Technology Services Offerings Demystified: What is Services Product Management

Ever since I took on the role to lead the Services Product Management organization, I’ve had many people ask me:

How is Services Product Management different than Product management, and what are your products?

The simplistic answer is my products are the delivery team’s time packaged in a way that helps customers achieve specific objectives in a repeatable fashion, also called services offerings.

Technology services offerings typically include services that help organizations optimize their technology infrastructure, improve processes and operations, or achieve business values through the use of tools and technology. These services can include advisory, implementation, training, and support work. Technology services offerings are usually tailored to the specific needs of the customer, and the delivery of these services often involves a significant amount of collaboration and/or customization.

Comparing to software product offerings, they refer to pre-packaged software applications or platforms that are designed to solve specific problems or meet specific needs, and they are typically sold on either a subscription basis or as a one-time purchase. Unlike technology services offerings, software products are not tailored to individual customers, but are instead designed to be used by a wide range of users.

Photo by Frank Leuderalbert on Unsplash

Technology Services product management and software product management share many similarities, as both involve managing the development, launch, and ongoing evolution of a product.

• Product roadmap development: Both technology services and software products require a clear roadmap that outlines the development and launch timeline, as well as the features and capabilities that will be included. I might even add that, in many cases, the Services product roadmap is tightly coupled with the product roadmap.
• Market research: Both require market research to understand customer needs and evaluate the competition. In some cases, the product market understanding could come from the services delivery of the product and getting a better understanding of the usage.
• Customer feedback: Both rely on customer feedback to continuously improve the product and ensure that it is meeting customer needs.
• Pricing and packaging: Both require consideration of pricing and packaging options, including the development of pricing models, packaging options, and pricing tiers.

I view technology Services offerings and software Product offerings as 2 sides of the same coin and can complement each other to provide a complete solution for customers.

Here are top 3 scenarios where Services and Product offerings make the perfect marriage.

1. Product usage:
   In this scenario, the technology services organization offers implementation and training services for a software product of which they have a deep knowledge. The services team would work with the customer to ensure that the software product is set up correctly, and that the customer has the necessary skills to use it effectively.
2. Customization
   In this scenario, a product is designed and released to solve a common problem, for example: data migration. But the actual implementation would vary from organization to organization depending on where the data sits, how it is organized, what type of infrastructure supports it, and what type of access and security is around it. This requires a customization using the software product and adding on additional expertise and skills to help customize it to each customer’s specific environment and setup.
3. On-going support
   When products get refreshed or updated, some times these changes are large enough that additional help is needed. For example, we see many applications are moving from on-premise environment to the cloud. But the people who currently run the applications are not experts in cloud migration. In this scenario, the services team can help customers containerize their application, migrate the data, and provide ongoing support and maintenance services to help customers keep their software up-to-date and running smoothly.

In all these scenarios, the combination of technology services and software product offerings provide customers with a complete solution that addresses all of their needs, from implementation and training to support and maintenance. By working together, these offerings can help customers get the most value from their technology investments and achieve their business goals.

This blog is the beginning of a larger series of blogs that dives deeper into services offering management. Some planned topics currently include:

• What are the key components in a Services offering?
• Offerings vs. custom SOW
• Challenges in creating great Services offerings

If there is a specific topic you would like me to discuss, please feel free to post in the comments section.