Service Science, Management, Engineering and Design (SSMED), in short Service Science, is an IBM initiative that has involved hundreds of researchers worldwide in the attempt of promoting a new discipline capable of satisfying an emerging research issue: the study of Service Systems. It is indeed a multidisciplinary “open source" project, based upon pillars represented by computer science, human behavior, organizational theory, industrial engineering, business strategy, management sciences, social and cognitive sciences, legal sciences. In terms of Science it investigates what service systems are and how they evolve, and about roles of people, knowledge, shared information and technology, as well as the relevance of customers (as demand) inside production processes (as supply); in terms of Management it investigates how improve efficiency evaluation, relations sustainability and systems relations; in terms of engineering it develops new technologies, adequate approaches to promote information check, measurement and diffusion.
Service Science is emerging as a unique field, aimed to discover the complex service systems underlying logic, to establish a common language and a unique system thinking, to nourish productivity, quality, performance, compliance, to improve relationship and innovation rates across the service sector, to develop the skills required in a services-led economy, the knowledge (as intelligence accompanied to and through experience for competitive advantages), and the processes (as key element in organizational skills development).
Service Science is a growing multi-disciplinary research and academic effort that integrates aspects of established fields like computer science, operations research, engineering, management sciences, business strategy, social and cognitive sciences, and legal sciences.
Global markets are increasingly service-based economies. Employment growth will be concentrated in the service-providing sectors of the global economy. Service innovation is needed to maintain profits.
Service design, development, marketing and delivery all require methods to make service businesses more efficient and scalable. Practitioners need depth and breadth in combinations of technology, business, and organizational studies, even at the undergraduate level.
The goal of Service Science is to nourish productivity, quality, and learning and innovation rates across the service sector. We hope the resources on this site help you to better understand and engage in the evolving discipline.