Strategic Service Management
A New Way of Thinking in Uncertain Times
The global economy has suffered its sharpest contraction in almost a decade as consumers cut spending and businesses reduce investment at the onset of what may be a severe and long-lasting recession. According to AMR research, current economic conditions will likely cause your customers to retain assets longer and place greater demands on your post-sale service organization.
Increasing service demand and a potentially worsening economy could deal a crippling blow to companies unprepared for this service spike and already suffering from dwindling product-based margins. The fear of a crippling blow is driving companies around the world, just like yours, to adopt a service-led growth strategy and invest in post-sale service as a growth driver and source of rapid bottom line impact - an approach the market is now referring to as Strategic Service Management (SSM).
Strategic Service Management should not be mistaken for another software or industry term; it is much more than that. Strategic Service Management is a mindset, a new way of thinking that represents a fundamental shift in how companies survive and thrive in a contracting economy. It is a new business strategy built around the power and value associated with profitably exceeding customers’ service expectations. In some industries, companies are discovering service margins can be 30%-200% greater than product margins.
Results That Speak for Themselves
AMR Research recently published “SLM: Solid ROI in a Down Economy” that highlights how technologies can enable companies to profitably fulfill their customers’ increasing demands and why companies must move quickly to build a business case that shows how much revenue can be generated and/or costs saved with such solutions.
A BusinessWeek article highlighted some of the quick yet significant results recognized by companies deploying Strategic Service Management solutions. For instance, Sun Microsystems saved $40 million and Dell grew its service business unit by more than 20%.
Strategic Service Management is helping leaders survive today’s economic uncertainty by enabling them to profitably meet increasing service demands, achieve new levels of customer intimacy and create a significant competitive differentiation that is much harder to replicate than an item sold on the product side of the business. Using service as a competitive differentiator could enable some manufacturers to emerge from a recession in a much more favorable position than it held when entering. Doug Derrick, Partner for Accenture's Supply Chain practice summarized the potential power of SSM best when he said, “Strategic Service Management is not just a business strategy and philosophy. It is the business strategy and philosophy that leaders practice and followers fail to understand”.
Leading companies increasingly understand that the successful execution of a service-led growth strategy requires effective collaboration across functions and new decision-making capabilities which can be achieved only through a strategic service management solution — one that enables the integration, optimization, and efficient management of their core service business processes and resources.
To understand how the Strategic Service Management can transform your service business and help you increase revenue, gross profits and customer service, call us at +1 888.942.8623.