Customer value assessment of shared services

Abstract

Customer Value Assessment is a comparatively new concept in the Indian Management practice. It is being talked about much more frequently than actual practice. The benefit delivered to the customer and the value-add to the customer are common references in management parlance. Anderson and Narus, in their pioneering work on implementing Customer Value Assessment Models in the context of Business to Business Markets, have delineated a workable model, which is widely used in the advanced countries, for very critical decision making like "value-based" pricing, etc. The Customer Value Model and Assessment of the value delivered to the customer, be it internal or external is just one part of the emerging scenario. Their advocacy for a customer centered approach to management in the context of B2B market covers a much larger perspective of managing channel partners, realizing market offering, appropriation of the value delivered between the customer and the supplier, venturing in to global market, etc. The current project is a part of a consulting assignment undertaken by Prof. James Narus and Prof. DVR Seshadri, my guide, to use the Customer Value Assessment methodology to determine the value delivered by shared services[corporate departments] of a multinational corporation. A detailed assessment of one of the departments was carried out directly by Prof. Seshadri as a pilot project. This project is part of the scaling up of the pilot project into a full-fledged assessment of all the shared services department of that corporation. This project report reflects the current status of the 6 departments which are being assessed for the value they deliver to their customers. The Customer Value Elements have been mapped for all the departments; however, detailed model and calculations are yet to be undertaken for any of the 6 departments covered by this project. This is work in progress.