We were profiled today by The Phoenix , a local newspaper and I think it was very well written on our approach to service design. Here’s the article…

New Start-up Focuses on ‘Service Design’

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 8:39 AM EDT

By G.E. Lawrence

MALVERN — For Charlestown resident Bob Cooper and Frontier Service Design LLC, the most interesting part of finding ways to add to a company’s bottom line is its intellectual challenge.

"We want to work with clients who know what they know, and more importantly, know what they don’t know," Cooper says. Clients who are "eager to find a knowledgeable and experienced partner who will help them know what they don’t know."

That’s no Zen koan: it’s a principle of a business model emerging out of Cooper’s over two decades working with corporate clients, and discovering along the way undiscovered value in what they do — leading to the development of new and consistent revenue streams.

"The most fun and profitable relationships for everyone," Cooper says, are those "where we really get inside the business, understand the culture and the people, and really make a difference through service design."

"Service design?" Yes, the focus is on "service," in a national economy in which 70 percent of gross domestic product is in services, not products — but on the services surrounding manufacture, as well.

His new company, Cooper says, takes "an approach to help companies design, prototype and launch" service innovations, by getting to know a company’s processes thoroughly, and applying good ideas and best practices across industries, developing in the end "new and recurring revenue streams.

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Frontier Service Design Helps Avanceon Create New Revenue Channel:
24/7 Remote Monitoring Service Assures Factory Up-time and Productivity

Background : Since 1984, Avanceon, Inc. has designed and integrated factory automation systems for large manufacturers in both discrete and process industries. Essentially, Avanceon creates the “central nervous system” of a factory, connecting sensors to all components along the manufacturing line to monitor the health and well-being of the entire operation. As in most industries, downtime in a manufacturing plant dramatically impacts delivery deadlines and company profit margins. However in a process industry – such as petrochemicals or pharmaceuticals where each step depends on the next – time equals money and downtime is costly.

Over the past few years, organizations have implemented a series of strategic initiatives to reduce downtime associated with the growing complexity and interdependence of manufacturing processes. Where engineers once served as the “walking encyclopedias” on the factory floor, sophisticated automation processes have now taken their place, reducing the potential for human error and increasing the speed with which decisions can be made.

Challenge :  Originally positioned as a project-oriented service company Avanceon would do an outstanding job in helping their corporate manufacturing clients streamline their process. The typical engagement was anywhere from 3 – 12 months, and when the project was over Avanceon would move onto the next project. Inevitably, however, Avanceon would get a frantic call from clients informing them that something had gone wrong in the plant. In response, Avanceon would drop everything they were doing (often for a different client,) hop on a plane and go to the client site. Most of the time, the problem was a loose cable, a bad sensor or someone who had reset a switch.  Quickly, Avanceon engineers would resolve the problem, go home and send an invoice for a service call. However, this model of crisis/fix, crisis/fix was not efficient or effective for either Avanceon or its clients.
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