Services Innovation Alive and Well: Launch of SRI

It is not every day that initiatives launched by associations garner press coverage in the NY Times, Business Week, InfoWorld and CNET.  But that is just what the SSPA, and our sister association TPSA (Technology Professional Services Association), did last week with the launch of our Service Research & Innovation Initiative.  Of course, partnering with IBM and Oracle for the launch didn’t hurt.  Here are the articles:

• SSPA Press Release:  New Consortium Formed To Address Critical Gap in Services Research, Innovation and Education 
• NY Times:  New Effort to Tap Technology to Aid the Service Economy
• Business Week:  Service Innovation: The Next Big Thing
• InfoWorld: IBM, Oracle, others create services consortium
• CNET: New effort to tap tech to aid service economy

What is SRI?  In the words of the NY Times, “The aim of service science is to try to improve productivity and accelerate the development of new offerings in services, which account for about 80 percent of the United States economy and similarly large shares of other Western economies.” With involvement from mulitple universities, other associations, and private enterprise, we hope to increase visibility and funding for services science.

SRI’s first symposium, “The Challenges and Opportunities of Services Research and Innovation,” will take place at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California on May 30, 2007.  Keynote presenters include Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm; Sophie Vandebroek, president of Xerox Innovation, John Seely Brown, author of The Only Sustainable Edge and Irving Wladawsky-Berger, vice president, Technical Strategy and Innovation, IBM.

For more information about the SRI Symposium or to become a member of SRI, visit http://www.thesri.org/ or email info@thesri.org.

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