From product-centric to customer-centric services in a financial institution – exploring the organizational challenges of the transition process

This research aims to contribute to an increased understanding of the strategic, cultural and other organizational challenges in a transition process from product-centric to customer-centric services. The paper describes an exploratory case study, conducted in a complex financial services organization in the context of their customer-facing services. The transition process was examined through the theoretical lens of Work System Theory (WST), following the argument made by previous researchers that service systems could be seen as work systems. This holistic theory enabled us to capture the three key phases of the transition process as work systems snapshots and through their evolving relationships show the manner in which the transitions occurred from one phase to another. This innovative approach provided the researchers with an in-depth insight into key issues related to organizational environment, strategy, customers, products and services, processes and activities, participants, and information and technologies – all relevant for each phase of the transition process. This research contributes to both information systems (IS) and service science research, bringing the key service research priority of “service infusion” to the attention of IS researchers