Hello service researchers of the world,

hope you all did a great job in commenting on the Cambridge/IBM discussion paper. If so, I can now go on and tell you about the next event on the Service Innovation Journey:

 Already on October 25th, 2007, the community met in Stuttgart to explore the Fraunhofer IAO’s “magic” ServLab and how service innovators like the Accor hotel chain uses it to prototype its new hotel check-in processes. But let me start from the beginning:

The Fraunhofer IAO is part of the overall Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. The IAO focuses on innovations in industrial engineering. To learn more about them or their ideas and concepts you might want to consult their website or ideas brochure.

One of their compelling innovations is the ServLab – a lab that offers service firms an environment for service prototyping. There is some cool technology behind that provides 3-D-feeling and offers a virtual version of the customers own service context (e.g. the hotel lobby where a new check-in process should be put into place). However, I think, the technology is not the key. The fascination comes from the communication it triggers. Suddenly invisible service innovations become tangible, understandable. The whole spectrum that protoyping allows as a communication tool for the product development world now opens up for service innovation.

However, I don’t have to try to explain why I am fascinated by this new communication tool that opens up a whole new range of options for service prototyping. Just have a look at the

• ServLab video or
• ServLab leaflet

where Walter Ganz, the father of the new tool, explains how it works.

All the best for now!

   Kathrin

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!