Mastering Professional Services

Companies worldwide continue to seek new growth opportunities by establishing professional services to complement their current company portfolio. These professional service organizations are being chartered to secure high margin streams of revenue, improve customer satisfaction, and solidify customer loyalty. However, many of these companies have little experience building and managing a professional services organization. This lack of experience is creating incredible organizational pain. Not just product companies are struggling in their attempts to create profitable and effective professional service organizations. System integrators and value added resellers that must incorporate complicated technologies into their service offerings are struggling to scale service capabilities. Outsourcing and managed service providers that now want to provide consultative support are learning there are significant differences in these service lines. Many times, the current professional service strategy for these companies is simply not sustainable. Mastering Professional Services is the first book to guide acompany through the process of designing a viable services strategy that complements a broader company portfolio. From the author of Building Professional Services: The Siren's Song, this book continues the tradition of providing practical tools and techniques to manage professional services when it is not the core offering of the company.

Thomas E. Lah has held many roles in both Professional Services and I/T over the past seventeen years. Previous roles include Director of Solutions Engineering, Business Development Director, Regional Sales Director, and Senior I/T Development Manager. Thomas currently consults with companies to establish or improve their professional services organization. Clients include Convergys Inc, Emerson, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, IKON Office Solutions, Lucent Technologies, and Genesys Labs. In the Spring of 2004, Thomas was invited to China by Zhejiang University to lecture on the topic of building professional services. Building Professional Services: The Sirens' Song has been adopted by several Chinese companies, including Lenovo, one of the largest technology companies in China. Thomas is also actively engaged with The Ohio State University to host an executive education program focused on frameworks and strategies to successfully build professional services at product-centric companies.