What is Services: Science, Management, and Engineering?


Services: Science, Management Engineering (SSME) is a collaboration between the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), the Haas School of Business, the Berkeley College of Engineering and the Berkeley School of Information. The collaboration has two parts: an innovative curriculum and a research program, both of which target the services sector.


The goal of the collaboration is to prepare students to thrive in a services economy and to advance a new science that examines the configurations of people, technology, and business. Specifically, SSME will use services as a context to understand:
- how knowledge is generated from data (science)
- how that knowledge is used to create things of value (engineering), and
- how the processes of converting knowledge to things of value can be improved, administered, and /or optimized (management).


Why services?


Services account for roughly 80% of the US economy (US 2005 Census), roughly 70% or more of the GNP of developed countries, and an increasingly large part of developing economies. What was once a "catch-all" economic classification, services now account for the lion's share of economic growth and encompass the breadth of jobs from beauticians and custodians to management consultants, accountants, physicians, and entertainers.


Moreover, many firms are under increasing pressure from globalization, automation, self-service, and the ease and speed with which service chains can be assembled to enable strong competitive threats to emerge quickly. (Karmarkar, 2004) Firms can also no longer control the pace or direction of technological innovation; new technologies are being developed in many places besides the corporate R&D labs of the leading US and Western corporations. The new competitors have created network organizational models that increase their innovative capacity and sensitivity to users in defining new products and applications. This customer-led process has turned the old world upside down because it requires opening corporate boundaries to collaborative design and production, the devolution of decision-making within the organization, as well as utilization of resources located around the globe. These organizational models are co-evolving with new technologies and system architectures such as web services and networks of intelligent sensors that enable enterprises to become more flexible and responsive to these new business challenges. (Glushko, 2006)


Many UC Berkeley graduates, who will go on to work in the services sector, will face these profound effects on the competitiveness of corporations and on their work and life styles. For example, the odds of a Haas School of Business graduate working in knowledge-intensive industry is 7 in 10, and those who work in product-focused industries will likely face the dilemma of transforming to a service model. (Chesbrough, 2006) Research in this area will inform a diverse curriculum, which in turn will prepare students by providing them a sound grounding in the policies, methods, technologies and tools of service innovation. The formal study of the services life cycle, service engineering and delivery, business strategy, accounting and finance, services operations and innovation, document engineering, and many other fields will help prepare the next wave of innovators to contribute to and thrive in a services economy.

 

What is the SSME Certificate?


The Haas School of Business, the Berkeley School of Information, and the Berkeley College of Engineering aim to field a unified SSME curriculum in the Fall of 2006 and to offer a certificate to a Masters degree. The the Certificate in Services: Science, Management, and Engineering will attest to the graduate's specialization in an SSME academic track and his or her completion of the following courses:


- 2 core courses (6 units):

  • The Information and Services Economy ' a course that examines how firms change over time and the mechanisms by which they seek innovation and advantage, what organizational forms this advantage and adaptation may take, and what mechanisms they employ. The lenses of economics, engineering, law, and organizational sociology will be used for the evaluation of successful adaptations.
  • Information and Business Architecture ' a course that complements the first course with a more pragmatic focus on the services lifecycle, and emphasizes the disciplines of information technology, computer science, operations research, business strategy, accounting and finance,and user-centered design.

- 1 lecture series (1 unit), and


- 2-3 courses from a pool of ~ 20 approved elective courses in a wide range of disciplines involved in the
creation, management, and engineering of services.


The certificate program is modeled loosely on the Management of Technology (MOT) program that is jointly offered by the three schools.


Where can I get more information?


Individuals who will be of assistance:


  • Ravi Nemana, Executive Director for Services: Science, Management and Engineering rnemana@eecs.berkeley.edu

  • Academic Advisory Board Members
    • Henry Chesbrough Adjunct Professor, Haas School of Business
    • Robert Glushko Adjunct Professor, I-School
    • Rhonda Righter Professor, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
    • Shankar Sastry NEC Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director, Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS)
    • Annalee Saxenian Dean, I-School

Web resources:


http://isd.ischool.berkeley.edu
http://services.citris-uc.org