IBM India in association with S P Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai, has launched the Centre for Service Management and Engineering at the institute’s campus. The centre will simulate and analyse service delivery related processes, people and other resources in areas of manufacturing, retail, telecom, banking and financial services and technology services. It will also address the gap of a formal practice and education in Services Science Management and Engineering (SSME) for the services innovation led economy of the 21st century.

"India has been experiencing high growth in retail, communication, transportation, financial, as well as information services.  The creative capacity of the service sector for new industries and business has scarcely been tapped – the Centre for Service Management and Engineering aims to provide the basic skills in the science of services to enable a whole new set of service sector entrepreneurs, as well as more successful transformation of business performance in existing large companies," said Kevin Wright, programme director, SSME Strategic Initiatives, IBM.

The Centre for Service Management and Engineering will undertake projects from service sector companies to model, simulate and analyse in-depth process, people and other resources required to make delivery more robust, agile and cost-effective. It will further document, publish and share project outcomes in open collaborative formats under Creative Commons License.

"The Centre for Service Management and Engineering will strengthen IBM's efforts to evolve future services skills in this region while developing and implementing service innovation roadmaps," said Dr Guruduth Banavar, director - IBM India Research Laboratory.

"Employment growth will be concentrated in the services sectors of the global economy. Service design, development, marketing and delivery all require methods to make service businesses more efficient and scalable. Practitioners need depth and breadth in combinations of technology, business, and organisational studies. We at S P Jain are delighted to partner IBM towards nourishing productivity, quality, and learning and innovation rates across the service sector," said Dr Shrikanth Parikh, chairman, Steering Committee, IBM - SPJIMR SSME initiative, S P Jain Institute of Management and Research.

The centre will also organise several educational initiatives including SSME Enablement Workshops for faculty and students covering topics like service systems, service management, service productivity, service measurement, use of methods in service deliveries, service supply chain etc. Regular interactive lectures will also be held involving recognised industry subject matter experts covering solution designing, IT services management, infrastructure management etc.