1,721,271 research outputs found
Servitization strategies and sourcing decisions for product services. An exploratory study
No full textThrough servitisation, companies manufacturing and selling durable goods enrich their offer with services supporting the product, the customers or even the customers' business processes. This paper points out four different strategic approaches to servitisation, defined according to the financial objective of the service offer (cost control vs. profit/revenue generation) and to the customer interaction perspective (transaction-based vs. relationship-based). Moreover, this paper focuses on the sourcing decisions undertaken by servitised companies for the delivery of product-related services. Little research, indeed, exists relating sourcing decisions with the servitisation strategy. Four case studies from the automotive, elevator and appliance industries allow to analyse this link. Based on the case findings, a preliminary framework is proposed. According to the framework, a transactional approach in which services are seen as a 'necessary evil' leads to outsourcing, and to open market negotiation with product service suppliers. Instead, when the strategic relevance of the service offer increases, in order to craft long-term customer relationships or to increase profit, the need for integration with external suppliers increases, ceteris paribus. At a given point, the manufacturer would in source the service provision to maximise the financial and/or strategic benefits from product service
Forecasting for capacity management in call centres: combining methods, organization, people and technology
No full textThough call centre management has gained increased attention in recent years, call load forecasting for
capacity management still offers many opportunities for advancing research and business practice. This
paper takes an integrated view of demand forecasting in call centres, so that in addition to the mathematical
dimension, we consider three others that are important when designing and implementing a
forecasting process, namely, the organizational dimension, people behaviour and information technology.
An action research study in a multi-client call centre organization is presented. Our findings allow us to
indicate some design principles for the four dimensions (method, organization, people and technology),
and we show that simple but rigorous methods, such as the one described in the forecasting framework we
develop, can bring substantial improvements. Transparency and understanding of the method by stakeholders
are also required; so is a structured process, with clear responsibilities and authorities, as well as
enhanced communication and information sharing in order to limit potential conflicts. Finally, information
tools should be designed to support the forecasting process through ease of use and formalization of
judgemental adjustments, thereby contributing to forecasting accuracy and increasing the credibility of
the process outcome
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