跨國IT企業之『產品-服務』組合演進路徑分析

Abstract

The proliferation of Internet Technology and the commoditization of Computers have been creating a major wave of IT in Worldwide basis since early 90’s. Not only the product life cycle in computer HW (Hardware) systems areas have become shorter and shorter, but also the vertical integration of HW SW (Software) and Service business have been very popular in last two decades. Some Multi-national Companies (MNC) managed to transform their companies and Product-Service portfolio and re-position their companies to address the market change successfully. However, some other firms tried to adapt to the market in very similar manner, but the financial results of the firms in past 15 years have been very poor. Why the result could be so different when they all seem to follow the similar strategy for Product-Service portfolio evolution? In this paper, we would further analyze the Evolution Path of Product-Service Portfolio for IT Multi-national companies, and then we would try to explore the areas which may affect the final results of the evolution. The Evolution Path of IT Products-Service Portfolio is actually very similar across many IT Multi-national Companies (MNC). The typical evolution path is: from HW products, to SW products, then gradually populate to fundamental product support and services, integration services and project fulfillment services (SIPS), outsourcing services, consulting services, and then the total service oriented operation management. It would be interesting to observe the IT market in past 15 years by grouping the whole period into three logical stages. During the 1990’s, the world experienced the famous dotcom booming stage, when all ITC companies enjoyed a wonderful time for growth and profitability. We can name the period during 1993-2000 as stage-1. In the second stage (stage-2), which was started with the time right after the dotcom bubble burst and crashed down in 2000/Mar until it got stabilized in 2003, all ITC companies were under huge pressure to survive or to try best to grow in the post-crisis period during 2001-2003. Then, all the survivors, who have passed the test, have made themselves ready for more growth and profit. Most of the IT companies have revitalized themselves to take more shares in the steadily growing market during 2004-2007, which is the stage-3. In fact, some IT firms have not only managed to revitalized, but also their performance in 2006-2007 have over passed their own peak performance in 2000/March. By comparing their Product-Service portfolios, the marketing communications, and the financial performance for each product types in selected sample companies during good time (1993-2000), bad time (2001-2003), and the revitalization time (2004-2007), we would like to understand and conclude some best practices for such Product-Service portfolio evolution path and the related transformation.