The Little Book of Service Management

By Harry Katzan Jr.

Service is the up and coming discipline for the 22nd century. But exactly what is service? Many people think that service is what people do – no more, no less. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Then, if so, why is the service community in constant disarray. Startup businesses fail on a regular basis. Why? They simply do not provide good service. Many persons in responsible positions rarely give service even a brief notice. What they subconsciously think about service has to be the truth. How often do you hear exclamations like, I’ll never fly again, especially on that airline? What about, I’ve had it with fast food restaurants. Have you ever heard a student say, I’ll never take another course from that professor? Or, it’s a great car but the service stinks. What about, He may be a great doctor, but he treats all patients like thy are not human.

So, what do you do if you own or manage a small business and want to start off right? That’s an easy question. You simply send new employees, or even experienced ones, to service school. You’ve heard of computer school, but have you heard of service school. There are books on computer, for example, all over the place. But, you probably have never seen one – a book, that is – about service.

Is an automobile dealership the same as a pharmacy? At the service level, you can bet they are. This book will tell you all you need to know about providing great service. Have you ever heard of a 2-hour seminar on how to give good service? I bet you haven’t. Sometimes, a manager will give suggestions, but that is about it. This book is a service resource.

Have you experienced a doctor’s office that calls a patient concerning what time his or her appointment is? Have you had a car dealer tell you they have lost your car? Has a doctor operated on the wrong leg? Maybe, even the wrong person.

A service is a client/provider interaction that creates and captures value for both participants. We use service in several aspects of our lives, including business, government, education, health care, and religion. But, what exactly are the best practices, principles, and theories of service?

The actual study of service is a relatively new field, but it is one that can open the door to a better understanding of the essential part of our lives. In this little book, Harry Katzan, Jr., founder and editor of the Journal of Service Science, offers a concise, readable examination of how managers can use information about services to construct a better customer environment.

Harry Katzan, Jr. believes that the characteristics of a service process determine its efficacy in solving real-world problems. He disseminates these characteristics and provides a clear view of service to help managers pinpoint the exact issues they need to tackle.

With a comprehensive bibliography, examples, and a highly engaging writing style, this little book on service provides is perfect for the professional and laymen alike. Discover how you can put information about service to work for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663237118

Harry Katzan Jr.

Harry Katzan, Jr. is a professor who has written several books and many papers on computers and service, in addition to some novels. He has been a advisor to the executive board of a major bank and a general consultant on various disciplines. He and his wife have lived in Switzerland where he was a banking consultant and a visiting professor. He is an avid runner and has completed 94 marathons including Boston 13 times and New York 14 times. He holds bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees.

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Copyright © 2022 Harry Katzan Jr.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-3709-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-3710-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-3711-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022914309

iUniverse rev. date:  03/09/2022

To Margaret, as always

CONTENTS

Introduction

Preface

Chapter 1   Understanding Services

Employment and the Service Sector

Service – A Personal Dimension

Service – A Professional Dimension

Business Services

Differences between Products and Services

Classification of Services

Characteristics of Services

Summary

Key Terminology

A Few Good Questions

Selected Reading

Chapter 2   Service Systems

Systems Concepts

Service Provisioning

Service Implementation

Business Service Systems

Service Process Organization

Summary

Key Terminology

A Few Good Questions

Selected Reading

Chapter 3   Information Services

Information Service Concepts

Enterprise Information Services

Information Service Applications

Personal Information Services

Summary

Key Terminology

A Few Good Questions

Selected Reading

Chapter 4   Service Management

Service Management Concepts

Service Management Lifecycle

Service Constraint Management

Service Quality

E-Services

Summary

Key Terminology

A Few Good Questions

Selected Reading

Chapter 5   Service Technology

Service Technology Concepts

Service Messaging

Services on the Internet and the World Wide Web

Hypertext Markup Language

Extensible Markup Language

XML Schema

Web Services

Summary

Key Terminology

A Few Good Questions

Selected Reading

Chapter 6   Service Architecture

Service Architecture Concepts

Service-Oriented Architecture Overview

Service-Oriented Business Infrastructure

Service Development

Service Reference Architecture

Service Architecture Principles

Service Architecture Structure and Operation

Summary

Key Terminology

A Few Good Questions

Selected Reading

Chapter 7   Service Business

Service Business Concepts

Service Systems Thinking

Service Underpinnings

Service Operations Framework

Governance

Summary

Key Terminology

A Few Good Questions

Selected Reading

Recommended Reading

About The Author

INTRODUCTION

A service is generally regarded as work performed by one person or group that benefits another, and the concepts are systematically applied to products, as well. But what, exactly, is service. It is generally regarded as a provider/client interaction in which both parties participate and both parties obtain some benefit from the relationship. A service is a form of activity, consumed at the point of production in which the provider and client exchange information and adopt differing roles in the process. Service is a prevalent activity that is applicable in principle to business, education, government, and diverse personal endeavors. Many organizations have been drastically transformed through the use of services, because it is often the case that an outside service provider can perform an activity more efficiently and more effectively than can be performed locally. This is known as outsourcing and the work can be exceedingly complex or routinely simple. The concepts are general in nature and apply equally well to medical treatment and automobile repair, to name a couple of examples

To set the stage for further discussion, the study of Service relates to traditional services (such as medical provisioning, banking, insurance, and a variety of personal services), Internet and informational services, business organization and operations, consulting, government, education, software development, and even sports and recreation – to name only a few areas. One person has described the operation of the human body as a collection of services and another has developed a DNA of services.

Service is an interesting subject in its own right. The New York Times author and writer Thomas Friedman set the stage for the subject matter as it relates to globalization in the winter of 2006 in his book entitled The World is Flat. Clearly, globalization is a key area of engagement, with regard to Service, and there appears to be a large amount of international interest in the subject matter.

We are additionally listing several interesting components of the subject of Service, to promote further discussion:

Service concepts

Service systems

Information services

Service management

Service technology

Service architecture

Service business

There is a high level of interest in Service since it has the potential to change the way we think about and subsequently view the new world order. Many persons feel that the subject of Service will eventually change the predominant economic focus from products to services?

Responding to this situation, the IBM Corporation initiated a project in the years 2005-2006 to develop a science of services. The project has resulted in tidal wave of activity within businesses and universities to study the subject and develop academic programs. The generic title for programs of this type is Service Science, Management, and Engineering (SSME) with Service Science as its basis. Corresponding academic programs are already in place in many universities in the US, England, and Germany.

Since service is the cornerstone of most modern businesses, there is a high level of interest in the subject by persons from business, government, and education. The subject of service science has been addressed in papers in most business and computer conferences, usually in the area of service management and service marketing because a clear description of exactly what constitutes Service has not heretofore been available.

This small book is a reflection of first major book on Service, entitled Service Science: Concepts, Technology, Management, and its main objective is to introduce this new and exciting field. First, a brief note on the terminology is needed. The subject matter is signified by a capital S in the name; a small letter s to start the word denotes the activity of service.

PREFACE

Service is an exciting new subject for academicians and practitioners, because it is the up and coming discipline for the 22nd century. Service is important to people in business, government, education, health care and management, religion, military, scientific research, engineering, and other endeavors that are too numerous to mention. The subject is of interest to providers and consumers of service, alike. In fact, most service providers – be they individuals, businesses, governments, and so forth – are also consumers of service.

Today, most of us are employed in service of some kind or another. Typical examples are doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, entertainers, news people, dry cleaners, and maintenance workers. Actually, this should not be a surprise, since much of what we do in everyday life involves using service. Service activity is characterized by the fact that the results are usually intangible, meaning in this case, that an artifact of some sort is not produced as a result of a service experience, as it is in the manufacture of products. It would seem as though some definitions are in order to get the ball rolling.

A service is a client/provider interaction that creates and captures value, and a service system is a system of people and technology that adapts to the changing value of knowledge in the system.

To be more specific, a service system is a socially constructed collection of service events in which participants exchange beneficial actions through a knowledge-based strategy that captures value from a provider-client relationship. The inherent service strategy is a dynamic process that orchestrates or coordinates components, employees, partners, and clients in the co-production of value. Based on a theoretical framework for creating economies of coordination, research on Service incorporates a microanalysis of various and diverse service events, so as to develop a view of the services landscape.

Service Science is an abstraction of service systems in the same way that computer science is an abstraction of computer-based information systems. The procedure, in both cases, is to take a piece of an existing system and put it under the microscope of academic scrutiny. In this particular instance, we are taking a service centric view of enterprise systems, where traditional enterprise functions are candidates for being packaged as enterprise services.

This book is an introduction to Service for persons in business, education, and government. It can be used as a textbook and a professional book. Each of the eight chapters ends with a comprehensive summary, a list of key words, a few good questions, and a set of selected readings. In fact, the book ends with a list of reference books to assist in developing a Service library. They are all recommended, but as things are in everyday life, some would be more recommended than others based on individual preferences.

Chapter One, entitled Understanding Services, is the key chapter. It is easy to read and totally accessible to all readers. It sets the framework for the rest of the book and would be useful for persons from all walks of life. Essentially, this chapter covers what services are.

Chapter Two, entitled Service Systems, describes services as a collection of resources and economic entities, capable of engaging in or supporting one or more service events. The resources are the infrastructure and other facilities necessary to support the service process. The economic entities are the service provider and service client that co-produce the service event. In the case of possession processing services, the service environment consists of one or more tangible objects that serve as the service object of a service process. In this sense, the service object is referred to as the operand of the service process. In most cases, a service system is required to sustain a service event.

Chapter Three, entitled Information Services, describes how information and communications technology (ICT) has enhanced how we live and work. An information service is a resource capable of supporting a service event or instantiating a service event based on information. In other words, an information service can assist in the execution of a service, such as in retailing, or it can actually be the service as when buying a pair of shoes on the Internet or looking up something on the World Wide Web. The resource is a service provider that can take the form of a person or a computer. The execution of an information service event requires a service client that can also take the form of a person or computer, and the provider and client must interact in order to co-produce the service.

Chapter Four, entitled Service Management, moves the subject of services into the realm of management. Through the application of information and communications technology (ICT), many organizations have encapsulated everyday operations enabling them to go through a transformational process to achieve revenue growth by being able to respond more quickly to changing market conditions and by being more effective and efficient in the application of services. This chapter describes modern service management.

Chapter Five, entitled Service Technology, describes how service providers and clients use communications and computer technology to sustain service events. This chapter covers the constituent technology, such as web services, protocols, and relevant methods. This is the most complicated chapter in the book and can serve as a doorway to some of the latest concepts in Internet technology. This is a forward looking chapter, and it is slightly more complicated than the others. For readers who are mainly interested in an overview of this new subject, this chapter may be read without complete comprehension.

Chapter Six, entitled Service Architecture, covers how to design systems and construct computer applications from components and services. Service-oriented architecture is covered as a set of architectural design principles, .rather than as a product. The emphasis in this chapter is on aligning solutions with business processes and the creation of agile business performance.

Chapter Seven, entitled Service Business, completes the structure of the discipline of Service. This is an eclectic chapter that relates Service to the worlds of business, education, and government.

Welcome to our new world.

HARRY KATZAN, JR.

March, 2022

1

UNDERSTANDING SERVICES

The subject of services is in the news, because it is the up and coming discipline for the 22nd century. It is more significant than technology, entrepreneurship, business growth, and innovation. In fact, services encompass all of the subjects mentioned. Services are important to people in business, government, education, health care and management, religion, military, scientific research, engineering, and other endeavors that are too numerous to mention. The subject is of interest to providers and consumers of services, alike. In fact, most service providers – be they individuals, businesses, governments, and so forth – are also consumers of services.

EMPLOYMENT AND THE SERVICE SECTOR

Today, most of us are employed in services. Typical examples are doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, entertainers, news people, dry cleaners, and maintenance workers. Actually, this should not be a surprise, since much of what we do in everyday life involves using services.

Service activity is characterized by the fact that the results are usually intangible, meaning in this case that an artifact of some sort is not produced as a result of a service experience, as it is in the manufacture of products.

SERVICE – A PERSONAL DIMENSION

Most of us want to do better – in our jobs, education, business, professions, and so forth, and when we purchase services, it is really important that we get the best service for our time and money. But without a clear understanding of exactly what it is that constitutes a service, what differentiates one service from another, and how services operate and interoperate, continuous improvement will be a never-ending process of trial and error.

The concept of service has its roots in economic activities that are classified as extractive, secondary, and services. Extractive refers to agriculture, mining, forestry, fishing, and so forth. Secondary refers to manufacturing and processing. Services refer to everything else, usually subdivided into domestic, trade and commerce, information services, and personal. This is a very general definition intended for the reporting by the government of economic conditions. In order to get a handle on services, we need better definitions.

A service is a provider/client interaction that creates and captures value. A unique characteristic of services, unlike agriculture and manufacturing, is that both parties participate in the transaction, and in the process, both capture value. In a sense, the provider and the client co-produce the service event, because one can’t do without the other. It stands to reason that the roles of the client and the provider are different. In a doctor/patient service event, for example, the physician brings knowledge, time, and the necessary infrastructure. The patient brings him or herself, a medical history, and a perceived situation that requires attention. During the service process, the participants exchange information in various forms, resulting in a change to the people involved. The doctor’s experience