Service Sector is considered as the growth engine of any country as it accounts to a major stake in the total GDP of the country.

With customers willing to spend more for better serviceability these sector has evolved over the years and now Serviceability is proving as the most important tool for customer retention and acquisition.

Broadly the Services market is divided in the following segments as mentioned below:

• Repair and services center for electronic, electrical, mechanical and electro-mechanical products
• Financial, Insurance, Banking and Stockbroking Services
• Entertainment Services including movie theatres, auditoriums, hotels and restaurant etc.
• Transportation ticketing for road, rail and air journey
• Customer contact centres – Domestic and International
• Software exports
• Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPOs) and Business Process Outsourcing(BPOs)

These segmentation is just shown to get a glimpses of the few Service verticals which are dominant and spread across but apart from this there are multiple organized and unorganised services which are touching our lives and without these comfort living would have been a dream.

Over the years with Services have evolved as a key driver to business growth specially in service oriented products segment and as mentioned above it is key to customer retention and loyalty

The role of ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) in transforming the service sector to achieve the desirable SLAs (Service Level Agreements) committed to the customer at the time sale is huge. Every industry vertical is investing heavily in system and processes driven by ICT so that they can

• Deliver better services to the customer
• Enhance productivity of the Service team
• Use feedback systems to improve process
• Analyse data to improve response times
• Guide the customer instantly thru multiple channels of communication namely voice, email, web, chat etc.
• Tackle competition using analytics
• Last but not the least they can be proactive rather than reactive giving the customer a feel of comfort and excellence on the services front

Having analysed the trends and upcoming technologies please find the below recommendations for the ICT solution deployment in the next generation Services sector setup.

• Since this is a multi-locations scenario the interconnect foundation must be strong enough ensuring flow of data seamlessly with minimal latency ensuring better customer experience in case of application like video conferencing etc. The back bone should be based on Service provider MPLS with last mile connectivity coming on Fiber.
• In the branches the internal LAN should be designed using cable that support 40-100G speeds from day one as the same would be required to facilitate un compressed 4K Video traffic over LAN
• All IOTs, Lighting and AV integrations devices should be POE enabled ensuring reduction in usage of power which in turn would lead to a greener solution
• Hosting of all apps can be done on Service Provider Data Center with enough resourcing to cater the traffic being generated for a period of 5 years
• Omni Channel Multimedia contact center should be deployed to facilitate customers as the same will enable them to approach help desk using any channel (voice, video, email, chat, mobile app)
• Engage in software selections which are upgrade and have open API’s to customize the solutions and app as per the requirement. The same should also have integration capabilities with upcoming technologies like Blockchain, AR and VR etc.
• Integrate back end analytics for betterment of customer services and efficient marketing
• On all of the above deploy robust, proven and stringent security policies for avoiding cybercrime incidents like hacking or data theft etc.
• For KPO/BPO smart workspaces and smart building solutions should be designed and deployed ensuring optimization of workspaces and reduction of carbon foot prints on the operational front

This is just a brief of the setup we are recommending in general for more details contact us on info@tandmconsultants.com