Dissertation

Acquiring customer solutions: a study of complex systems support in the uk defence industry

Kapletia, Dharm

2010

Overview

This research explores the acquisition of ‘customer solutions’ in complex systems support environments, through insights drawn from current literature and an empirical study of the UK defence industry. Few studies have examined how large industrial and institutional customers, such as the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) are seeking to acquire solutions rather than traditional products and services. Organisations such as the MoD are responsible for combining different technical systems (e.g. warships, aircraft and communications networks) with other assets and resources (e.g. armed forces personnel, logistics and infrastructure) to produce large scale services. Faced with pressures such as increasing operational costs, customers such as the MoD are now signing solutions agreements with their external suppliers of technical systems. The purpose of this research is to identify and improve current understanding of the types of solutions being acquired by large industrial and institutional customers. This is achieved through an examination of the concept of customer support, and the changing dimensions of support offerings and business relationships between customer and supplier. Capitalising on sponsorship and access to UK defence industry organisations, an exploration of 17 defence acquisition projects was conducted to investigate current practice. The findings offer richer distinctions between different models of operational system support. These include: (1) Product System Support, (2) Life Cycle Product System Support, (3) Functional System Support, and (4) Enterprise System Support. In collaboration with the MoD, a new systems support research tool was developed to assist researchers and practitioners to objectively position solutions agreements against the four models. The tool specifies the types of solutions that customers are acquiring. Most importantly, it assists in pointing out the significant difference between solutions that are bounded around products, and solutions that are bounded around the customer’s core business.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Acquisitions & mergers / Customers / Defense industry / Management