Influences of Product/Service-Combined Offers on Manufacturers

A new business concept called Functional Sales that offers products and services in a different way of traditional product-sales businesses is getting more attention in manufacturing industries. This paper investigates how this new business concept affects manufacturers in Germany and Italy. The results include that Functional Sales is in many cases motivated by their focus on customers and often consists physical products and their maintenance. The Italian companies, as opposed to the German ones, often adapt their physical products specifically for Functional Sales. There do not seem to be any established methods or tools developed to support the development of Functional Sales offers and there is room for more adaptation in form of methodologies and physical product design. © 2006 IEEE