What Are Business Services?
Business services are activities, processes or solutions that support core business functions. They can help companies gain access to specialized expertise, foster innovation, and improve operational efficiency and competitiveness. These non-tangible offerings are crucial for businesses to thrive in today’s complex and interconnected world.
A wide variety of industries rely on business services, including IT, financial, HR, marketing, and consulting. However, the fastest-growing sector is IT and information management. As technology and digitalization transform the business landscape, these sectors are developing fast to meet new market demands.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for careers in these fields is very positive, with a projected employment growth of 2.1% from 2020 to 2030. Many of these jobs offer great career opportunities for people who enjoy working in a dynamic and challenging environment.
The responsibilities of a business service vary depending on the industry, but all provide vital support to company operations. For example, IT and information management businesses provide technical support services to other business systems and departments, while accounting, taxation, and payroll companies keep track of a company’s finances. The supply chain management industry helps ensure that a business has the necessary materials to operate and sell its products, while the marketing and advertising industry promotes a company’s brand and message.
In addition to helping businesses achieve their strategic objectives, business services also improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. Outsourcing non-core services to specialist providers allows companies to focus on their strengths. In the process, they can leverage their competitive advantage by gaining access to specialized expertise and innovative ideas that would not be possible with an in-house team.
An important aspect of the value of business services is how they can be delivered to customers and users in a highly flexible and customizable way. This is reflected in the growing popularity of cloud computing and the use of microservices for the delivery of business services. These tools enable organizations to scale and adapt quickly to changing business requirements and the needs of customers.
Despite the rapid growth of the business services sector, there are several challenges that need to be addressed. These include the lack of a well-defined and standard definition of business services, as well as a gap between the current state of business service management and the future requirements of the business.
To address these challenges, a business services framework that combines the best of existing identification methods and a contemporary business perspective is needed. In this paper, we present a novel approach for business services identification and define the key characteristics of business services that need to be taken into account when identifying them. This framework can be applied to any industry and help businesses identify the right set of services to meet their unique requirements. In addition, the framework can be used to identify business services and their dependencies more effectively, which is critical for designing the right IT architecture.