Preface Section One: Service Strategy

Implementation and Integration of Information Systems in the Service Sector belongs to Advances in Information Systems in the Service Sector series book project. There are five sections and 19 chapters in this book. Section one contains three chapters. In Chapter one, Markku Tinnila contributes " A Review of Service Frameworks Analyzing Strategic Repositioning: The Case of Bank Services. " Many service classifications have been proposed with a wide range of dimensions describing the essential features of services. However, no single framework has become generally accepted, unlike in manufacturing, where the Product-Process matrix has become a standard tool. The challenge lies with the great variety of different types of services, making it challenging to develop a unifying framework. Strategic positioning is a tool for gaining competitive advantage in services, and there are many frameworks, typically matrices facilitating analysis of strategic position. This chapter has reviewed these frameworks, and analyzed how they evaluate and position different service types for developing a more comprehensive tool for service positioning. Most of the earlier frameworks classify services according to type, such as mass-, professional, customized, and self-services. The service matrices also focus on analyzing industries with drastic changes in industry structures, such as travel services, banking , and financing. Many studies also look in to services with large variety within the industry, e.g. fast food chains and gourmet restaurants. Banking has been almost a classic example in studies. Based on the review, the authors have recognized four main trends in banking services. They are the redistribution of branch office services to other channels, the de-coupling of front-and back-office processes for greater efficiency and variance management, digitalization and rise of self-services, and divergence of professional and automated mass services. All four trends are notable drivers in the transformation of banking services. Similar trends can be found in other industries too. The analysis of banking services reveals some commonalities in frameworks. There is a great similarity in the banking examples used in matrices, such as consumer and corporate branch offices, professional services, personal banking and automated self-services. Accordingly, the banking service examples can be categorized into five generic examples covering most of the variety. The analysis of the generic examples facilitates the recognition of similarities in service dimensions used for positioning, which are accordingly classified into four types; personnel, time and customization related, as well as service structure and organization related dimensions. Combination of the generic examples …