Camelot Consulting Group

* Service Bureaus.

Service Bureaus keep things running. They provide ongoing services reliably and efficiently. This building block includes manufacturing, customer service, and the range of support services.

There are two types of Service Bureaus:

Machine-based own and operate infrastructure to provide services to others.

People-based provide ongoing support services which are produced by people rather than the infrastructure itself.

Machine-based Service Bureaus own and operate shared-use infrastructure. (The word "machine" is intended in the most metaphorical sense, to include hardware, software, and information.) The services they sell are based on access to their infrastructure; the people are there to ensure that the machines run properly.

In a corporation, this is the manufacturing function. In IT, this includes the computer center, telecommunications network operations, and the telephone system.

Machine-based Service Bureaus buy the equipment in their factories (from Technologists). They own and operate this equipment to produce services for others. They are not experts in the design of the equipment; instead, they're expert in operating it to produce their services.

The contrast between Technologists and Machine-based Service Bureaus is illustrated by Boeing versus American Airlines, and Sun Microsystems versus America Online.

Machine-based Service Bureaus adjust the parameters built into the solutions they own, and follow procedures for their use and problem resolution. But if any changes to the design of the infrastructure are needed, Machine-based Service Bureaus buy help from Technologists.

People-based Service Bureaus provide services produced by people rather than machines. Equipment, such as computers, is employed only to make the people more productive at tasks they conceivably could do manually.

There are three types of functions which are categorized as People-based Service Bureaus:

1. Services to clients that enhance the organization's primary product line. The most common example is customer service (help desk or hotline).

2. Services to others within the organization to leverage their time and enhance their abilities. Examples include project management advice, field technicians that act on behalf of other product lines, and administrative services.

3. The organization may also include a few other relatively small functions that can be considered support to staff. These are entire businesses within a business that produce goods and services not specifically related to the organization's product line. Examples include procurement, education services, departmental finance, and departmental human resources.

This third type of People-based Service Bureau offers a product line that's outside the mainstream of the organization. It doesn't directly produce the products and services which the organization sells to its clients. Its role is indirect; it helps others in the organization produce their product lines. And, although it includes specialists in other disciplines, it is still considered a People-based Service Bureau rather than a Technologist.

Type-three People-based Service Bureaus are independent lines of business, and may be large enough to include all of the building blocks. Nonetheless, from the perspective of the organization in question, they are considered People-based Service Bureaus.

As much as Technologists love change -- good ones will pursue with excitement every new product that comes along -- Service Bureaus are the opposite. Responsible for stability, responsiveness, reliability, security, low cost, and attention to detail, they change only when it's safe.

Service Bureaus seek continuous improvements on the margin, but are not generally proponents of major changes that might disrupt their operational efficiency.

Service Bureaus provide the operational foundation for the organization.

As you drill down in the structure, Service Bureaus are divided by the services they offer. In manufacturing, for example, groups can specialize in making certain products, but jobs should not be defined by tasks on an assembly line (the difference between teams that make cars and individuals on a line that do repetitive tasks).