Business services are activities that help organizations but do not produce a tangible commodity. For example, information technology (IT) is a business service but it does not provide hardware or software products. Instead, it helps improve processes within a company by aligning IT assets with the needs of employees and customers. This is known as business value alignment. IT service management is an important business service that can help a company reduce costs and increase productivity.
A business can sell its Business services to other companies (Business-to-business or B2B) or directly to end consumers. For the former, the most common type of Business service is consulting services. These are offered to help companies develop strategies, implement IT infrastructure, and develop organizational structure. Business services can also include training and development programs.
For the latter, a Business service may be a software product that enhances features and upgrades security on a company or individual’s technological devices, such as computers or mobile phones. Software services are an important business service that can reduce the cost of operating a business by eliminating the need for employees to manually perform certain tasks.
The success or failure of a Business service depends on whether it gets four things right. These are defining what the service is for, designing the Service to achieve its intended goal, balancing the Service components and understanding the business context in which the Service operates. The most successful business services have a working plan that incorporates all four elements.