Servitization Momentum Is Increasing

We attended a very good event at Cranfield University last week (details in earlier blog post). The faculty, staff, guest speakers and audience members were great and the quality of discussion was excellent. Cranfield are taking a leading position in this field and it shows in the expertise of the team there and the Product Service Systems (PSS) programmes underway. Cambridge are also doing some important work in this area and a presentation from one of the guest speakers, Guangjie Ren, a PhD graduate from their Institute of Manufacturing was particularly insightful.

One important take away from the session is that the study and application of servitization is accelerating. Another is that its been a long time coming and is more complex than was originally anticipated. Governments are increasing funding in this area, research institutions are expanding their programmes and businesses are becoming much more aware and active.

The net effect of both increased inputs (funding and research) and increased outputs (organisational and marketplace change) is that more companies are doing more in the whole area of service innovation, at a faster pace, than ever before.

There are various potential reasons why this acceleration is occurring now. One is the general accumulation of research and experience since the term servitization was first coined in 1988 – time and scale may have reached a tipping point. Another more likely explanation for the timing  is that the economic background and the commoditizing impact of global competition has focused attention on ways to differentiate and innovate through services.

Servitizer profiled in the Sunday Business Post

We were delighted and flattered to be profiled in this weeks Sunday Business Post, the leading business newspaper in Ireland. Servitization (or service innovation) is an important trend that companies are beginning to embrace to differentiate themselves and create more value for their customers and we at Servitizer are proud to be in the vanguard of this development.

We are working with a number organisations here in Ireland and internationaly to help develop their services capability and the increasing awareness of this area of business is more relavent in todays economic climate than ever before.

Services Innovation is likely to play a key part of the Enterprise Ireland Stabilization & Growth Strategy for Indigenous Irish Businesses

Enterprise Ireland is continuing it’s strong focus on helping indigenous Irish businesses survive and grow through the current economic climate through the launch of it’s significant Stabilization & Growth Fund. The Fund was formally launched at a number of locations across the country last week.

While this fund is aimed at helping business across many different sectors, it is clear that Services Innovation will form a key part of this strategy in terms of differentiating Irish companies in the marketplace and growing incremental revenues.

Servitization, whether it be for product-oriented companies looking to build accompanying services offerings, or existing services companies looking to improve operational efficiencies, will continue to become a major influence on business strategy for sustainability and growth into the future.

Servitizer was in attendance at this launch as part of it’s role in providing Services Consultancy and Business Mentoring to Enterprise Ireland clients.

Transformations to Servitized Organisational Forms Industry Day

Cranfield University, one of the worlds leading academic authorities on servitization and service science, is hosting an event called Transformations to Servitized Organisational Forms Industry Day on June 17th. There is increasing momentum behind the trend of servitization and service innovation and events such as these provide important insight and discussion between those involved in this transition.

Servitizer will be attending this event and look forward to learning from and contributing to other leaders in this field. We will post a blog entry afterwards summarising any interesting findings.

Steve