Service Beyond the Hype Cycle

This month we kick off our series of best practice shows with a look at the core feature of SaaS, Cloud and on-demand applications - Service. As we explored in our last article, we're going to discuss how current vendors are dealing with their service offerings, what is often lacking, and what is on the part of the vendors and the industry as a whole.

Post Show Note: We have a series of articles covering this podcast to summarize and extend the conversation on our blog here.

Our guest will be Steve Plunkett, CTO of Servitizer. Steve is a technologist and innovator with eighteen years experience. He has worked with and held leadership positions in large enterprises, service providers, network operators, product manufacturers and government agencies. Specializing in solution and service innovation he has architected systems, networks and products and worked with customers, companies and partners around the world. Steve has lead initiatives within large organisations to transition from a product to a solutions and services model. He has a strong track record of identifying emerging and disruptive technology trends and harnessing them through solution and service innovation. Steve blogs for Servitizer on - what else - the Servitizer Blog. I've already had a talk with Steve prior to the show so I know this is going to be a great conversation.

Joining us will be our panel of industry insiders:

• Luis Aburto , CEO of Scio Consulting- A veteran of international technology and engineering consulting for corporate and government clients in the U.S. and Latin America, Mr Aburto brings to Scio a passionate commitment to smart business planning and meticulous development processes and project management. A native of Morelia, Mexico who has traveled and lived across the globe, Mr Aburto holds a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a master’s in computer-aided engineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland.
• Mikael Blaisdell of Blaisdell & Associates - Mikael runs his own consultancy, Mickael Blaisdell & Associates, and writes for his Hotline Magazine. For thirty years, he has been assisting a wide spectrum of clients to improve their sustainable profitability and customer retention rates by resolving customer contact center and relationship management issues.
• Lincoln Murphy is the Founder of Sixteen Ventures and blogs on his business site. You can also find him on Twitter here and here. Lincoln Murphy brings over 15 years experience in on-demand software product development and Business Architecture, focusing exclusively on SaaS since 2004. Working with clients of all sizes, and both SaaS pure-plays and ISVs transitioning to SaaS, Lincoln helps companiesrecognize and execute on opportunities to generate or enhance revenue through the SaaS Business Architecture.

I know each one of our panelists and I'm sure they will bring more points of view and questions to our conversation than I can manage alone. Our show will stream live on Wednesday, August 18 at 8am Pacific time from our BlogTalkRadio home page and be available as a podcast shortly after. The bonus for joining us live is you get to pose questions to our guest and panelists and hear their take directly.

I hope you will join us. And by the way, I am always looking for guest and panelist suggestions so if you have one - don't hesitate to mention it in comments here.