Strategic service management offerings typically deal with parts management, price management, workforce management, and / or knowledge management. Strategic service management is gaining popularity because optimal parts and workforce management combined with optimal aftermarket parts and service pricing can significantly increase service-based profits, often by 20% or more. When the right products is in the right place at the right time to be put in the hands of the right technician for the job, the cost of service can be substantially reduced. The reality is that poor service translates into real losses which go beyond any financial penalties specified in your SLAs; real losses that can be prevented with good strategic service management processes and technologies.

As elaborated on in the wiki paper, Strategic Service Parts Management is the alignment of planning, forecasting, and inventory management to make sure you can respond to customer needs as they arise, without costly expedited shipping, unnecessary wait times, or financial losses (that can result from service level guarantees or losing a sale because you can’t meet the demand). Done right, it can save a manufacturer tens of millions of dollars (especially in the aerospace, automotive, and defense verticals).

As discussed in detail in the wiki paper, Strategic Service Price Management is concerned with optimizing the price of of your (after-market) parts and services. If a product isn’t available, or is priced too high when a customer wants it, that can result in a lost sale as well as dissatisfaction that may prevent the customer returning to you in the future. Similarly, if the product or service is priced below what an average customer is willing to pay, you’re losing money. In order to maximize profit, your products, and particularly, your service offerings around the products you offer, have to be priced just right.

As explored in the wiki paper, Strategic Service Workforce Management is the process of actively managing your workforce to keep it at peak productivity. Similarly, a strategic service workforce management solution is a software-based solution that optimally plans and dispatches field service technicians and their properly stocked vehicles to a customer’s location in a timely manner in order to deliver on their service commitments. Such a system will typically addresses demand management, workforce scheduling, workforce dispatching, and mobility solutions.

As addressed in the wiki paper, Strategic Service Knowledge Management is the process of identifying, creating, representing, and distributing knowledge to your service professionals when, where, and how they need it.

For a deeper dive into Strategic Service Management, see the following posts.

• Strategic Service Management
• Strategic Service Parts Management
• The Complexities of Strategic Service Management
• The Art of Service Management
• Designing for BPO and Shared Services

^* The e-Sourcing Wiki was created and maintained by Iasta, which was acquired by Selectica in 2014 (which renamed itself Determine in 2015). It was retired by Determine (which did not actively maintain it) before Determine was acquired by Corcentric in 2019