Business services are the industries that support a company’s operations and infrastructure. These include shipping, accounting, finance, procurement, insurance, marketing, communication, and more. While these industries may not produce tangible products, they are necessary for companies to operate and thrive.
Unlike product-based businesses, which focus on developing and improving existing products and attracting customers, business service-based companies provide internal support to other companies through their expertise and knowledge of the industry. This type of business requires less start-up money because there is no need to invest in the production of physical goods. These businesses also need fewer resources than product-based businesses, and can be more flexible in their delivery of products.
In the 2012-13 Executive Budget, the Office of General Services established the Business Services Center (BSC) to increase efficiencies and lower costs by centralizing transactional Human Resource and Finance services that are common across agencies. This allows agencies to better focus on their mission activities.
The BSC is staffed by teams of professionals who support agency employees with a variety of services including training, data analysis, customer service, and human resource support. The administrative services team manages the onboarding and training of new BSC staff, while the data and analytics team ensures that the BSC is working towards metric-based performance goals. The customer support team assists employees with financial and HR inquiries.
With the advent of technology, many of these business services are being provided through web platforms and systems. As such, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how to design business services that are flexible and responsive to changing market conditions.