Design and Coordination Mechanism for Technology-driven Service Delivery Systems

Abstract:

Service experience is increasingly important when customers seek services from an external party, regardless of public or business sector. The efficiency and quality of traditional public services, i.e., healthcare and education services, greatly affect people’s living quality and social development. In business activities, service delivery to customers gradually becomes a critical factor, apart from the product itself, for the success of the business. Nowadays, innovative technologies, such as big data, IoT, and AI technologies, have been widely adopted to improve quality of services at different stages in various industries, which further transform their service modes. The way of improving service level depends on the nature of the industry and the unique situation of the institution/firm. How to incorporate new technologies into service delivery process is to be further explored.

We focus on two types of services in two different industries – the business and healthcare sectors – to study how services should be delivered at different stages by adopting new technologies. At the system design stage, we consider the service system design problem of a business firm by introducing self-service technologies. The firm can provide agent services, machine-assisted self-services, or both to serve customers. When the service is being delivered, the service output is co-created by both firm/agent and customers. The contract types for agents and information structure are considered in this study. At the operations stage, we consider a coordination problem between an emergency department (ED) and an inpatient ward (IW) to improve the quality of healthcare services by an information-sharing technology. The information is shared between ED and IW to coordinate both of their operations so as to improve the KPIs of both departments.