42 send the memos. Another mentioned that Version 5.4 does not have an effective inventory feature, but respondent did not mention the specific problem encountered about the inventory feature. There was also a comment about report generation, and the respondent said that any financial statements, trial balances, schedules, etc. have to be created manually. This allows errors to happen over time, which cannot be solved unless the user has knowledge of how the reports were created. Furthermore, respondents mentioned that there are many more issues too numerous to list. Some of the respondents mentioned issues that they are experiencing right now, yet overall user satisfaction regarding SunPlus features was at an acceptable level. The Relationship between SunPlus User Satisfaction and Software Training Training was one of the independent variables for this study, and under the descriptive statistical analysis, it showed the lowest mean among all the variables. This showed that the users who participated in data collection were satisfied with it, but not as satisfied as with the features and customer service provided by the software. There was also a different level of significance when it comes to user satisfaction with the training program at different workplaces. In this case, all users from different workplaces did not agree with similar results. For example, in this study users from schools might not satisfied with the training program, but users from missions might satisfied with it. But overall, there were still more users who had low satisfaction levels with the training for the software. The training program provided by SunPlus had a positive relationship with overall user satisfaction. The statistical analysis showed that customer satisfaction for training was the lowest among all the independent variables, and this positively affected SunPlus user overall satisfaction. Users were satisfied, but it was not at a very high level
43 of satisfaction. If the satisfaction for training was higher, then the overall SunPlus user satisfaction would also be higher. Three of the respondents mentioned that the amount of training that they had received were too short. Another respondent said that he/she had not received any training since 2016, and another said he/she had never received any training, not even once, and that there should be more training available for users. Some training sessions were combined for schools and the local mission; this made the training ineffective, because schools and missions do not share the same settings in their accounting work. Moreover, there has been a problem with users who do not have much experience with SunPlus; when they have to shift to use a new version, there are many difficulties in getting used to it. It would be better if SunPlus would provide ar manual for users who change to the new version. One of the respondents also wished that there was more training on technical troubleshooting; there is currently a lack of training in this specific area. Overall, the results from analysis of Hypotheses 2 and 5 still led to a rejection of the null hypothesis. Even though users might show that they were satisfied with training to use the software, but there are still many things that need to be improved in this specific area so that the satisfaction level with the training program can be improved in the future. The Relationship between SunPlus User Satisfaction and Customer Service According to the results of the descriptive statistics analysis, the results for Hypotheses 3 and 6 indicated that the null hypothesis should be rejected and supported the alternative hypothesis. The users were satisfied with the software customer service, and there was a positive relationship between customer service and overall SunPlus satisfaction.
44 Even with overall satisfaction for the customer service, there were still some comments from users about the SunPlus customer service. One of the respondents commented about slow responses from the SunPlus team, and some said that the different time zones and the language barrier had been problematic when contacting the SunPlus support team. One respondent suggested that SunPlus hire more people for its support team. While there were other issues mentioned about the customer service, a few respondents praised the SunPlus support team for their good service and high practical knowledge in solving problems. When issues are reported to the team, they have always been solved. There is still room for improvement in customer service provided by SunPlus, and once it is improved, then the overall satisfaction level will also increase.
45 CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS Summary of the Study SunPlus accounting software has been developed specifically for Seventh-day Adventist organizations, and some of the features are different from other accounting software packages. Each organization has their own operational system; therefore, it is good that SDAs have their own accounting software that fits their daily tasks. Most of the workplaces such as schools, universities, missions, conferences, and even attached regions have to use SunPlus accounting software. It is mandatory for them to use the software. Unlike other workplaces, when users are not satisfied with accounting software, they can choose to use different software. But it is different from users who work for SDA organizations; since its use is mandatory to some users, so they have no choice but to use the software. This is one of the reasons why this study was conducted. It is important to find out if SunPlus accounting software users are satisfied or not. The Relationship between SunPlus User Satisfaction and Users’ Self-Perceived Ease of Use of SunPlus Features/Functions Analysis of the descriptive statistics results led to rejection of the null hypothesis. This meant that SunPlus users are satisfied with features/function of the software. There were also additional comments from customers related to some issues in regard to the features. Based on the information from the interviews, all of the users were relatively satisfied with the features of the software, but three of them also had additional comments on some features with which they were not totally satisfied. One of the users mentioned that the depreciation sometimes is not being calculated correctly, while another said that the search
46 interface was not user friendly. One of the interviewees from a school said that she needed to deal with student accounts every day, and it was hard for her to generate the statements. She needed to generate student account statement one by one, and it usually took a lot of time. This has made work less efficient and inaccurate. Some of the users mentioned about the difficulty in shifting from the old version to the new version, and not getting used to some of the new settings on the new version. Another commented about not knowing how to use all the features provided on the software. There were also some problems about financial statement reporting and the inventory system on the software. But overall, users were still satisfied with the features. The results also showed that satisfaction with the features provided by SunPlus positively affected SunPlus user overall satisfaction. In this case, when users are more satisfied with the features, then the overall satisfaction level was also getting higher. The Relationship between SunPlus User Satisfaction and Software Training The second hypothesis was about the SunPlus training program, and the results also led to rejection of the null hypothesis. This meant that users were satisfied with the software training program. However, this satisfaction level was very low compared to the other two independent variables. If the satisfaction with this variable was higher, there would also be a higher overall level of satisfaction. When interviewees were asked about the training program from SunPlus, one of them said that she had never received any training, and she has been working for five years now. The rest of them had received some training, but two of them said that it was not helpful. The reason was that the training times were too short, and sometimes they were not on the topics that they needed in their field of work.
47 Many users commented about the short time periods provided for training, and the time frame was not enough time for users. Some of the users had not been receiving any recent training, or have never received any training at all about the software. Since there are many types of workplaces that are using SunPlus accounting software, and when the training sessions are combined according to the location/country where the users are located, this made training less effective due to differences in the types of work. The statistical analysis, which was One-Way ANOVA, showed significantly different results for users in regard to the independent variable of training. These results then led to a more detailed statistical analysis, which was the regression method. And with these results, users’ workplaces and the software version were positively related to the training variable. They also showed significant differences for both workplaces and software versions. There were 4 types of workplaces which were schools, university, missions or region, and ADRA. There is a possibility that people from different workplaces gave different feedback on the survey; as mentioned in the previous chapter, one of the interviewees said that she had not received any training at all since she started working. The reason why users from different workplaces gave different feedback regarding training might because some workplaces did not get to receive training or as many training sessions compared to other workplaces. For example, there are many schools in Thailand, and some respondents who worked for the school had received training, while another from a school in Thailand never received any training. This shows that not all workplaces received the same number of training sessions even though they are from the same country. Some workplaces were satisfied with the training, while some were not satisfied. One of the comments from the respondents mentioned that users had received training, but it was not helpful because the training was for users from schools and mission at the
48 same time. This might be another possible reason why users had different feedback for training. In this case, the user who said the training was not helpful is currently working for mission, and the training was combined with schools. The training was more focused on schools, but not for the mission. Therefore, users from mission might not be satisfied with the training, while users from schools found it helpful. There was another positive relationship in regards to the SunPlus software version. There were two versions in this study, but users were divided into three groups. There was a group who were using Version 5, another group using Version 6, and the last group was those who are currently using both versions. The regression analysis showed that there was a significant difference between training and the software version. According to the survey, there were more users who were using Version 5 than Version 6 or both versions. It might be that Version 6 was just recently introduced to users. This might be the reason why users of different versions had different feedback towards training. For users who had been using Version 5 for many years, it can be expected that they also have received more training for it, while, Version 6 is new and there has not been much training available yet. Another reason might be that, the users are used to Version 5, which is the older version, and so therefore there is not have much demand for the training. But Version 6 users are not very familiar with it, so they need to have more training in order to get used to it. The Relationship between SunPlus User Satisfaction and Customer Service SunPlus users were satisfied with customer service, and the results led to rejection of the null hypothesis. Even though the overall results showed that users were satisfied with customer service, but there were also additional comments about the service. SunPlus can still make
49 improvements for their customer service, so that the overall user satisfaction level can be improved. Two of the interviewees were satisfied with the customer service. They were able to contact the support team whenever they needed help. One of them was not satisfied because the service was too slow, while another person rarely contacted the support team. Among all of the interviewees, one of them had never contacted the support team because she did not know how. Some users complained about the slow response of the support team and issues about the different time zones between the users and the team. But there was also good feedback that the customer service was good and that all the problems had been solved upon contacting the support team. Limitations of the Study Since all of the data collection was done through an online platform, challenges were encountered. First, contacting the respondents was a challenge. Due to the different workplaces located in different countries, it was difficult to find all of the contacts. Emails asking for consent needed to be send out to each workplace, and some of the expected respondents did not respond to the request. This could have been due to Internet errors, such as having the email sent as spam instead of to the inbox. Due to this, the number of respondents was not as many as anticipated. So the data for this study was very limited. A larger number of respondents would be needed to enable sounder generalizations to be made about user satisfaction concerning the SunPlus accounting system. Another limitation was the numbers of targeted countries surveyed in this study. There are many of SunPlus users from other places besides Southeast Asia, such as in United States,
50 Africa, Mexico, and many more places. Users from other countries might have encountered different experiences. Recommendations The SunPlus accounting software package was created to standardize the presentation of financial activities specifically for SDA organizations. Even though the software is mandatory for some of its users, it is crucial that an effective and efficient tool is provided for workers to perform their work. SunPlus needs to make improvements in its training program. Users indicated that they were marginally satisfied with the training provided for software, but there is still a lot of room for improvements. One of the ways to improve would be to extend the training period. It would also be useful if SunPlus asked users in each workplace what software features could be made easier to understand by providing expanded training sessions in desired areas. Online training videos should be made available for users, so that they can use them at anytime and anywhere while working. This also help lessen the workload of the SunPlus support team as well. The team would not have to answer every little question of the users. Users could just look at the video and solve it by themselves. This is also related to customer service. Users want to receive faster responses from the team, but due to different time zones, with training videos available on how to use the features, then users will not contact the support team as much as before. This will also reduce the response waiting times. There is also still room for improvements with the features, but this also depends on each workplace. So communication between SunPlus and users is important so that users can report what changes they need in the features to make their work more effective and efficient.
51 A satisfaction survey should be handed out to users, as that is the only way to find out whether users are happy with the software or not. There should be a bridge between users and the SunPlus team so that users are able to freely express their concerns and difficulties when using the software. Directions for Future Research The future direction of similar studies might aim for broader data collection. The respondents could be from more countries and from different continents as well. Different work fields also have different issues that they might be facing. So it would be better to gather data from a broader user base. There are many users who have had a lot of experience with SunPlus software and they also understood the software well. So, it might also be useful to get information from them, and to see what feedback they can give about the software. It is also a good idea to compare what previous users have to say about the software with the responses coming from current users. Users gave different feedback regarding their satisfaction with training. According to the present study, users from different workplaces and those who are using different SunPlus versions showed significant statistical differences. Future research efforts might be launched to mainly focus on users who are satisfied, and why some from different workplaces who are using different software versions are not satisfied.
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54 APPENDIX SunPlus Satisfaction Survey The survey is about SunPlus user satisfaction with features, trainings, and customer service. The purpose of the survey is to collect feedbacks from users and that changes can be made to better benefit users upon receiving result of the study. It will take around 5-7mins in order to complete the survey. This survey is anonymous; please do not write your name on it. Section 1 Instruction: Please fill in the blanks below. Job Position: Gender: _______________ Age: Name of workplace: Level of education: Working experience with SunPlus (years): ______ SunPlus version currently using: ______________________ Section 2 Instruction: Please circle number 1 to 4 where 1: Strongly disagree, 2: Disagree, 3: Agree, 4: Strongly Agree A. SunPlus Accounting Software Features/Functions 1. SunPlus accounting software is able to record transactions effectively and efficiently. 1 2 3 4 2. Features/functions on SunPlus are effective and efficient for my daily work tasks. 1 2 3 4 3. SunPlus accounting software makes it easy for users to enter transactions at a good speed. 1 2 3 4 4. The account receivables journal entry on SunPlus is effective when entering transactions. 1 2 3 4 5. The search interface for features, account statements, and others on SunPlus is easy to use and able to show what is needed in a timely manner. 1 2 3 4
55 6. SunPlus accounting system is able to meet the needs of users who are using multiple currencies. 1 2 3 4 7. SunPlus accounting system is able to meet the needs of users who are using multiple languages. 1 2 3 4 8. SunPlus can calculate depreciation automatically and accurately. 1 2 3 4 9. Sum Plus is able to provide accurate reports to users. 1 2 3 4 10. All users are able to easily access financial statements on SunPlus accounting system. 1 2 3 4 11. SunPlus system is simple to use. 1 2 3 4 Please add any other comments or suggestions related to SunPlus features/functions. B. SunPlus Accounting System Training 1. SunPlus offers workplace training regularly. 1 2 3 4 2. The amount of training received is enough to keep up with updating knowledge on how to use SunPlus. 1 2 3 4 3. SunPlus team has provided useful and helpful training for users. 1 2 3 4 4. Training sessions provided were for a suitable length of time. 1 2 3 4 5. The topics covered during training sessions are related to current fields of work. 1 2 3 4 6. The methods of training from SunPlus are effective for users from different countries. 1 2 3 4 7. Due to the COVID-19 situation, SunPlus has provided an effective online training platform for its users. 1 2 3 4 8. SunPlus provides training videos for users in their respective countries. 1 2 3 4 9. The training is easy to understand. 1 2 3 4 Please add any comments or suggestions related to SunPlus training.
56 C. SunPlus Accounting System Customer Service 1. Users are able to connect to the SunPlus team easily via an online platform. 1 2 3 4 2. Customer service provided by SunPlus is speedy and convenient. 1 2 3 4 3. It is convenient to communicate with SunPlus team, even if users do not speak English. 1 2 3 4 4. Different time zones between users and the SunPlus support team do not affect the effectiveness of customer service. 1 2 3 4 5. Issues reported to SunPlus were resolved in timely manner. 1 2 3 4 6. SunPlus reaches out to customers and asks for feedback. 1 2 3 4 7. Users have been given opportunity to report their dissatisfaction to the SunPlus team. 1 2 3 4 8. The customer service is very helpful to my work. 1 2 3 4 Please add any comments or suggestions related to SunPlus customer service. D. Sunplus Users’ Satisfaction 1. I am satisfied with how easy it is to use SunPlus accounting software. 1 2 3 4 2. Overall, I am satisfied with the training I have received. 1 2 3 4 3. Overall, I am satisfied with the customer service provided. 1 2 3 4 Thank you for taking time to complete this survey. May God bless you.