Seminar to help product companies move beyond traditional fix-it services

2003-04-28

Many product companies struggle when they attempt to develop and deploy new services that reach beyond the traditional 'fix it' side of their customer services operations. IBM and other firms as varied as Unisys, GE, EMC and Peoplesoft have been down the road, and many others such as Lucent and Sun are expected to follow suit as the professional services sector gains recognition as a viable revenue source for traditional product firms.

In the second in a series of seminars at The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business, managers can tap into the expertise of academic leaders who have studied this transition, as well as the experience of industry leaders who have successfully moved into the professional services realm.

The seminar, Building Professional Services: Services Strategy in a Product Company, is scheduled for June 2-4, 2003, at Fisher College's Pfahl Executive Conference Center in Columbus, Ohio. Participants will come away with frameworks that they can use to successfully define a viable services strategy for their companies.

The seminar series is sponsored by David B. Greenberger, chair of the department of management and human resources at Fisher College and academic director of computing services, and Thomas E. Lah, lead author of the book, Building Professional Services The Sirens' Song. Joseph Walton, senior vice president of services at EMC Corporation, David Standridge, Accenture Partner, and Steve Hurley, vice president of learning and development at ITSMA, are also key presenters.

They will address the following questions.

      What should I worry about when defining a services strategy?

      How do I know the strategy is viable?

      What financial model makes sense for professional services at a product company?

      How do I identify the right services portfolio?

      What are the critical success factors to making the services strategy a success?

      Where are the most likely failure points?

      How did EMC and other companies craft their service strategy?

Attendance at this event will be capped at 65, allowing for an interactive dialogue between industry and academic leaders that explores the challenges of building professional services at product-centric companies. Using EMC as a case study, participants will work interactively in small teams to learn unique tactics that can be applied immediately. They will receive practical, effective information to help senior managers build a professional service organization.

Last fall, Fisher College offered a related seminar that explored the four phases of building professional services, as well as such topics as organizational design, professional services compensation strategies, services culture, services marketing, sales and partnership strategies. Among participating companies at that time were Astute Solutions, AT&T Foundation, Brain-North America, BrassRing, Brocade, Cisco, CompuCom, EMC, IBM, ITM Software, Legend Computer, Lucent, NCR, Pretium Partners, Sarcom, SGI, Sybase, XIOtech.

Greenberger notes that one of the participants stated: "The program was very appropriate and timely. I loved the four stage model that was presented by Thomas Lah. Everything was of value."

The 2003 seminar begins with a dinner reception on Tuesday, June 2, with sessions held June 3 and 4 at the Pfahl Executive Conference Center, 280 West Woodruff Avenue
in Columbus, Ohio, on the campus of The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business. Accommodations are available at the Blackwell, the executive residence that is part of the Fisher College complex.

About the sponsors:

      David B. Greenberger, Ph.D., is chair of the department of management and human resources and academic director of computing at Ohio State's Fisher College of Business. Greenberger has published extensively in journals and books on such topics as leadership, contingent workers, mentoring, and motivation. His most recent book, Human Resource Management in Virtual Organizations, was published in October 2002.

      Thomas E. Lah, is a management consultant and lead author of the book Building Professional Services: The Sirens' Song. Lah has held many roles in both information technology and consulting over the past 16 years. He received his MBA from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.

About the key presenters:

      Joseph F. Walton is senior vice president, global services, at EMC Corporation, the world leader in information storage systems, software, networks and services. With 2002 revenues of $5.44 billion, and more than 17,000 employees worldwide, EMC is the only company 100% dedicated to delivering automated networked storage solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to manage, protect, and share their information better and more cost effectively. Walton oversees EMC services worldwide, including consulting, implementation and integration services, customer support, service delivery and quality, support tools development and deployment. He leads an organization of 6,000 highly skilled service professionals who drive a singular focus of excellence in the service experience for EMC customers.

      Stephen T. Hurley is vice president for executive education at the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), a research-based, professional association dedicated to advancing the state of the art of services marketing in the information technology industry. ITSMA conducts best practices and benchmarking research on services marketing activities and its Services Marketing Institute provides a comprehensive services marketing curriculum. Before joining ITSMA, Hurley served as director of Arthur D. Little's School of Management, where he has provided consulting assistance and management development programs to firms in over 50 countries throughout the world.

For additional details about Lah and the upcoming seminar, view online at http://fisher.osu.edu/mhr/bps/spring-2003.htm.

For additional information, please contact:

      David Greenberger, associate professor and chair, management and human resources and academic director of computing, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University; 614-292-5291; email, greenberger.1@osu.edu

      Thomas E. Lah, 614-899-9427; email, thomas@thomaslah.com