Customer value driven service business development: Outcomes from the Fleet Asset Management Project

Transformation in many companies from goods-dominant logic towards service-dominant logic has continued, and the present difficult economic situation in many companies has actually strengthened this motivation to develop new service businesses in addition to developing existing product-service solutions. The aim of this publication is to enhance the understanding of the industrial service business, with a focus on aspects deemed important in creating new successful business: the success factors and risks of a service provider, collaborative relationships and networking, information management in maintenance services and the customer value of services. In the new service development process, there are numerous success factors to be considered in different phases. Our research has revealed some factors assessed high by industrial firms. We have found that, in addition to a profound understanding of the customers' production and business processes, the ability to build trust and a fast reaction to the changing client needs among other things are crucial for successful service development and implementation. Collaborating more effectively with the customer has also been widely recognized as a prerequisite of successful service business. Our research contributes to this field, especially to the business scenarios of networked maintenance by exploring the forms of collaboration in a service provider-customer relationship. New, more collaborative, ways of working in a networked maintenance environment are needed and we propose a maintenance community model as a management framework for these environments. Information management and communication solutions for the purposes of complex maintenance networks are still underdeveloped. We propose ICT solutions that support the collaboration and information exchange in the network and at the same time allow individual members to operate effectively and independently on the terms of the nature of their business environment and related dynamics. One challenge to systematic service innovation is the multidisciplinary nature of services integrating across technology, business, social, and client (demand) innovations. In many firms the success of selling and service provisions rests with a few individuals able to identify the customers' expectations and needs and to find appropriate solutions ad hoc. Despite the centrality of customer value to marketing, there is a lack of common systematic methods at organizational level for customer negotiations and composing service offerings based on customer value. This has also inhibited efficient utilization of existing customer data and gathering new relevant information. We propose a process for analyzing customer value when new services are created or for complementing the service offering, also when the customer specific benefits expected from the services are assessed.