Concept Design for Image Analysis Services
Ackerman, Emil (2011)
Ackerman, Emil
2011
Tuotantotalouden koulutusohjelma
Teknis-taloudellinen tiedekunta - Faculty of Business and Technology Management
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2011-11-09
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201202271041
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201202271041
Tiivistelmä
This study was conducted in order to support the commercialization efforts on image analysis in the Computational Systems Biology (CSB) Research Group at Tampere University of Technology. The research question of this study was the following: How should the CSB research group utilize its image analysis expertise in order to meet the needs of the potential customers via service? The objective was to provide the CSB research group recommendations as to how their image analysis expertise could be harnessed into a service. Fulfilling the objective was done by designing a service concept and service resource structure based on the needs of potential customers.
Literature review revealed that despite the claimed importance of service concept for new service development no significant research on designing a service concept exists. For this constructive single case study, a multi-method qualitative approach was chosen to discover and understand the needs of potential customers before designing the service concept. The perspective of the study was that of pre-commercial professional B2B services relying heavily on technological expertise. A questionnaire was sent to 229 companies of pharmaceutical industry in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to gather information from potential customers. After that, 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted with pharmaceutical companies and health care laboratories in Finland to explore their research and operations related needs. Tools created for understanding customer value were utilized to analyze the information collected and models of service concept from service literature were taken advantage of in the design phase. Moreover, the designed service concept was tested by interviewing potential customers.
It was discovered that the companies participating in the study ultimately value high quality, reliability, and speed of research. Moreover, a continuum of image analysis related needs was observed, namely, documentation, image analysis, and data analysis needs. The service concept was designed to meet these three classes of needs of the preclinical side of pharmaceutical industry and health care laboratories by offering customers a customized image documentation system combined with external image and data analysis services. The designed ideal resource structure included elements such as relationships with imaging equipment manufacturers and image analysis expertise fit for commercial needs. The CSB research group can utilize the recommended service concept in commercializing their image analysis expertise. Further areas for development for the group include the details of service operations and extensive commercial analysis of the service concept. Alongside meeting its objective, this study empirically elaborated the creation of a service concept and its respective resource structure including e.g. customer value exploration and designing service offering based on the needs of potential customers. Nevertheless, more research is needed to develop best practices for service concept development. /Kir12
Literature review revealed that despite the claimed importance of service concept for new service development no significant research on designing a service concept exists. For this constructive single case study, a multi-method qualitative approach was chosen to discover and understand the needs of potential customers before designing the service concept. The perspective of the study was that of pre-commercial professional B2B services relying heavily on technological expertise. A questionnaire was sent to 229 companies of pharmaceutical industry in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to gather information from potential customers. After that, 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted with pharmaceutical companies and health care laboratories in Finland to explore their research and operations related needs. Tools created for understanding customer value were utilized to analyze the information collected and models of service concept from service literature were taken advantage of in the design phase. Moreover, the designed service concept was tested by interviewing potential customers.
It was discovered that the companies participating in the study ultimately value high quality, reliability, and speed of research. Moreover, a continuum of image analysis related needs was observed, namely, documentation, image analysis, and data analysis needs. The service concept was designed to meet these three classes of needs of the preclinical side of pharmaceutical industry and health care laboratories by offering customers a customized image documentation system combined with external image and data analysis services. The designed ideal resource structure included elements such as relationships with imaging equipment manufacturers and image analysis expertise fit for commercial needs. The CSB research group can utilize the recommended service concept in commercializing their image analysis expertise. Further areas for development for the group include the details of service operations and extensive commercial analysis of the service concept. Alongside meeting its objective, this study empirically elaborated the creation of a service concept and its respective resource structure including e.g. customer value exploration and designing service offering based on the needs of potential customers. Nevertheless, more research is needed to develop best practices for service concept development. /Kir12