Modeling service-flow

Abstract

As e-business is invading the service industry and the public sector, there is a need for a service-flow management of those processes, which consist of a sequence of interrelated sub-services. Making use of the potentials of internet applications, service-flow management aims at providing these service in an effi- cient manner, at improving customer relationship management in the field of ten- sion between routine and situated/personalized service provision, and at providing flexible IT support for service providers and/or clients at each service point. Based on object oriented, workflow and user oriented modeling techniques, we model service-flow patterns by identifying sequences of service points, each capturing the specific service tasks and their respective pre- and post-conditions from the pro- vider’s point of view. This service-flow modeling approach may be supported by the modeling tools Visio® and Process@Work. We present some results from two cases of service-flow modeling, each with a short case description and a discussion of the models’ application for technical and orga nizational development.