The Formulation of a Servitization Strategy for Prefabricated Modula Data Center Provision by Swedish Modules in Scandinavia

Abstract

Increasingly more manufacturing companies are embracing a servitization strategy to remain competitive, surrounding their core products with many types of services that could potentially enhance the value perceived by customers, as well as establish long-term profitable relationship. Swedish Modules, which produces modules and already entered the market of Data Centers, is planning to move from its traditional business model to a servitized one. When striving for the implementation of servitization it is crucial to understand which services are really required by customers, in order to avoid the provision of services that customers are not willing to pay for. Though the support of Lean Service Creation, which is made up of seven steps aiming at guiding companies towards a successful servitization strategy, and through the answers seven selected interviewees, many services came out. The services were divided in two sections afterwards, and it emerged that the “core offering” services (meaning the expected services base that customers are expected to require just to consider the demand as competitive) are: providing monitoring and maintenance services, security devices to protect sensible information, full connection to energy and integration to company’s activities, fast delivery and consultancy during the purchase. This research aims at providing a general guideline to Swedish Modules and to other companies evaluating the opportunity of entering the market of prefabricated Modular Data Centers. Nevertheless, it does not go through all the steps required when creating a new business model, since it doesn’t deal with financial and numerical implications emerging from the implementation of a servitization strategy. Conversely, the purpose of the study is to draw the attention to customers’ drawbacks when buying prefabricated Modular Data Centers and the services that might relieve purchasers from the burden of singlehandedly taking care of some activities.