marketing personnel needs to effectively
manage all of its services both online and offline.
Responsiveness is also found as a important service quality dimension in previous researches.
It is clearly discussed in the bank case that how the service management personnel needs to
continuously support and backup its e-commerce services. Based on literature review it is
found that responsiveness is frequently described in previous researches (parasuraman et al.,
1985; Johnston 1997; Jun & Cai 2001).
Page | 42
E-commerce brings larger concerns on the security issue because it is open for everyone.
Although bank and other businesses pays attention to the online safer services. But it is
concluded that security is still considered as an obstacle for online banking services. And
customer confidence is always increased by the reputation and performance of the physical
bank. On bank behalf its service management and marketing personnel needs to personally
education its customer in improving their skills. Along with it, printable online records need
to be provided for certification. Security is also supported and considered as very important
service management and quality dimension in previous studies (parasuraman et al., 1985;
Johnston 1997; Jun & Cai 2001).
E-commerce makes much easier for customer to find information on the company’s
operational website. But it’s better for a company to display concrete, up to the point and
prompt information for the ease of the customer. Communication needs to be consisting of
clear and simple information from online perspective. Personal contact via telephone and face
to face meeting is always important when customer require any other information that he did
not able to find on the internet. And off course the importance of service management is
always there because all people do not use the channel of e-commerce for their transactions.
In that way company needs to effectively manage its services both online and offline. It is
concluded that communication is very important factor in all the previous services research
studies (parasuraman et al., 1985; Johnston 1997; Jun & Cai 2001). Access is also the
important factor in both physical and E-banking. E-Commerce brings more convenience,
saves time, 24/7 access to anywhere at home, office, on the way.
5.3.Personal Reflection, Ideas and Suggestions on the main Results, Models and
Concepts Developed
Information in this section contains my own personal review on the literature included on the
theoretical framework along with the references of the articles in which I reflect upon. The
analysis is the dialect between the theoretical framework and the developed case studies.
After reading literature and articles I have been convinced that services required different
process and methods for management and marketing in this world. The literature shows a
significant development in the service management and marketing area with the passage of
time. In the last three or four decades there has been an industrious expansion and emergence
of new topics with in this discipline.
Page | 43
The article development and emergence of service marketing thought by Fisk et al. (1994)
has traced the development all the way in the field of service marketing and management. At
first critiques has concerned about whether there is difference between goods and services.
But after that, this trend decreased and the difference become visible which has become well
developed research field today that people was not aware just almost 40 or 50 years ago. So
in that context services are very important in the management aspect of the Siemens
Corporation with this service based SAP project. It is shown in the case study of Siemens that
how the financial and HR consultants management services along with the right e-commerce-
SAP information systems, productively affect the enhancement and quality of its
stakeholders.
The important discussion in recent years was relating to the four characteristics for service
(IHIP), whether they are still applicable to same extent upon the new services as well
(Edvardsson et al. 2005; Lovelook & Gummesson 2004). With the changing need and
introduction of new services and with the help of latest technology these characteristics of
services become less popular. Many scholars think that these characteristics do not work for
all services like E-services etc and are not generalized for services (Edvardsson et al. 2005;
Lovelook & Gummesson 2004). The article has reflected upon each characteristic in detail
and convinced that how and which situation the four or any single characteristic differs and
not applicable to the same service. Without reading article one can accept that the IHIP will
work for all type of services but in reality that is not the case. I can conclude that all four
characteristics are useful to generalize different types of services.
Mr. Edvardsson (1997) has written about the three groups whose needs must be satisfied and
services should meet their expectations. The three groups are the customers, employees and
owner. The fact related to customer satisfaction not only satisfies the external customer but
the internal customer satisfaction is equally important. The internal customers are employees
which are very important for the services context. If the employees are not satisfied they will
not be motivated, and only the motivated employees can create more value for the customers.
The motivated employees can be good source of word of mouth marketing of the service.
Now in the case of Siemens it is clearly presented that this facilitation of SAP software works
for the great ease of the internal customers that is its employees. So they now get rid of the
heavy work load of updating all the data manually into the registers. And they also get rid of
maintaining the hassles of bundles of records. They also get rid of the difficulty of finding
some information if they need to look up back. Because software works for much better
Page | 44
manner and display all the available information just through one single click. It also works
for the beneficial of the external customers that are the people who work in different
Government sectors under those districts. Because from now onwards they start getting their
pay slips and can clearly maintain the track record of their slips. And they also clearly saw
the raises and tax deductions under their slips.
Here we can see a link with the service marketing triangle. The Service marketing triangle is
an important model developed for the effective functioning of three marketing functions.
These three marketing functions are internal, interactive and external marketing. The service
marketing triangle is very helpful for fulfilling the promise to manage expectations. These
expectations are delivered by using the traditional marketing and new marketing triangle. It is
also very useful for keeping promises with the customers using the service delivery to
customers from employees. The employees need to be motivated and company should
analyse the employee’s needs for training and must reward them for the effective functioning
of the system. So in Case of HBL employees also get motivated because they also no longer
need to deal with the bunch of customers every day. And customers also don’t need to waste
their precious time by personally visiting the bank for different kind of transactions like to
pay different kinds of bills and other transactions.
In my opinion Mr. Edvardsson (1997) thoughts relating to how to motivate and stimulate the
employees are very essential and I suggest that all companies should work for this. I have
seen almost all of the companies have given and ranked the external customers high as
compare to internal customers that are employees. But they don’t think that employees are
the primary source from which organization is able to deliver its services. I agreed to that
thought, that’s why I think that all the stakeholders are important for the success of the entire
business. And business also needs to take care of its stakeholders by taking care of their
needs. And it first starts with the internal customers of the businesses that are its employees.
Because business can only be reached to its enticing full effect by first fulfilling the demands
of its own internal employees. Because when employees are happy then they will definitely
put their blasting energies on to the work. So the right and effective information systems in
the company like Siemens and HBL works for the ease of both of its internal and external
customers.
Another important concept of service marketing literature is co-production of service which
has been written by Mr Edvardsson too. He gives emphasis on making the co-producing as
Page | 45
simple as possible for the customers. The customer role as co-producer also support by the
Vargo and Lusch (2004). Normann and Ramirez (1993) also discussed that the rolls between
the different actors in the process of service co-production can be changed. This article also
highlights how organizations can use customers and customers can use the organizational
systems to create more favourable experience by using its services. Ramirez’s (1999) article
highlights that customer can have different roles in a process and that they can have many
different relationships to different actors in that process. This co-production process of
service works at HBL because bank develops these kinds of online channels and systems for
the convenience of both of its internal and external customer. So value is co-produced when
external customers uses these online channels and systems for their daily transactions.
Service management requires energies and attention with time. As the manager needs to
understand that service due to co-production with the customer have become very complex.
Managers along with understanding of needs of the customer also need to know about
customer expectations relating to the behaviours from the employees. The gap model relating
to the service is very interesting insight in this field. This model helps us in understanding the
integrated view of the customer-company relationship in an effective way. This model has
been developed by taking into account the difference between customer expectations and
their perceptions in regarding a service. After reading this, I have come to know that the
customer gap is the main focus in this model. I think HBL and Siemens information systems
works effectively by reducing this gap. Because as I show you the functionality and user
friendliness works for the great ease of its customers.
The co-productive view related to values presented in the article by Ramirez (1999) describes
that some managed values cannot be measured or monetized. In co-production the offerings
are the unit used for analysis. This view also emphasis that values are co-invented and
reconciled. Most importantly the value is co-produced with the help of customers for their
relationships.
We can understand the concept of co-production with the help of the example from the real
life like a teacher provides the services to the students in this scenario. The value is created
by the active involvement by the students in the class. Only teacher giving the lecture is not
enough for creating value creation process. The more the trust in the relationship between
these two actors-teacher and students, the higher will be the value of the process. The
speciality and knowledge of teacher in a specific field would be a differentiator among the
Page | 46
other service providers. And it would help in the analysis of his contribution in the service
process. Although the reflections and change in behaviours shown by the students in
individual and group exams can help in measuring the value produced by the teacher to some
extent. But it is not fully measured, in case when students in spite of knowing the concepts
unable to transfer in words understandable to the teacher. Same is the case with the user of
those information systems at HBL and Siemens because the value can only be co-produced
when the customers use them simultaneously.
Booms and Bitner (1981) defined Service scape as the surroundings in which the service is
gathered. And the interaction between company and customer is occurred and included with
tangible commodities that enhance service performance and communication. It is one of the
important conceptual frameworks in service organizations which explore the influences of
physical environment towards customers and employees behaviour (Bitner 1992). The
service scape model stated that the main detentions of service scape are conditions, space,
function, symbols and artefacts. The model stated about customer and employee-response
moderators. As the same service is perceived differently by different customers and
combined employee responses to the service surroundings as the employees organizations
increases the morale of the frontline employee and deliver quality services to customers
(Lovelock & Witz 2007). In my view service scape should be designed by taking
consideration of the service employees and all the beneficiaries of the service most likely
from customers. Service scape due to their ability and role to attract and create effect for the
service delivery process has become more important decision for management.
Page | 47
6. DISCUSSION
6.1.Identification of Some Problems
Service quality is hard to calculate and evaluate because of the intangibility. As we can saw
that manager’s use five dimensions in the above case study to evaluate service quality
delivered to its customers. So in turn bank managers pinpoint their weaknesses and strengths
in relation with the competitors.
All the dimensions of the service quality have to associate with each other. So it is important
for the service managers in the banking sector to focus their resources on the dimensions that
are selected for this study. It is important for the overall service management and marketing
perspective of the banking sector.
According to Mols (2000), there are substantial challenges and problems via conducting
business through E-Commerce. Lack of experience of the service providers via Internet. And
the lack of knowledge to understand usage behaviour of the customer via doing business
online can also become one of the reasons.
The understanding of customers' choices allows managers to better design their service
offerings and formulate corresponding operational strategies around customer needs. It was
true to some extent that face to face is lost due to some extent. Because today we go to the
internet, read different blogs, look through different systems to find the solution of our
problems and this is true in all the above discussed industry.
The increasing mobilization and use of internet by companies in their service delivery
process has become question for the customers. As an active part of the process like many
customers can book the hotel and travelling packages online instead of going to point of
purchase. I think that there is always a need for the service management and marketing
personnel’s as many of these working roles cannot be performed automatically and online.
And also many people don’t have time or knowledge to make use of such services alone like
for example older people. In my opinion the customer involvement as co-producer of services
seems to be more increasing in the future due to changing nature of services. Fisk et al.
(1994) discussed the subjects that would be popular and demanding for more research. They
have created many assumptions which are good till now.
The service blueprints and identification of potential failures points are very beneficial for the
service design manager and marketers. I also see that service blueprints can be utilized by the
Page | 48
HR manager for their current and future personal requirements. A blueprint can be used by
business process managers, designers and software engineer during development. It can also
be used as a guide to service managers that operate services on a day to day basis. A service
blueprint describes the service in enough detail to implement and maintain it carefully.
Blueprinting is described as mapping out of service journey identifying the processes that
constitute the service, isolating possible fail points and establishing the time frame for the
journey. Currently, the biggest challenge in blueprinting revolves around ways of depicting
services in a holistic way. From elements of the branding and user experience on one-hand to
back end technical and business processes on the other. Service blueprint describes time in a
service. That includes the sequence of events of a service experience, its durations and
timings. A blueprint should graphically and normatively describe this time element (Bitner et
al. 2008).
6.2. Recommendations and Further Scope of Research
Because of the descriptive and exploratory nature of the research and limited literature review
in this area, there are limitations exist for the present study. The future research can be done
in the same area.
Like first because this is the Qualitative research that are not represented via numbers and
statistical data. Quantitative research is suggested for future research in the same area. It can
be done by selecting some different companies and developing the case studies of those
companies. I suggest that large scale quantitative studies should be conducted to develop
more on service management and marketing aspects along with the service quality
dimensions of reliability, responsiveness, accesses, security and communication. And based
upon that quantitative large scale studies, statistical and data need to analyse and interpret to
conclude the importance of service quality dimensions.
Other interesting areas for present study would be:
• Barriers in implementing e-commerce for the effective service management and
marketing of an enterprise.
• Service management and the importance of customer role in Business.
• Customer satisfaction and service management and marketing role in e-commerce etc.
Page | 49
7. CONCLUSION
According to Hoffman and Bateson (2002) services are always hard to evaluate due to its
characteristics of intangibility, parashibility, heterogeneity and inseparability. And focus
toward service management and marketing along with service quality guides the company to
differentiate their services and gain competitive advantage.
Service management and marketing continuously improving day by day. Not only the service
providing companies are improving the quality service but also the manufacturing and other
sectors are also working on it. Service is an activity with the nature of intangibility. It always
takes place in interactions between the customer and the service provider and pumps
solutions to customer problems. According to Gummesson (1995), consumers do not buy
goods or services, but rather purchase offerings that render services, which create value.
Customers want value instead of solutions to their problems, which is favoured by Gronroos
(2001).
Services become very important now days- not for the companies also for all the countries in
the world, it is important for their economies and plays a vital role in the GDP of the
countries. So all the service businesses must be able and willing to manage and innovate their
service offerings, modify their processes to keep themselves ahead with the competitive arena
all the times to drive their business growth in a successful manner. So the crux of this thesis
is that it industrializes the knowledge by having authentic command on the relevant literature
that was proven fruitful for the management and marketing of the services. And it is found
out that both e-commerce and good service management and marketing is proven beneficial
in improving business performance to step up with the competitive world in the international
markets.
Page | 50
REFERENCES
Albernathy, W.J. & Utterback J.M. (1978), patterns of industrial innovation, Technology
review 40-47 Cambridge.
A. Parasuraman, Valarie A. Zelthaml, & Leonard L Berry, (1985) A Conceptual Model of
Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research.
A. Parasuraman, Valarie A. Zelthaml, & Leonard L Berry, (1991) Refinement and
Reassessment of the SERVQUAL Scale.
Berry, L.L., Parasuraman, A. (1990), Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality, The
Free Press, New York, NY.
Brown, S.W., Fisk R.P. & Bitner, M.J. (2007) The development and emergence of service
marketing thought, International Journal of Service Industry Management. 5(1), pp. 21-48.
Bergman and Klefsjo. Quality – from customer Needs to customer satisfaction. Upplaga 3.
Studentliteratur, 2010.
Bitner, M. J., Zeithaml, V., Hubbert, A. R., and Faranda, W. T., (1997) ‘Customer
contribution and roles in service delivery’ International Journal of Service industry
Bitner, M. (2006). Servicescapes: The impact of physical Surroundings on Cusomers and
Employees. Journal of Marketing, 56, 57-71.
Bitner Mary J., Ostrom Amy L., Morgan Felicia N. (2008). Service Blueprinting: A Practical
Technique for Service Innovation. California Management Review, Vol. 50 (3), pp. 66-94.
Barras. R, (1986). Towards a theory of innovation in services. Research Policy 15, 161-173.
Chesbrough, H. and Davies, A. (2010), Advancing Service Innovation: Five Key Concepts,
In J. Sphorer (Ed.). The handbook of Service Science – a research perspective. Springer
Verlag.
Page | 51
Camacho, J. and Rodríguez, M. (2005). "How innovative are services? An empirical analysis
for Spain." Service Industries Journal, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 253-271.
Edvardsson, B. (1997) Quality in new service development: Key concepts and a frame of
reference, International Journal of production economics, 52, pp, 31-46.
Edvardsson, B. Gustafsson, A. & Roos I. (2005) Service portraits in service research: a
critical review, Interanational Journal of Service Industry Management. 16 (1), pp. 107-121
Edvardsson, B., Gustafsson, A., Kristensson, P. & Witell, L. (2010). Service Innovation and
Customer Co-Development. In J. Sphorer (Ed.). The handbook of Service Science – a
research perspective. Springer Verlag.
Eppinette, M. and Inman, R.A. (1997), “Expert systems and the implementation quality
customer service”, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol.97 Issue pp. 63-69.
Edvardsson, B. (1997). Quality in new service development – key concepts and a frame of
reference. International Journal of Production Economics, 52(1-2), 31-46.
Furst, K., Lang, W. W. and Nolle, D. E. (2002), “Internt banking”, Journal of Financial
Services Research, Vol.22, Issue1/2, pp. 95-117.
Gallouj, F. & Weinstein, O. (1997) Innovation in services. Research Policy, 26, 537–556.
Gronroos, C. (1983), Strategic Management and Marketing in the Service Sector, Marketing
Science Institute, Cambridge, MA, (Also published by Swedish School of Economics and
Business Administration, 1982).
Hanson, W, (2000) Principles of Internet Marketing, Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western Ho.
C.F and Wu, W.H. (1999), Antecedents of customer satisfaction on the Internet: An empirical
study of online shopping, Preceedings of the 32nd Hawaii International Conferenece on
System Science.
Hoffman, K. D. and Bateson, J.E.G. (2002) Essentials of Services Marketing: Concepts
Strategies, and Cases, 2nd Ed, Harcourt College Publishers.
Hayes, R.H and Wheelright, S.C (1984) Restoring our competititive edge: Competing
through manufacturing. John Wiley and sons: New York
Page | 52
Jun, M. and Cai, S. (2001), “The Key determinants of internet banking service quality: a
content analysis”. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 19/7, pp. 276-291.
Johnston, R. (1997), “Identifying the critical determinant of service quality in retail banking:
importance and effect”, International Journal of bank marketing, Vol.15, No.4, pp. 111-116.
Kotler, P. (2003), Marketing Management, International Edition, Prentice Hall.
Kotler, P. and Keller K.L, (2006), Marketing Management, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Hall.
Kang, G.D. and James, J. (2004), “Service quality dimensions: an examination of Gronroos’s
service quality model”, Journal of Managing Service Quality, Vol. 14, No.4.
Lehtinen, J.R. and Lehtinen, U. (1982), “ Service Quality: A study of Quality Dimensions”,
Unpublished Working Paper, Service Management Institute, Helsinki.
Lovelock, C. & Witz, J. (2007). Services Marketing People, Technology, Strategy. Policy and
practice. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Lovelock, C & Gummesson E. (2004) Whither Service Marketing? – In serarch of a new
paradigm and fresh perspective, Journal of Service Research. 7(1), pp. 20-41
Lin, CC, (2003), “A critical appraisal of customer satisfaction and e-commerce”. Managerial
Auditing Journal. Vol.18. No.3.
Michel, Stefan, Stephen W. Brown and Andrew S. Gallan (2008), “An Expanded and
Strategic View of Discontinuous Innovations: Deploying a Service-Dominant Logic,” Journal
of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36(1), 54-66
Marshall, C and Rossman, G.B. (1999) Designing Qualitative Research, SAGE Publication,
Inc 3rd .
Mols, N.P. (2000), “The Internet and banks Strategic distribution channel decisions”,
International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 17 No.6.
Magnusson, P. R., Matthing, J., & Kristensson, P. (2003). Managing user involvement in
service innovation. Journal of Service Research, 6(2), 111–124.
Nightinggale, P. (2003), Of Barnacles and Banking: Innovation in Financial Services, in Tidd
J and Hull F. Service Innovation. Imperial College Press: UK.
Page | 53
Norman, R. & Ramirez, R. (1993) From value chain to value constellation: designing
interactive strategy, Harvard Business Review, 71 (4), pp. 65-77. Ramirez, R. (1999) Value
co-production: Intellectual origins and implications for practice and research, Strategic
Management Journal. 20 (1), pp. 49-65.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A., & Berry, L.L. (1985), “A conceptual model of service
quality and its implications for future research”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49.
Palmer, A.(1995), “The effects of gender on the development of relationships between clients
and financial advisers”, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol.13, Issue 3.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2003), Research Methods for Business Students
(3rd Ed.), Harlow Financial Times, Prentice Hall.
Solomon and Stuart (2003), “A Role Theory Perspective on Dyadic Interactions: The Service
Encounter”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, Winter, pp. 99-111.
Turban, E., King, D., Lee, J. and Viehland, D. (2004), Electronic Commerce 2004: A
Managerial Perspective, Pearson Education International, Prentice Hall, Inc.
Tether, B. S. (2003). "The sources and aims of innovation in services: variety between and
within sectors." Economy, Innovations and NewTechnology, Vol. 12 No. 6, pp. 481-505.
Venkatraman, N. (2000), “Five steps to a dot-com strategy: how to find your footing on the
web”, Sloan Management Review, Spring 2000, Vol. 41 Issue 3, pp. 15-28.
Vargo, S. L. and Lusch, R. F., 2004, ‘Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing’,
The Journal of Marketing, Vol 68 (1), pp. 1-17.
Wise, R and Baumgartner, P (1999). Go Downstream: The new profit imperative in
manufacturing. Harvard Business Review, September-October: 133-41
Wigand, R.T. and King, R. (1997), “Electronic Commerce: definition, theory and context”,
Information Society, Jan-Mar97, Vol. 13 Issue, pp. 1-16.
Yin, R.K. (1994), Case Study Research – Design and Methods, SAGE Publication, 2ed.
Marshall, C. and Rossman, G.B. (1999), Designing Qualitative Research, SAGE Publication,
Inc, 3rd.
Zikmund, William G (2000), “Business Research Methods” Fort Worth Tes Dryden Press.
ISBN 0-03-025817-0.
Page | 54
Zwass, V. (1996), “Electronic commerce: structure and issues”, International Journal of
Electrnic Commerce, Vol.1 No. 1.
Gustafsson, A. & Johnson, M. (2003) Competing in a Service Economy. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Tidd, J & Hull, M.F. (2003). Service Innovation: Organizational Responses to Technological
Opportunities and Market Imperatives, Imperial College Press, London.
Siemens(2012a) ITS Services Siemens [Online]. Available:
http://www.siemens.com.pk/SAP.html [2012-02-07]
Siemens (2012b) SAP ERP Solution [Online]. Available:
http://www.siemens.com.pk/SAP_erp_solutions.html [2012-02-07]
Siemens (2012c) SAP Solutions and Services [Online]. Available:
http://www.siemens.com.pk/SAP_solutions-services.html [2012-02-15]
Siemens (2012d) SAP Features and Functionalities [Online]. Available:
http://www.siemens.com.pk/SAP_features-functionality.html [2012-02-17]
Siemens (2012e) SAP Business Benefits [Online]. Available:
http://www.siemens.com.pk/SAP_business-benefits.html [2012-02-22]
HBL (Habib Bank Limited) (2012a) HBL History [Online]. Available:
http://www.hbl.com/about-us-history.php [2012-03-25]
HBL (Habib Bank Limited) (2012b) HBL Phone Banking [Online]. Available:
http://www.hbl.com/individual-customers-phone-banking.php [2012-02-07]
HBL (Habib Bank Limited) (2012b) HBL Services [Online]. Available:
http://www.hbl.com/individual-customers-self-service.php [2012-02-07]
Interview
Interview with Mr. Shafiq ur Rehman, Operations Manager at Habib Bank Limited (HBL)-
Branch Office Islamabad on 18th April 2012.
Page | 55
Interview with Mr. Waqas Ali, Phd Student at Bahria University, Islamabad Pakistan and the
customer of Habib Bank Limited (HBL) on 20th April 2012.
Interview with Mr. Ibrahim Khan, customer at Habib Bank Limited (HBL)- 27th April 2012.
Interview with Mr. Javed Iqbal, Operations Manager at Siemens- Head Office Islamabad on
3rd May 2012.
