The Swiss Institute of Service Science (SISS) is a non-profit organization consisting of experts from industry and academe who, since 2008, are dedicated to fostering service innovation in Switzerland. The goal of the SISS is to help creating new services by working together in interdisciplinary research teams. We put much emphasis on the fact that service innovation needs an interdisciplinary approach from technical, business, and human aspects. Therefore, our academic members represent disciplines ranging from psychology, business and management, marketing, ICT, Operations Management, and technology.
Our researchers work together in dynamic teams that focus on practical problems or, how I usually prefer to put it, a real-world opportunity. Typically, an industry partner is part of the project, providing the real-world background for the implementation of the scientific results. These, in turn, provide important feedback for researchers. The spirit of SISS researchers is to “contribute my own disciplinary expertise to an interdisciplinary challenge for creating the best possible outcome”. Scientific research and practical implementation work hand in hand for creating solutions that are both highly innovative and usable in the given environment. In the last years, SISS has run many such projects, and developed a tested mode of collaboration. You can find some project examples here.
Our academic members are rewarded by the opportunity to develop a real T-shaped profile through working in different contexts and with colleagues from other disciplines. For example, psychologists work together with computer scientist to create an ideal service experience, or an operations specialist cooperates with a marketing expert, while creating a service that is attractive for customers and efficient for the provider. Currently, more than 40 academics from 8 different institutes of 5 Swiss universities form the academic body of the SISS.
Because the SISS members are experienced and proficient in real interdisciplinary cooperation, we have the ability to address big interdisciplinary challenges – something that we found is very rare in the academic world. Practitioners also benefit from this unique expertise, and from the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals from industry around the topic of service innovation. An important part of the SISS activities takes place in the so-called Industrial Workgroups. These workgroups are industry-led and each one focused on a specific topic in services. An example is the workgroup on Seamless Services.