The Management of Service Business

By focusing on the management aspects of the service business for large systems and installations, this book aims at closing the gap in technical literature regarding this subject. It covers all relevant management aspects of this business, like strategy, planning, sales, competition, contracts, and operations. It further gives hints for setting up an international service business and explains the role of of technology and innovation. This second edition includes two new chapters. The fist introduces a new approach for expressing the value of service in monetary terms. The second presents a methodology for valuating a service business. The book addresses systems and installations companies and their service departments, providing them guidance on how to improve the capitalization on the service opportunities yielded by their own installations and to establish service as a strong business pillar generating solid revenues. It also provides valuable information for generic service companies with no own installations business. Target readers are as well customers who operate large systems and installations, to help them in finding the best possible service provider for their technical assets. For suppliers and customers, the book gives advice on how to establish a trustful customer-supplier relationship. Finally, the book addresses young people at the starting point of a manager career in the field of technical services.