Methodological Aspects of the Evaluation of Individual E-Banking Services for Selected Banks in Poland

Introduction

The literature concerning problems of websites’ evaluation in e-banking is very extensive. Its brief overview shows that websites are analysed from point of view of:

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  usability (site map, addresses directory),

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  functionality: (global search, navigation, content relevancy),

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  visualisation (colours, background, graphics, letters)

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  reliability and accessibility (Dinitz et al, 2005, Balachandher et alBalachandher et al: (2003), Saraswat and Katta (2008), Mateos et al (2001), Chiemeke et al (2006), Miranda et al (2006), Achour and Bensedrine (2005), Migdadi (2008).)

The frameworks of the majority of evaluation methods (of e-banking) are generally based on e-commerce website evaluation model (Whiteley (2000), Evans and King (1999), Selz and Schubert (1997)). These methods are mainly traditional. They are deriving from management information systems evaluation, supported by sets of criteria and scoring points with determined scale. It seems that previous scientific approaches have focused on technical and functional factors. Most of them additionally contain plenty of subjective factors, such as: text clearness, attractiveness of colours, pictures or photos, high presentation quality, etc.). Obtaining desired results can often be better achieved using a few, matching criteria for sample evaluation (such as in Web Assessment Index method, which focuses on four categories: speed, accessibility, navigability and content analysis, see Miranda (2006)). The selection of evaluation criteria still requires more theoretical approach, justification, verification and discussion about its scope. On the other hand we have some problems not only with establishing the set of criteria, but also determination of relations between them. There are also problems with setting preferences from the point of view of a final user (customer) or expert who is evaluating this phenomenon. This chapter deals with these issues and it will be useful for researchers and practitioners who look for solutions to these problems.

Its main objective is establishing a reasonable methodology of measuring customer satisfaction with e-services. In this case the author concentrated on individual e-banking sector in selected banks operating in Poland for verifying this problem. The chapter constitutes a continuation and, simultaneously, a development of previous studies dealing with the comparison and evaluation of IT systems implemented in organizations which form the basis of electronic economy. The considerations presented below are a consequence of a second series of analyses – in relation to the one performed in 2007 (as a part of e-commerce research - Chmielarz, 2007) - concerning the evaluation of e-banking, where the author tried to eliminate previously occurring methodological inconvenience and problems connected with obtaining rational expert evaluation. In a sense it is also an extension of the author’s study into the transformation of IT banking systems applications, performed since 1999 (Chmielarz, 2005).

The second series of experiments connected with electronic business systems started with presenting applications of traditional methods – a scoring method, with its different variations (with experts’ preference scale), and concluded with constructing the author’s own method (conversion) which combines the advantages of scoring and relative evaluation methods (Chmielarz, 2008). The applied methods allowed for indicating – the best at a time – banking services for an individual client.