Service 4.0: The 21st Century Business Toolkit to Innovation

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Service 4.0 Transformation (52-slide PowerPoint presentation). Services companies are changing the way they offer and deliver services, driven by customer demands for a more customized, proactive, omnichannel, integrated, and data-driven service and enabled by emerging Digital Technologies. This is known as Service 4.0 Transformation. By undergoing Service [read more]

Also, if you are interested in becoming an expert on Digital Transformation, take a look at Flevy's Digital Transformation Frameworks offering here. This is a curated collection of best practice frameworks based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. By learning and applying these concepts, you can you stay ahead of the curve. Full details here.

* * * *

New digital upstarts are threatening the bottom lines. Even growth prospects and traditional business models are now being threatened. Incumbents are receiving persistent demands from the market to innovate or be left behind.

The service landscape is changing. Companies are now being caught in the midst of a changing service landscape that requires innovative shifts in approaches and systems. Being unprepared can be detrimental to the company’s business continuity. Companies must strive to keep afloat. This can be done when companies learn to retool themselves can they remain competitive during the new industrial era.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution: The 4IR

We are at the beginning of a revolution that is fundamentally changing the way we live, work, and relate to one another. Coined by the Word Economic Forum (WEF) in 2016, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is the fourth major industrial era since the initial Industrial Revolution of the 18th century.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is fundamentally different.

• It has a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital, and biological worlds.
• It is impacting all disciplines, economics, and industries.
• It is challenging ideas about what it means to be human.

The resulting shifts and disruptions mean that we live in a time of great promise and great peril. But control is still within us. We just need to collaborate across geographies, sectors, and disciplines to grasp the opportunities 4IR and Service 4.0 presents. New demands are impressed on companies with the advent of the new service landscape

Getting Ready for the New Service Landscape

Service businesses are now under threat. There is a new wave of digital upstarts that capitalize on changes in technology, customer behavior, and data. Available data is now creating innovative, customer-friendly alternatives to the services companies offer.

Four evolving trends has revolutionized the New Service Landscape.

• There are now higher customer expectations. Customers now demand greater involvement, customization, personalization, and mobility from services with immediate results. All industries are now expected to have cutting-edge service innovations.
• The rise of the mobile internet. With the rise of mobile internet, growth opportunities, reduced cost of developing services, and lowered barriers to entry have been unlocked.
• Companies now have access to big data and advanced analytics where insights from massive, previously untapped sources can now be  drawn.
• The Internet of Things. With internet, real time service delivery in B2B applications can now be facilitated. Companies can now create proactive, touchless services and new commercial models.

The evolving trends have shifted dramatically the nature of service and the pace of change that is evolving. Today, mastering the traditional aspects of service delivery will no longer be enough. Companies must continue to keep watch of evolving trends to remain upfront in terms of competition. There is now the urgent call for breakthrough actions. Companies must need to redefine service offerings, harness digital technology and improve customer experience.

Moving from Service 1.0 to Service 4.0

The Service Industry has evolved from Service 1.0 to Service 4.0 today.

The benefits of mastering the shifts in Service Innovation is significant. Companies must realize that services account for ¾ of global growth. Those that can evolve quickly are in a better position to capture this growth. However, traditional companies may face certain dilemma. Unable to meet the new service landscape can result into traditional companies facing growing pressures from digital attackers.

The 3 Critical Imperatives in Service Innovation

There are 3 Critical Imperatives that can prepare our company against shifts in Service Innovation. Pursuing these imperatives will prepare our company against any challenges we that we meet during the 4th Industrial Revolution and allow us to undertake our own Service Transformation.

1. Institutionalize Service Innovation

Institutionalizing Service Innovation can build corporate’s capability to come up with creative solutions. Services, like products, also have a shelf life. Customer demand evolves, service expectations change, and technological advances constantly bring new possibilities. It is therefore important for service to be periodically examined and refreshed.

2. Personalize the Customer Experience (CX)

Traditional companies focus on customer segments to understand customer needs better. However, personalizing customer experience can direct companies to achieve market leadership. With massive new datasets and mobile device, services can now be personalized cost effectively to a much higher degree. Partnership with retailers can be forged to create personalized, real time discounts for products and services through a mobile app. Companies can collaborate with social media players undertaken to draw on the preferences of participating customers.

3. Simplify Service Delivery

Simplifying service delivery is the call of the 21st century customer. Digital attackers now tend to thrive on simplicity. With new technology combined with process improvement, it makes services straightforward and more pleasing. Simplifying service delivery systems enhance operational productivity and enrich customer experience.

Service 4.0 is revolutionizing service to meet changing consumers demand. Being unable to evolve with the new service landscape can spell a big difference between business continuity or closure.

Interested in gaining more understanding on how to achieve an effective Service Innovation? You can learn more and download an editable PowerPoint about Service 4.0: Service Innovation here on the Flevy documents marketplace.

Do You Find Value in This Framework?

You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:

“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”

– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects

“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”

– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting

“As a small business owner, the resource material available from FlevyPro has proven to be invaluable. The ability to search for material on demand based our project events and client requirements was great for me and proved very beneficial to my clients. Importantly, being able to easily edit and tailor the material for specific purposes helped us to make presentations, knowledge sharing, and toolkit development, which formed part of the overall program collateral. While FlevyPro contains resource material that any consultancy, project or delivery firm must have, it is an essential part of a small firm or independent consultant’s toolbox.”

– Michael Duff, Managing Director at Change Strategy (UK)

“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”

– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd

“Several times a month, I browse FlevyPro for presentations relevant to the job challenge I have (I am a consultant). When the subject requires it, I explore further and buy from the Flevy Marketplace. On all occasions, I read them, analyze them. I take the most relevant and applicable ideas for my work; and, of course, all this translates to my and my clients’ benefits.”

– Omar Hernán Montes Parra, CEO at Quantum SFE

Want to Achieve Excellence in Digital Transformation?

Gain the knowledge and develop the expertise to become an expert in Digital Transformation. Our frameworks are based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. Click here for full details.

Digital Transformation is being embraced by organizations of all sizes across most industries. In the Digital Age today, technology creates new opportunities and fundamentally transforms businesses in all aspects—operations, business models, strategies. It not only enables the business, but also drives its growth and can be a source of Competitive Advantage.

For many industries, COVID-19 has accelerated the timeline for Digital Transformation Programs by multiple years. Digital Transformation has become a necessity. Now, to survive in the Low Touch Economy—characterized by social distancing and a minimization of in-person activities—organizations must go digital. This includes offering digital solutions for both employees (e.g. Remote Work, Virtual Teams, Enterprise Cloud, etc.) and customers (e.g. E-commerce, Social Media, Mobile Apps, etc.).

Learn about our Digital Transformation Best Practice Frameworks here.