Comments on: The Key to Servitization is Effective Collaboration http://servitizer.com/blog/2009/05/05/the-key-to-servitization-is-effective-collaboration/ Moving Business In A Smarter Direction Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:27:40 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Mark Tobin http://servitizer.com/blog/2009/05/05/the-key-to-servitization-is-effective-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Mark Tobin Wed, 13 May 2009 14:03:13 +0000 http://servitizer.com/blog/2009/05/05/the-key-to-servitization-is-effective-collaboration/#comment-11 John, thanks for your response. I accept the fact that a basic set of services are required to be bundled with product sales, specifically those you note i.e. installation, configuration, warranty and basic hardware & software maintenance. In fact these services are already provided by my organisation, included in the basic product costs and in on-going maintenance contracts. My interest lies in the area of value added services, which some of my customers have requested and which do not fall into the product services category. The opportunities can be considered as revenue growth opportunities both for my customers and my organisation. I will contact you directly to discuss this further. John, thanks for your response. I accept the fact that a basic set of services are required to be bundled with product sales, specifically those you note i.e. installation, configuration, warranty and basic hardware & software maintenance. In fact these services are already provided by my organisation, included in the basic product costs and in on-going maintenance contracts.

My interest lies in the area of value added services, which some of my customers have requested and which do not fall into the product services category. The opportunities can be considered as revenue growth opportunities both for my customers and my organisation. I will contact you directly to discuss this further.

]]> By: john http://servitizer.com/blog/2009/05/05/the-key-to-servitization-is-effective-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-9 john Tue, 12 May 2009 11:02:37 +0000 http://servitizer.com/blog/2009/05/05/the-key-to-servitization-is-effective-collaboration/#comment-9 Mark, thanks for your comment. Services Business Cases for product-related services is an area where there has been much debate in the past. One of the key questions to ask yourself is which services are pre-requisites to doing business in the specific IT space you are working in and which services would require a standalone business case as they would be discretionary services which may or may not be required by all customers. Having led a services line of business within a product-focused company in the past I once made the mistake of assuming that each service needed to be developed as a separate package incorporating business case, tools, value proposition, pricing, delivery methodology, marketing collateral etc etc. What I found in fact was that those services which were essential for the product i.e. installation, configuration, warranty and basic hardware & software maintenance had to be included in the overall product business case as they would never be standalone services which would be de-coupled from the product ( unless you were planning on offering them on other vendor's products but this is another story entirely ). On the other hand for what we might call Value Added Services i.e. services which offer real incremental value to the client in terms of Opex savings, Capex savings or even revenue growth there is a requirement to look at the market size, build the appropriate business cases and a full package around the service in terms of value prop, pricing, customer presentations, brochures etc etc. Every company will have it's own method of defining business cases especially the financial aspects. These can differ depending on how overhead costs are calculated and applied to each service, how NPV is calculated, inflation factor etc. Drop me a note to john@servitizer.com and I will be glad to discuss further with you on this. John Mark, thanks for your comment. Services Business Cases for product-related services is an area where there has been much debate in the past. One of the key questions to ask yourself is which services are pre-requisites to doing business in the specific IT space you are working in and which services would require a standalone business case as they would be discretionary services which may or may not be required by all customers.

Having led a services line of business within a product-focused company in the past I once made the mistake of assuming that each service needed to be developed as a separate package incorporating business case, tools, value proposition, pricing, delivery methodology, marketing collateral etc etc. What I found in fact was that those services which were essential for the product i.e. installation, configuration, warranty and basic hardware & software maintenance had to be included in the overall product business case as they would never be standalone services which would be de-coupled from the product ( unless you were planning on offering them on other vendor’s products but this is another story entirely ).

On the other hand for what we might call Value Added Services i.e. services which offer real incremental value to the client in terms of Opex savings, Capex savings or even revenue growth there is a requirement to look at the market size, build the appropriate business cases and a full package around the service in terms of value prop, pricing, customer presentations, brochures etc etc.

Every company will have it’s own method of defining business cases especially the financial aspects. These can differ depending on how overhead costs are calculated and applied to each service, how NPV is calculated, inflation factor etc. Drop me a note to john@servitizer.com and I will be glad to discuss further with you on this.

John

]]> By: Mark Tobin http://servitizer.com/blog/2009/05/05/the-key-to-servitization-is-effective-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-8 Mark Tobin Mon, 11 May 2009 18:57:31 +0000 http://servitizer.com/blog/2009/05/05/the-key-to-servitization-is-effective-collaboration/#comment-8 Hi, My name is Mark Tobin and I am a product Manager with an IT equipment supply company. I am in the process of investigating business expansion opportunities in the area of IT services for our custoners coupled with our product offerings. Doing a Web search I happened upon your site, which is very impressive. In an effort to ease my load do you happen to have a template for a services business, business case. Thanks. Hi, My name is Mark Tobin and I am a product Manager with an IT equipment supply company. I am in the process of investigating business expansion opportunities in the area of IT services for our custoners coupled with our product offerings. Doing a Web search I happened upon your site, which is very impressive. In an effort to ease my load do you happen to have a template for a services business, business case. Thanks.

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