Thinking about service design

The challenge of developing a new concept of Services Science (or Service Science, Management and Engineering – SSME), articulated by Jim Spohrer of IBM, has triggered a wide range of thinking by both academics and practitioners alike. From an observer at the interface, it would seem to have gone through a number of phases. The first was to broadly define the scope of the field. This has been done, though as SSME begins to mature, this scope has been questioned and it can be argued that it is rather narrow and could be expanded. The second phase in which many including the lead author of this paper participated, was to argue that before a totally new field was developed it was important that the depth of existing knowledge be recognised and brought into the arena. It would now seem that this stage is well on the way and diverse and multi-disciplinary sets of knowledge from systems, operations, marketing and engineering are being brought together.