Service Physics

When aiming towards user-centred service design, a core issue to the design of “ergonomically correct” service interfaces is their appropriateness with respect to the particular human user behaviour attributes, as they evolve during the utilisation of an interactive service and its constituent applications. The exploitation of human behaviour aspects in the service interaction techniques design process is of significant interest and is presented in this chapter. Though it has been tempting to synthesize many of the presented service design guidelines we prefer to adopt a laundry list-like approach as the materialisation of a service interface design technique heavily depends on a plethora of parameters. In many cases, for the same audience a service implementation needs to be differentiated from other similar services, while in certain other cases this is not part of the recommended actions.

Culture of Services

How do all different types of services affect the reality and routine of the service consumer / user? What cultural effects can we recognize to the community or the individuals? What are the cultural aspects of any newly introduced service? And how these can positively or negatively affect the society at large? In this chapter the author presents results of a research exercise related with the building of services for a collaborative community environment for experiential learning in medical emergencies. Extensive use of the Living Labs methodology has been made and is reported and related with the presented framework. The final part of this chapter is devoted to configuration aspects of the collaborative service environment.

Service Metaphysics

Transcendental matters of services: communities of users, service idealism, theological and existentialist perspectives on services – this chapter (in contrast to the previous one) is the most philosophical part of the entire book though it is of straight utility for its linkage to many service business and management topics. Furthermore, in this chapter we present a methodology (PACE) that helps for the valuation of intangible assets like (what else?) services. PACE is presented with practical examples and contextually linked with project and other service related activities. Services unequivocally constitute an area where increasing interest of experts from the areas of intellectual capital management and valuation will be concentrated, as they on their own possess qualities and characteristics of intangible assets because of their immaterial nature.

Typology of Services

Classes and taxonomies of services – how can they be categorized, with respect to different parameters, factors, dimensions. Why some of them matter and some other don’t? How can they be organized to serve specific purposes, etc. The major part of the chapter is justly devoted to the presentation of the Service Analysis Model (SAM). With its four constituent building blocks, SAM provides an insight to the analysis of services and is followed by a section devoted to the synthesis of service and the composition of new ones. The chapter closes with the presentation of a real test case implemented for a manufacturing company to improve their service supply chain.

Services and the Humans

The author examines the various aspects of influence and impact that services have on the humans and vice versa. How an interactive space is created to link both entities – and most importantly – how humans interact with each other through services of all kinds. He examines the starting points of a real world service design and implementation case that is representative of the difficulties that one faces when trying to make practice out of theory. Designing a service that would help people offer and get a better service in the European technology transfer domain is the starting point. He continues examining the users and their particular needs, then looking inside the service mediation process and the various user service scenarios. And concludes with a description of system deployment issues.

Services and the Workplace

How our workplaces are formed and shaped with respect to our conceptualization and understanding of services? How organisations can be characterized, affected and marked through their idea of services? Workplace are considered as open learning factory – open to the communities they belong to, to the markets they operate for and to the employees, customers and contractors of all types they interact with. How can all the new learning items be capitalised and transformed into knowledge assets for the companies and the employees? How can the use of a Learning Assets Management system like the CARAMBOLA concept we present be used for improvement of all aspects of service planning, implementation and operation?

Service Science and Practice

This introductory chapter aims to make clear the holistic nature of services to our lives linking the science part to the practice matters. Bringing examples for service successes and failures, this chapter shall help the reader position him or herself with the field under examination. We present and discuss the collaborative approach towards service design and the contextualisation of services as leverage for attaining competitive advantage. Critical factors are listed that concern relationship management in business service contexts and which are considered in terms of the collaboration dimension. The chapter closes with an examination of power dependencies and trust in collaborative service arrangements.

About the Nature of Services

Here the author elaborates on the intangible nature of services – and how it materializes to tangible commodities and results. The aim of this chapter is to increase the awareness of the reader regarding the complexities related to even simple forms of services that we regard as trivial. Five propositions are presented upon which the proposed service development framework and the underlying processes are built; all five of them are also related with corresponding problem areas in the real world and the markets. Two sections are devoted respectively to the nowadays more increasingly and intensively faced step changes in the conceptualisation of services and the e-services iceberg.

Future of Services

The dominance of services in our world and the challenges that the society and the individuals are facing. About the emergence of the Service Science as an independent discipline that will be taught, studied, researched and applied. Formulation of the scientific foundations of a Service Science. Spirituality and transcendental elements in the service discipline. Novel concepts and knowledge areas: service terrorism, service anarchy, service activism, service tyrannies. The role of history and arts and the inrush of humanities in the service domain.

Service Economics

Here the author examines the economies of services as well as matters related to service economics. Do the same or similar laws that drive the other fields of the nonservices economy also govern the service-based economy as well? How can wealth matters be addressed in the services field with application of well-know economics patterns? An improved accounting method for project management accounting is presented based on the idea of value centres next to the well-known concepts of cost centres and profit centres. The method can be of direct use for value based management purposes that is of central importance for all service-related activities (improvement / optimisation, planning, deployment, etc.).