Forefront Office in Service Systems: Concept and Design

Authors

Yongyoon Suh, Department of Industrial Engineering, School of Engineering, Seoul National University, Republic of KoreaFollow
Hakyeon Lee, Department of Industrial Engineering, School of Engineering, Seoul National University, Republic of KoreaFollow
Yongtae Park, Department of Industrial Engineering, School of Engineering, Seoul National University, Republic of KoreaFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Conventionally, service systems have been considered to comprise two main offices: the front office and the back office. However, a new managerial office is needed to relate customers with technology as technology-based services play a critical role for customers prior to two main offices. Nevertheless, there is no attention to management of this new area. In this sense, this paper suggests a novel concept of the “forefront office” as the new area to represent service activities. The forefront office is defined as a service facility which allows customers to be provided with services by themselves using technology-based services prior to the front office. For design of the proposed forefront office, a modified service blueprint is proposed. Following on the design structure of the forefront office, three topologies of the forefront office are also proposed based on the modified service blueprint. The forefront office is expected to reduce labour costs and improve customer satisfaction in terms of mass customization.

Recommended Citation

Suh, Yongyoon; Lee, Hakyeon; and Park, Yongtae, "Forefront Office in Service Systems: Concept and Design" (2009). ICEB 2009 Proceedings (Macau, SAR China). 126.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/iceb2009/126