IBM, ISB launch major science service drive

The IBM Corporation and the Indian School of Business (ISB) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for jointly developing research in service science, management and engineering (SSME) in India. As a part of this initiative, ISB and IBM will create cutting-edge research and develop case studies to streamline service processes for replicating them across industries.

IBM's Executive Vice-President (innovation and technology) Nick Donofrio said service science will eventually become part of the curriculum of all disciplines. "The whole area of services needs to be developed in a different fashion in the 21st century," he said, adding that the researchers at the IBM's two research laboratories in India were focusing on service science.

Signing the MoU, ISB Dean Rammohan Rao said the collaboration with IBM was an "excellent" beginning for the ISB in service science. "The idea behind the initiative is to open borders and develop it into a new discipline. As we go along, we will also rope in other institutions," Donofrio said.

According to IBM India Research Laboratory director Daniel M Dias, the aim of the agreement is to support ISB to open the SSME programme, which includes high-end research, development of case studies and curriculum for executive education and the postgraduate programme in management so that the discipline of service science can be developed.

Executive Director of Centre for Global Logistics and Manufacturing at the ISB Viswanadham said the first-of-its-kind SSME programme would focus on globally disbursed services and developing mathematical models before coming out with executive programmes.

The SSME collaboration, Viswanadham said, would offer an academic way of understanding interactions between client and provider, using a mix of scientific and business concepts to focus on areas that might not be core in either a masters of business administration or a computer-science programme.

ISB stated that services now accounted for more than 50 per cent of the labour force in Brazil, Russia, Japan and Germany and over 75 per cent of the labour force in India, the US and the UK. The shift to services had created a skills gap, especially in the area of high value services, and many leading universities across the globe have begun exploring and investing in this area.