San Diego Data Processing Corporation (SDDPC) is the technology service provider for the City of San Diego. Recent management changes and customer dissatisfaction have motivated SDDPC to establish service delivery measurements. The objectives of this project include the ability to compare SDDPC to the competition, to demonstrate a level of service to the current customer base, to achieve improvement in the services provided, and to acquire additional business. As the service sector grows and competitive pressures increase so does the need for quality improvement processes. Several differences between manufacturing and service industries exist with some people believing the service business more difficult to manage. Service delivery evaluation utilized by four companies are reviewed. Six metrics were chosen by senior management to be implemented for fiscal year 1998. The six metrics are help desk services, labor productivity, local area network server availability, mainframe availability, network availability, and project performance. A detailed explanation of the calculation basis, measurement units, and reporting frequency for each metric is established. Data were compiled and calculated for the first month of the project. The results show that SDDPC is performing above or equal to the established goal in three cases and below the established goal in two cases. One metric (labor productivity) was not collected at this time. Steps have been made toward establishing a service delivery measurement process at SDDPC. Much work is still needed with many additional measurements needing to be added.
