Secondary data review and analysis methods

Secondary Data Review: Customer Service and Web-Based Credentials Verification

Currently, two organizations known as the ECIS and the ECFMG are faced with a problem of how best to consolidate their two medical credentials validating systems. Between these two technically separate organizations, there is considerable overlap in the requirements and procedures demanded of foreign medical students to validate their credentials, but not enough at present to merge the two organizations. If the procedures and requires credentials verification should be combined, rendered the same, or otherwise is under review, as is the confusing nature of some of the website information regarding the verification process. How should the process be streamlined and customer satisfaction be improved in the most timely, cost-effective, and efficient fashion was the business problem addressed in the yes/no survey conducted by the organization.

However, an additional problem with using Internet information to explain procedures may be the World Wide Web's lack of interactive capability when questions arise, an inevitable occurrence during the verification procedure. According to The Internal Auditor, a survey of Internet consumers by the International Customer Service Association (ICSA) and e-Satisfy.com determined that although customers expect a reply to their e-contacts within one hour, only 12% receive such timely responses, and just 42% receive replies within 24 hours. The Internet's lag time is especially frustrating as it is supposed to save time. (Brune, 2000) The data in the study was taken from a survey of online customers purchasing goods over the Internet, and confirms the data from the study regarding the procedures at the ECIS and the ECFMG. The majority of the international medical students polled, the customers of the organization, said they would gladly pay an extra fee for a streamlined process, so they did not have to be subject to the added time created by having bureaucracies divided between two organizations, and separate requirements for each.

The poor nature of web comprehensibility regarding data and the web's lack of speed conveying complicated information, as opposed to personalized and tailored phone contact that is the hallmark of satisfactory customer service is evident. Credentials that result from assessments and measurements by independent authorities would seem like an ideal matter to streamline over the web. (de Mes & Rogan, p.1, 2003 ) One such a system over the web was suggested in the IBM Systems Journal by A. de Mes and E. Rogen. (2003) "To check credentials, the requestor can submit an agent that will be run by the central UDDI server, or possibly on other hardware ... The requestor can perform provider selection and credential checking on a regular basis." (de Mes & Rogan, p.2, 2003 ) But although the article explained how and why time can theoretically be saved by using a credentials verficiation-based system that is purely Internet-based, the data accumulated of the IBM Systems Journal did not consider what might transpire if the instructions are unclear, and assumed perfect understanding on the part of the customers, the system's users.

The computer journal Unisys World journal in fact suggested that, because of customer confusion, the costs saved by purely using the Internet were fact illusory. "Inefficient administration. According to META Group, 30% of all calls to help desks are caused by forgotten or expired passwords, organizations spend up to $20 per call for a support representative to manually reset a password, and users forget their passwords an average of 4 times a year. Based on these figures, an enterprise with 20,000 employees will spend $1.6 million a year on password administration alone. Similar hard costs exist for creating, disabling, modifying and deleting accounts, profiles and digital certificates." (Rose, 2001)

This is a testimony to the need for ease and comprehensiblity regarding web services and conveying instructions in general, a vital necessity during the verification process. This is especially true when dealing with an international population who may not speak English as a first language and wants reassurance that their credentials will be accurately verified, yet might not understand why there are two inefficent and only slightly dissimilar procedures. The costs created by such backlog by even user forgetfulness about passwords underline the need to make the requirements the same, at bare minimum, although it has yet to be determined if the costs incurred by merging the two organizations would be met by the additional fee that was charged by the new conglomerate.