Site external customers

As site services and infrastructure made the transition first to bundled services units and then in some cases even to separate independent service companies, they were faced with the need to significantly professionalize the way in which they rendered services to both internal and external customers. 

A critical but often overlooked aspect of the technical service function is the value of relationships that develop between more senior members of the technical service staff and their coUeagues at customer sites. Professional relationships provide value both to suppHer and customer by virtue of the tmst and respect generated in a successhil technical service interaction, analogous to the types of mutuaUy valuable relationships that can develop between suppHer sales personnel and a customer s purchasing personnel. A more efficient process of gathering and dispersing new and usehil technical information can result from these relationships, because the persons involved work in different environments and are exposed in the course of their work to different external sources of information. 

The two processors are delivering the product via pipes into one of several tanks in a tank farm. Each tank has parameters such as capacity or cleaning time. From the tanks the product is either delivered to processes on site (captive use) or to customers based on given customer orders. Additionally, it may be stored in two external buffers. In that case there are transportation moves from the tank farm to one of the external buffers (in case of over-production) or from the external buffer to the tank farm (in case of shortages in production) induced. 

Field testing and sampling maybe handled in the generic plan by presenting a menu that covers all potential options available to the utility, based on both internal and external capabilities. In developing a customized plan, the incident commander can simply check off the field tests and sampling requirements that are appropriate for the specific situation. The site characterization plan may also need to be revised in the field based on the observations of the team. 

These diverging views have led to a strong pressure towards separation - predominantly at multi-user sites where service customers are often from different corporations. With service companies increasingly trying to expand into the external market, some chemical companies in turn became convinced that a successful disinvestment would be possible. A number of them have indeed made intense disinvestment efforts. Up to early 2005, however, these efforts have not been successful. 

Redefining the service offering. Based on an evaluation of customer needs and external competitors, site services and infrastructure providers firstly need to reconsider which services they should offer - and which ones they should not. They are clearly not the best owners of activities such as catering, human resources management, information management, or patent and license management - currently often part of their service portfolio. Second, they need to define which services will be provided by their own personnel and which services will be... 

A key component of analyzing the external environment is to identify and gauge potential competitors. The goal of the competitor analysis is to understand the characteristics of other providers so that the business can be positioned favorably compared with competitors. Data about competitors sometimes are difficult to obtain. Surveys of customers, price comparisons, and publicly available information (i.e., Web sites) should be investigated. 

The virtual (intangible) encounter with and electronic based structure, which is often visually connected via its internal or external business Web site—in both cases information flows from customer to business, and business responds sourcing relevant, allowable (non-sensitive), correct information... 

Customer knowledge and data capture remains crucial to delivering appropriate services. Site personalization and high levels of recognition may enable the business to enlist its affiliates and jointly target the customer. It may also identify new markets. The service network customer encounter dimensions include the internal busi-ness-to-business customers and the external business-to-end-users (or customers). Frohlich and Westbrook (2002) have researched some internal business-to-business customer effects, but the business-to-consumer dyad has not been empirically studied (Chen Paulr, 2004). 

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