Service Chain Management (eBook)

Technology Innovation for the Service Business

Christos Voudouris, Gilbert Owusu, Raphael Dorne, David Lesaint (Autoren)

eBook Download: PDF

2007 | 2008
XVIII, 308 Seiten
Springer Berlin (Verlag)
978-3-540-75504-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Service chain management enables service organisations to improve customer satisfaction and reduce operational costs. In this book, Christos Voudouris and his BT colleagues together with experts from industry and academia present the latest innovations and technologies used to manage the operations of a service company. The viewpoints presented are based on the BT experience and on associated research and development. Service chain management is looked at both from the enterprise perspective and from the standpoints of the service professional and customer. The focus is on real-world challenges.

Christos Voudouris and his co-authors are leading BT's R&D in service and network optimisation. The team was formed in the mid-1990s and worked on developing technologies for the company's pioneering Work Manager system, which by 1998 was saving the company $150 million a year by automating and optimising the processes related to the company's extensive field service operations.

Technologies developed by the authors have also been incorporated in two spin-off companies and in software products from BT Global Services and others; they are currently used and benefiting in service companies world-wide. The authors are all recognised authorities in the subject of service optimisation, having won several national and international awards for their work from leading organisations such as INFORMS, the British Computer Society, and The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Inhalt

Foreword 5
Acknowledgements 7
Contents 8
Contributors 16
Defining and Understanding Service Chain Management 18
1.1 Introduction 18
1.2 Book Objectives 19
1.3 Challenges in Service Operations 20
1.4 Key Success Factors in Services 21
1.5 Developing a Blueprint for Service Chain Management 24
1.5.1 Automating Scheduling and Dispatching 24
1.5.2 Moving to Advanced and Systematic Planning 25
1.5.3 FOS: An Example Suite for Integrated Service Chain Management 26
1.5.4 Contrasting with Supply Chain Management 27
1.6 The Broader Picture Across Verticals 29
1.7 Technologies for Services and Book Structure 30
1.8 The Emergence of Digital Services and Chains 31
1.9 Summary 34
Customer Service: Emerging Requirements and Trends 35
2.1 Introduction 35
2.2 Emerging Trends 36
2.3 Becoming a Real-Time Enterprise 37
2.4 Making Service Personal 38
2.5 Exploiting Customer Analytics 39
2.6 Engendering Customer and Employee Advocacy 41
2.7 Becoming a Knowledge-Driven Service Enterprise 42
2.8 Opening-up the Enterprise 43
2.9 Summary 44
Part I Resource Planning 46
Strategic Resource Planning 48
3.1 Introduction 48
3.2 The Case for Strategic Resource Planning 49
3.3 Characterising the Strategic Resource Planning Process 50
3.4 Barriers to Implementing an Automated Strategic Resource Planning System 53
3.4.1 Demand Management 53
3.4.2 Supply Management and Planning 55
3.4.3 Variance Analysis, Recommendations and Reports 57
3.4.4 Enablers and Planning Environment 59
3.5 A Framework for Implementing an Automated Strategic Planning System 60
3.6 Summary 62
Forecasting and Demand Planning 63
4.1 Introduction 63
4.2 Demand Forecasting and Planning 63
4.3 Challenges in Demand Forecasting 65
4.4 The Forecasting Process 66
4.4.1 Data Analysis and Interpretation 66
4.4.2 Forecasting Methods 68
4.4.3 Forecasting Measures 72
4.5 Understanding Forecasting Impact on Demand Planning 74
4.6 Unprecedented Events and Risk Mitigation 75
4.7 Summary 76
Tactical Resource Planning and Deployment 77
5.1 Introduction 77
5.2 Defining Tactical Resource Planning 78
5.3 Challenges in Engineering a Tactical Resource Planning System 80
5.3.1 Decision Making in Tactical Resource Planning 80
5.3.2 Automation and Optimisation 82
5.3.3 Visibility and Control 82
5.3.4 Integration in the Service Chain 83
5.4 Optimising the Tactical Resource Planning Process 83
5.4.1 Fundamental Decisions 83
5.4.2 Plan Optimisation Techniques 84
5.5 A Case Study 86
5.6 Summary 88
Network Planning for Telecom and Utilities 90
6.1 Introduction 90
6.2 The Planning and Design Process 92
6.3 Automating Network Design 94
6.4 Optimisation of Telecommunication Network Design 95
6.4.1 Network Tiers 98
6.4.2 Network Layers 100
6.4.3 Summarising Network Optimisation 101
6.5 Applications of Network Optimisation Within Network Utilities 101
6.6 Summary 104
Part II Reservation Management and Resource Scheduling 105
Reservation Management and Resource CRM 107
7.1 Introduction 107
7.2 A Brief Overview of the Use of Reservation Management Systems 108
7.3 Business and Technical Challenges in Implementing a Reservation Management System 109
7.4 Strategies for Implementing a Reservation Management System 110
7.4.1 The Strategic Level 110
7.4.2 The Tactical Level 111
7.4.3 The Operational Level 113
7.5 Key Technologies 115
7.6 Summary 115
Demand Pricing and Revenue Management 116
8.1 Introduction 116
8.2 Revenue Management Ò Techniques and Technology 118
8.2.1 Basic Principles 118
8.2.2 Revenue Management Systems 121
8.3 RM - Theory and Practice 123
8.3.1 Theory Outline 123
8.3.2 Industry Adopters 129
8.4 Summary 129
8.5 Further Reading 130
Personnel Shift Scheduling and Rostering 131
9.1 Introduction 131
9.2 General Description 132
9.2.1 Staffing 133
9.2.2 Shift and Roster Design 135
9.2.3 Shift and Roster Allocation 138
9.3 The Family of Approaches 140
9.3.1 Solutions to Staffing Problems 140
9.3.2 Solutions to Shift Design and Shift Allocation 141
9.4 Summary 143
Work Allocation and Scheduling 145
10.1 Introduction 145
10.2 Challenges inWork Allocation and Scheduling 146
10.2.1 Data Availability 146
10.2.2 Responsiveness and Flexibility 146
10.2.3 Scale and Complexity 147
10.3 A General Description ofWork Allocation Problems 148
10.3.1 Main Concepts Found in Work Allocation 149
10.3.2 The Dynamic Nature of the Problem 151
10.3.3 Variants of Work Allocation Problems 152
10.4 The Family of Approaches 153
10.4.1 Exact Searches 153
10.4.2 Approximate Searches 154
10.5 Implementing Work Allocation and Scheduling 154
10.5.1 Rescheduling and Disruption Management 156
10.5.2 Mobility Support 157
10.6 Summary 158
People and Attendance Management 159
11.1 Introduction 159
11.2 What is People and Attendance Management? 160
11.2.1 People 161
11.2.2 Attendance 161
11.2.3 Absence 162
11.2.4 Maintaining the Mix Between a Fully Automated System and People Involvement 163
11.3 Current Practices in People and Attendance Management 163
11.3.1 Analysing the Market Segment for Attendance Management 164
11.3.2 Dealing with Attendance in Organisations 164
11.4 Implementing People and Attendance Management 165
11.4.1 People Management 165
11.4.2 Attendance Management 166
11.4.3 Absence Management 166
11.5 Future Trends 168
11.5.1 Mobility and Office Solutions 168
11.5.2 Shift Bidding 169
11.5.3 Plan-Driven Attendance Management 170
11.6 Summary 171
Part III Process, Communications and Information 172
Flexible Workflows 175
12.1 Introduction 175
12.2 What is Workflow and Workflow Support? 176
12.2.1 Leavitt’s Diamond 176
12.2.2 A Socio-Cognitive Perspective 176
12.2.3 Agents in a Workflow 177
12.2.4 Control Flow 177
12.2.5 Why Are Workflow Support Tools Useful? 177
12.3 Previous Approaches 178
12.4 Contemporary Approaches 180
12.4.1 Why Enterprises Need Service-Oriented Architectures? 180
12.4.2 Workflow Specification Languages 180
12.4.3 Modern Architectural Styles 182
12.4.4 Recovery Mechanisms and Techniques 186
12.5 Summary 189
Personalised Communications 190
13.1 Introduction 190
13.2 Service Delivery Architectures and Platforms 191
13.2.1 UC Services 191
13.2.2 The Principles and Elements of SDPs 193
13.3 SIP Technologies 196
13.3.1 An Overview of SIP 196
13.3.2 SIP Deployments 198
13.3.3 SIP Application Creation 199
13.3.4 SIP Application Orchestration 200
13.4 Communications Personalisation and Feature- Oriented Engineering 201
13.4.1 Feature-Based Personalisation 202
13.4.2 Feature-Oriented Architectures 203
13.5 Summary 205
Predictive Customer Analytics and Real- Time Business Intelligence 207
14.1 Introduction 207
14.2 Customer Analytics 208
14.2.1 Predicting Customer Events 209
14.2.2 Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty 210
14.3 Real-Time Business Intelligence 210
14.3.1 A Consolidated Semantic Data Layer 212
14.3.2 Analytical Performance Frameworks 213
14.3.3 Monitoring Performance 215
14.3.4 Learning Relationships 215
14.3.5 What-If-Scenarios, Target Optimisation and Prediction 216
14.4 Summary 216
The Agile Delivery of Service Chain Management Solutions 217
15.1 Introduction 217
15.2 The Need for Agile Delivery 217
15.3 Realising Agile Delivery 219
15.3.1 The Development Strategy 219
15.3.2 The Adaptive Service Development Approach 222
15.4 Managing Agile Delivery 225
15.5 Summary 225
Part IV The Future Service Chain 227
Collaborative Demand Forecasting in Service Chains 229
16.1 Introduction 229
16.2 What is Collaborative Forecasting? 229
16.3 Challenges in Collaborative Forecasting 230
16.4 The Objectives of Collaborative Forecasting 231
16.5 The Collaborative Forecasting Framework 232
Step 1: Establishing Common Objectives and Measurable Goals 232
Step 2: Preparing a Manifest of Processes and Best Practices 233
Step 3: The Use of IT Systems and an Information Super- Set 233
Step 4: Establishing a Base Forecast Using Statistical Techniques 234
Step 5: Establishing Forecasting Measures and an Evaluation Process 234
Step 6: Setting Up Regular Communication and Update Meetings 235
16.6 Learning from Product Supply Chains 235
16.7 Summary 237
Business to Business Online Revenue Management 238
17.1 Introduction 238
17.2 The Impact of Internet and E-Commerce on Service Industries 238
17.3 The Logistics Service Chain: An Example Case of B2B E- Commerce Impact 240
17.4 Flexible Pricing in E-Commerce 241
17.4.1 Online Auctions 243
17.4.2 Reverse Auctions 243
17.4.3 Quantity Pricing 243
17.4.4 Pricing Matching 244
17.4.5 Group Pricing 244
17.4.6 Trading Exchanges 244
17.5 Foundations of Online Revenue Management 245
17.6 Models and Algorithms for Online Revenue Management 247
17.7 Summary 249
Electronic Marketplaces and Resource Exchanges 250
18.1 Introduction 250
18.2 Electronic Marketplaces 250
18.3 Agents and Marketplaces 251
18.3.1 Partnership Formation 251
18.3.2 Brokering 252
18.3.3 Negotiation 252
18.3.4 Auctions in B2B eCommerce 253
18.4 Resource Exchanges for Service Chain Management 254
18.5 Business Scenarios for Resource Exchanges 255
18.5.1 Resource Exchange Using a Central Exchange Agent 255
18.5.2 Distributed Agent-Based Resource Exchange 257
18.5.3 A Central Auctioneer-Based Marketplace 258
18.6 Technologies for Implementation 259
18.7 Summary 260
Multi-Agent Systems for Staff Empowerment 261
19.1 Introduction 261
19.2 A Workforce Scheduling Problem 262
19.3 How to Achieve the Goals? 263
19.4 Handling Multiple Objectives 264
19.5 How to Generate a Pareto Set of Schedules? 265
19.6 Self-Interested Multi-Agent Scheduling 266
19.7 RECONNET Ò Local Search over Schedules 267
19.8 Dynamic Scheduling 268
19.9 Research Frontier 268
19.10 Summary 270
A Practical Guide to Benefit Realisation 272
20.1 Introduction 272
20.2 What Does Automation Mean? 272
20.2.1 The Scheduler 273
20.2.2 The Mobile Platform 273
20.2.3 Tracking 273
20.2.4 Device Selection 274
20.2.5 Management Information 274
20.3 What Does Benefit Achievement Mean? 275
20.3.1 Productivity Gains 275
20.3.2 Customer Service Improvements 276
20.3.3 Faster Invoicing 276
20.3.4 Standardisation 277
20.3.5 The Implementation of a Service Policy and Customer Priorities 277
20.3.6 Better Quality Work 278
20.3.7 A Better Understanding of the Real Performance of the Organisation 278
20.4 Understanding Existing Processes 279
20.5 Selecting Suppliers and Products 279
20.6 Piloting and Implementing 280
20.7 Summary 282
References 283
Index 299

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.12.2007
• Zusatzinfo: XVIII, 308 p. 74 illus.
• Verlagsort: Berlin
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Wirtschaftsinformatik
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre
• Schlagworte: Automation • business • Business Intelligence • Change • CRM • Customer Service Management • Development • Enterprise Resource Planning • Human Resources • Innovation • Management • Networks • organization • Planning • Resource Management • Service Chain Management • service-oriented computing • Technology • Workflow
• ISBN-10: 3-540-75504-7 / 3540755047
• ISBN-13: 978-3-540-75504-3 / 9783540755043