The Role of Information Technology in the Provision of Services

James I. Cash, Jr. is exploring the role of information technology in service management. Specifically, he is studying the implications of the ubiquity of information technology at three levels in service-providing organizations. (In the United States today, service firms account for fully 70 percent of information technology sales.) At the level of the individual, the portability of communicating technologies has led to their increasing deployment among front-line service providers. How effective is such deployment for customers and employees, and do they perceive the effectiveness? At the level of the organization, applications of information technology are transforming traditional approaches to communi-cation and coordination and control of business activities and work processes. Is the orientation of these applications empowerment or control? If empowerment, of whom: customers, employees, or both? At the interorganizational and industry levels, perhaps the most prominent effect of information technology is the blurring of traditional company and industry boundaries, which is facilitating disintermediation and new forms of market access, as illustrated by the growing use of the Internet for business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and intrabusiness communication. What does the shift from face-to-face to screen-to-face delivery of information-based services mean for the average person? To what extent is individually customized service delivery enabled? Besides attempting to answer these and other crucial questions, Cash is also considering the organic nature of interlinked information systems that accumulate experience over time. The continually growing database implicit in such systems promises to be an important source of competitive advantage in service businesses.