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The purpose of this paper is to further develop the construct of service platform and to clarify the definition of service platform in an industrial context. To do so, an understanding of the foundations for service platforms, based on a service perspective, is created.

The study has adopted a qualitative case study approach and builds on in-depth interviews with remote service teams in two multinational firms: one in the food processing and packaging industry and the other in the pulp and paper industry.

The foundations for successful service platforms consist of modularising resources, integrations and service processes to create value propositions. The value propositions could result in variations of a service or in variations of different services. When defining the concept service platform, the perspective of service needs to be made evident; therefore, the authors define service platform as: value proposition(s) consisting of a modular structure that invites to and facilitates value co-creation between resources, through integration opportunities in a continuous service process.

The results are based on the perspective of two suppliers in similar industries; only remote services were studied. Firms from different types of industries and other types of services could add to the research on service modularity according to a service perspective. Moreover, information about customers and other actors’ involvement on the platform was gathered from the firms studied, no customers or other actors were interviewed.

This study shows the importance of a firm involving itself in the value creation of the customer, that is, focusing on value co-creation. This implies a close cooperation between the manufacturer and its customer – not only at a given point in time but also over a longer period of cooperation. Through the different types of modules building up the service platform, value co-creation can take place in various ways.

This study offers original empirical contributions on platforms from a service perspective. The study contributes to servitisation, service modularity and service (dominant) logic research by developing an understanding of the foundations for service platforms based on a service perspective. It also contributes to platform research more specifically by developing a definition of service platform in an industrial context.

This chapter offers descriptions of many current uses of video conferencing technology for the delivery of assistive technology (AT) services at a distance. It begins with definitions of remote AT services, virtual teams and virtual teamwork and moves to a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of remote AT supports for individuals, teams and organisations. A review of research regarding the outcomes of remote services helps to clarify ways that assistive technology providers can enhance function and build agency capacity by working, at least in part, in a virtual support environment. The chapter provides a discussion of various aspects of virtual teamwork that affects how individuals work together remotely as well as potential barriers to the provision of remote AT services. Multiple examples are provided throughout as well as descriptions of specific features of video conference technology options that should be considered before adoption. A planning form for the integration of remote assistive technology supports into the array of AT support services is included.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the supportive aspects of a team approach for a remote mental health team that report high stability in senior clinical roles, in a region where voluntary turnover is typically high.

This qualitative research study examines the reflections of team members on their role and job characteristics through informal semi-structured interviews.

The extant themes identified as supportive aspects of the team approach included engagement and both personal and professional support. The intrinsic role of support in remote work environments, and the impact of intrinsic job satisfaction through client-focussed practices further supported low turnover, improved stability and consistency of service provision.

Continued support for existing experienced health professionals will contribute to workforce stability in remote regions where needs are complex and continuity of care is improved by consistent, reliable services. With health professionals working in remote Australia reporting high levels of job satisfaction; it follows that the next steps involve minimising dissatisfaction through effective workforce support mechanisms. Health professionals already working in remote regions, suggest that this is about engagement and personal and professional support through flexible work systems. While the findings of this study may not be generalisable, the authors suggest that these supportive aspects are transferable to other multi-disciplinary team settings.

Servitization centres on the transfer of risks from the customer to manufacturer. By providing real-time information about current and predicted health of a product in the field, remote monitoring technology can mitigate some of those risks. Although recognised as one of the key enablers of servitization, the mainstream servitization research community has shown very little interest in this topic. The aim is to identify and critically analyse relevant research addressing the topic of remote monitoring technology and servitization and, based on this analysis, propose an agenda to guide future research in this area.

The methodology adopted is literature review consisting of three steps: define purpose and research questions, select keywords and databases, and identify and analyse relevant papers.

Ten findings have been made, which characterise current state of research under categories of examples, benefits, and challenges of using remote monitoring technology to support servitized strategies. Several areas that call for further research are suggested, but general impression is that the understanding about the role and contribution of remote monitoring technology in service delivery and strategy is still in its infancy and much greater effort will have to be invested to change this. It is also suggested that this technology holds a great potential for service and business model innovation; hence, more research is needed to further the knowledge about these topics.

This paper qualifies as the first attempt to consolidate and analyse relevant research at the intersection of servitization and remote monitoring technology.

Original equipment manufacturers offer maintenance services such as remote diagnostics to extend their portfolio. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate requirements and expectations regarding remote services (RSs) for maintaining complex high-tech equipment from a users’ point of view.

A qualitative interview study based on 30 interviews and observations at 11 organizations in the healthcare industry was conducted in order to get a holistic understanding of requirements and expectations of the new service technology.

This study shows that the focus on providing high-technology services is not sufficient to increase customer's usage, soft factors such as personal interaction, integration, and individualization are main expectations for customers in the medical equipment industry. The expectations are concentrated in seven propositions.

The interviews were conducted only in the healthcare industry. Even though is it possible to generalize the findings and transfer them to other sectors, a large-scale empirical survey should be conducted in different industries to verify the qualitative results.

A framework for manager and service provider is set up that can help to improve the service offerings according to specific customer expectations.

The paper provides an original perspective on a new service technology that facilitates remote maintenance of complex high-tech equipment. Through in-depth interviews, the author generates valuable insights that help to advance RS technologies.

This paper aims to identify a manufacturer’s abilities to develop, build, sell and deliver Internet of Things (IoT) services.

This paper is a qualitative comparative case method that uses multiple sources of data, including executive interviews and secondary data, to understand a manufacturer’s IoT capabilities.

Five strategic IoT capabilities were identified: digital business model development, scalable solution platform building, value selling, value delivery and business intelligence and measurement.

The main limitations are related to the qualitative research method applied. The results are applicable mainly to relatively large and global manufacturers.

Managers responsible for solution business development can apply the developed model to acquire and manage IoT specific resources, processes and capabilities.

Existing studies have not addressed the IoT-specific resources, processes and capabilities that manufacturers’ possess. This is one of the first studies to conceptualize how these capabilities are used.

This chapter examines the relationship between health service restructuring and the health care experiences of women from rural and remote areas of Canada. Data were collected from 34 focus groups (237 women), 15 telephone interviews and 346 responses from an online survey. Access to services, care quality and satisfaction are salient themes in these data. Problems include: travel, shortage of providers, turnover in personnel, delays associated in accessing care, lack of knowledge of women's health issues and patronizing attitudes of some health care providers. Health care service restructuring has led to deterioration in service availability and quality. Key areas for policy development need to address health care access and quality improvement issues, including increasing access to more (particularly female) providers who are sensitive to women's health issues.

The purpose of this paper is to substantiate the necessity of marketing of remote education by the example of leading universities of Rostov Oblast of modern Russia and to develop the marketing model of promotion of remote education by the modern university.

The authors use the method of economic statistics and regression and correlation analysis. Based on the data of the single information system of the Russian Federation in the sphere of purchases, the authors selected orders of the leading universities of Rostov Oblast for access to the internet for 2017, which are the indicator of their modernization on the basis of new information and communication technologies. Based on the data of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the authors determined the incomes of the leading universities of Rostov Oblast in 2017 and their positions in the regional ranking of effectiveness of activities of universities of Rostov Oblast. These data became a statistical basis for compiling the regression curve, which reflects regression and correlation of expenditures for access to the internet and total expenditures of the leading universities of Rostov Oblast in 2017.

It is concluded that modernization on the basis of new information and communication technologies (primarily, the internet) stimulates the growth of modern university’s competitiveness. Due to this, remote education is a perspective direction of development and increase of effectiveness of modern university’s activities. The necessity for marketing of remote education is predetermined by its lower value as compared to traditional education and, accordingly, lower demand for educational services that are provided in the remote form.

The authors’ marketing model of promotion of remote education by modern university is developed and presented. The advantage of this model is harmonization of commercial and non-commercial goals and priorities of modern university’s activities, due to which balance of its social function in the economic system and its entrepreneurial function, which consists in the necessity for providing self-financing and maximization of the received profit, are ensures.

Looks at the needs to begin planning for remote access to online public access catalogs (OPACs), and to consider the special needs of the remote user – beginning at the institutional level – for example, how well does the campus network match up to the ideal service level of easy access for every faculty member and student? Considers other possibilities, such as dial access, dedicated workstations or local area networks. Makes the point that the existence of the service must be advertised, potential users of remote services are unlikely to be aware of its existence if it has not been advertised outside of the library itself. Document delivery is another important issue that needs to be addressed if the remote user is to receive satisfactory service levels.

The paper uses a questionnaire and a theoretical model of bank‐customer interaction preferences as the basis for examining the perceptions of retail bank customers regarding the use of remote delivery channels and the extent to which they still value traditional branch‐based face‐to‐face interactions. The empirical evidence suggests that despite the increase in remote banking, retail bank customers still place significantly greater emphasis on face‐to‐face contact. The implications of this finding are that if banks want to encourage widespread customer adoption of remote banking they must better understand customer attitudes towards alternative delivery channels and use this information to educate their customers on the tangible service benefits which emanate from remote delivery.