Service science in top IT vendors

Abstract

When Service science, management, and engineering (SSME) was introduced in the mid-2000s, top IT vendors, IBM, HP, and Oracle were very aggressive and established research organizations and standardization organizations. But today, it seems that they have changed their course. IBM says it plans to expand Pre-tax Income margins through a shift to higher value material, namely, Software. HP's CEO, Meg Whitman, said in her interview on February 20, 2014 that “We are doubling down on Hardware”. Oracle joined in creating an industry consortium called the Service Research and Innovation Initiative (SRII). But we can't find its name on SRII Management team. As for their sales goods (materials) aspects, all of them are eagerly selling so-called converged infrastructure products, which consist of server, storage, network, and management software, and are featuring UX (user experience) interface to realize self-service system. They put strong emphasis on cloud system, which enable users to construct their systems more easily than before without the help from Services or Solutions Providers. But, these phenomena do not mean that SSME became past relic for IT vendors but mean that IT vendors are trying to develop holistic service systems. Third Platform, which is defined by IT Research consultancies and includes Mobility, Cloud, Social, IoT (Internet of Things) and Big Data as key components, makes it possible to realize its arrival. In this paper, We overview what is really happening in IT industry and discuss a mechanism about why Third Platform makes it possible to invite a new era through the holistic view of Service Science framework. The way to discuss the above topic is simple. I used basic Holistic Systems Science approach, i.e., fixed the perspective and methodology at first, then case-studied IT vendors' activities, and at last analyzed them. The curious thing is that personal behavior seems to affect whole system, namely, IT vendor's activity more intensely than we usually expect and that whole system (environment) affects personal behavior vice versa.