95-806 Managing Service Organizations

• 6 units

This course prepares students to make an impact in one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy - business services. It introduces students to a body of knowledge on service management. It provides a conceptual framework for problem-solving, innovation, and operational effectiveness within the context of service organizations. Through case studies, discussions, examples, and exercises the course exposes students to the principles of service management. The course covers the organizational capabilities, decision models, processes, and tools that implement those principles. The course focuses on business services such as IT, finance, human resources, and logistics. The application of information technologies and management science in service industries sets the background for discussions.

Students get a firm understanding of the nature and characteristics of services and the peculiar challenges in faced by managers with respect to services. Students also learn how to define service models and value-creation for various types of business services.

A panel of experts and managers from the industry assist in teaching this course in through guest lectures that provide practical guidance and insight in specific areas, and by reviewing students' submitted course work and providing feedback on its usefulness in a real-world setting. The panelists are from service organizations that lead the industry in best practices.

Knowledge gained in this course can be applied towards courses such as 95-839 Capability Improvement for Service Organizations, 95-838 Sourcing Management, 95-843: Service Oriented Architecture, and 95-837: IT Global Sourcing. But more importantly, as business models, market strategies, and enterprise architectures become more "service-oriented", this course aims to provide students a "sense for services" that will give them an edge at the workplace.

Note: This course also makes significant references to the Service Strategy volume of ITIL Best Practices in Service Management (Co-authors: Majid Iqbal of Carnegie Mellon and Mike Nieves of Accenture). ITIL is the de facto industry standard on IT service management adopted organizations around the world. The concepts taught in this course are now a part of the ITIL core volumes.