Applying science to the management of services

IBM has decided to invest in scientific analysis of services, according to Consulting, Vol. 8, March/April 2006 at 26 (by Alan Radding). Robert Morris, vice president of assets innovation at IBM Global Services, defines “services” broadly: “an instance of a provider-client interaction that creates and captures value.” Service as defined that way is exactly what in-house counsel should render.

The article claims that “[A]cademics are starting to jump on this new services approach and its application of science to what has traditionally been considered human-to-human interaction” (id. at 30). “Modeling, simulation, abstraction, measurement and metrics, and process design and analysis will emerge as core disciplines of science-based services.” “Abstraction?”