Relevant information being delivered directly where it's needed.

Services science

Globally, services science is a new and emerging area as the services sector itself grows in importance and size.

• 11 November 2009 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Growth of services sector
• Science for services

CSIRO has been involved in services research for many years.

Now steps are being taken to maximise the benefits to the Australian service sector.

Growth of services sector

The service sector is enormous. In 2008, for the first time, more of the world’s people were employed in the services sector than in all other sectors combined (UN International Labour Organisation).

In Australia, almost 80 per cent of jobs are in services.

Acceleration in productivity growth in recent decades in Australia has been dominated by the services sector (Australian Business Foundation, 2007).

While services and products can be difficult to distinguish, services are often regarded as:

• intangible
• created as they are consumed.

Services organisations are very diverse. They can be:

• public (government) or private
• small one-person businesses to the world’s biggest corporations
• local or global.

Service organisations include hairdressers, publishing houses, weather bureaus, banks, water utilities, trucking companies, movie production studios and more.

Further, organisations that aren’t primarily services-oriented may have some services activities, e.g. motor vehicle manufacturers providing car maintenance services.

Science for services

Science and technology, engineering and mathematics are embedded in many service processes, but it is often invisible to customers. Some examples include:

• car rental companies use maths to optimise use of their fleets each time a booking is made
• hospitals plan for peaks demand for emergency facilities using predictive software so they can staff them appropriately
• governments can analyse demographic data to design new social services that reduce poverty
• resource managers can use information from sensors in forests to monitor environmental change and devise strategies to cope.

Science and technology is more widely applied to innovation in industry sectors like mining, agriculture and manufacturing.

However, with services responsible for growth in GDP, employment and exports in many world economies, and because services are often knowledge-based, innovation in the services sector should also be a focus of research and development.

By fostering science and technology-led innovation for services, Australia will be better able to compete in a globalised knowledge-based economy.

Understanding complex service systems requires teams of people that combine expert knowledge of:

• information and communication technologies (ICT)
• mathematical sciences
• economics
• social sciences

CSIRO has researchers in these and other relevant fields and is able to assemble teams to meet the needs of services science challenges.

CSIRO has developed a strategy to:

• integrate services science research across its many outcome areas and
• explore new ways of delivering services science to service organisations.

Some examples of recent services science initiatives in CSIRO are:

• forming a research alliance with Centrelink, Australia’s largest government social service agency
• collaborating with state and federal government agencies such as Queensland Health in the Australian e-Health Research Centre
• conducting contract research for service companies such as Hunter Valley Coal Chain, GFI-Fenics, Opal Producers of Australia Ltd and Britz-Maui
• playing a role in developing a professional community for services science in Australia.

Learn more about Human Services Delivery Research Alliance.