Business services are activities that help businesses in subjects like consulting, banking, insurance, transportation and cleaning. They are a very large industry and are essential to the economy. In fact, many countries are largely dependent on the service industry for their growth.
Business-to-business (B2B) services are a form of business services that take place between trade organizations. This is different from business to consumer and business to government services. For example, a car manufacturer performs B2B transactions with a wholesaler to get the tires, rubber hoses and other parts needed to build vehicles.
Unlike goods, which are stored for use at some point in the future, services are consumed or practiced on demand. This is why they are considered intangible, and not tangible, as they do not have a physical form. Services are also not scalable because they cannot be stored. They can be provided in person, via a digital platform or through a combination of both.
In addition to providing convenience, shared services have many benefits for organizations including improved communication, increased flexibility and cost savings. They are also helpful during mergers and acquisitions, making it easier to integrate business functions.
To realize the full potential of a business service, it is important to understand how the service is delivered. This includes identifying what service delivery concerns it addresses and which ones it ignores. To address these, we propose a new method to identify and define candidate business services that builds on existing methods by employing situational method engineering.