Design Rules for User-Oriented IT Service Descriptions

Customers of complex IT-services increasingly demand integrated value bundles that fit their individual needs. At the same time, IT service providers are facing commoditization of their products and need to standardize their portfolios to realize economies of scale. While approaches to coping with the gap between individual customer demand and the economic necessity of standardization have a long standing tradition in mature manufacturing industries, IT-service providers still struggle with translating their standardized portfolio into a form that is understandable and relevant for their customers. This paper proposes a way of describing IT-services that follows the paradigm of a "service dominant logic". We therefore transfer "service dominant logic" to the realm of IT and propose guidelines to create customer oriented service descriptions. An excerpt of a prototype description serves as an example, how the technical, inside view on IT-services can be translated into a customer-oriented outside view.