A management consulting team has been hired to advise HuStream Technologies on a new business model and target market. HuStream operates a service-based business model, providing customers with fully produced interactive video content. In the founders’ efforts to transition to a product-based business, they have built a cloud-based platform to provide easy accessibility to their company’s products and services. Using that platform, clients can produce their own interactive content. HuStream faces the challenge of transitioning from an entirely service- based business model to an entirely product-based business model. The consultancy’s task is to identify HuStream’s top business and marketing opportunities using the service-based business model and keeping within the constraints of limited funding.

A management consulting team has been hired to advise HuStream Technologies on a new business model and target market. HuStream operates a service-based business model, providing customers with fully produced interactive video content. In the founders' efforts to transition to a product-based business, they have built a cloud-based platform to provide easy accessibility to their company's products and services. Using that platform, clients can produce their own interactive content. HuStream faces the challenge of transitioning from an entirely service- based business model to an entirely product-based business model. The consultancy's task is to identify HuStream's top business and marketing opportunities using the service-based business model and keeping within the constraints of limited funding.

Increasingly, customers are expecting more and better service. As such, enterprises need guidelines and frameworks for addressing these expanding requirements. The concept of process completeness helps us to consider service from the customer's viewpoint; arguably, the only perspective to take. Process completeness is achieved when a firm's service delivery system matches the typical customer's breadth of expectations. While customers think in sets of services (e.g., I need a flight, a hotel, airport parking, wireless Internet), firms think in terms of single services (e.g., we can provide a flight). There are four basic service systems: (1) transaction-execute a basic request and nothing else, (2) process-handling all firm related service requests through one touch point, (3) alliance-handling service requests through a single touch point via stitching together a static firm-selected alliance of service partners, and (4) agility-handling service requests through a single touch point via stitching together a dynamic customer-selected alliance of service partners. In addition to exploring the four service systems, this article guides executives regarding the selection and implementation of the appropriate service strategy that meets their typical customer's process completeness expectations.

In July 2008, the co-founders of TripIt, a free online travel organizer that aggregated travelers' bookings from many top travel Websites, had recently secured $5.1 million in new financing. While the co-founders believed that their company offered travelers a unique service, they felt growing pressure from investors to show that the company could grow revenues and achieve profitability. To be profitable, TripIt needed not only to grow its user base but also generate more traveler itineraries, which was critical to obtaining advertising revenue from travel suppliers and intermediaries. The online travel industry was a hyper-active industry and while TripIt was breaking new ground, the threat of competitors was very real.