Service delivery is central to many of the issues covered in this Portfolio. It critically affects customer satisfaction and is the most obvious way that you project your corporate identity to the outside world. Productivity, which is notoriously hard to manage in service areas, will decide profitability in most service areas. Logistics are also coming to be seen as an integral part of effective service delivery.

But, do you get the best from your service units? If you find it hard to meet cost targets and give consistently good service, learn to develop a 'service task' - a service vision and a structure to deliver it.

Specifically, you should use this audit to:

• check how you match up to World Class and competitor service standards
• spot different ways to differentiate your service delivery
• create a framework for plotting customer demand dimensions
• plot the cost and effectiveness of service delivery
• see if systems and business processes match your service task
• map the resources used at each stage of service delivery
• check how well you manage resources, service quality and service recovery
• reduce waste and increase productivity.

The Service Management Audit ~ 56 pages ~ Cranfield School of Management

Joint ventures and strategic partnerships help you move into broader markets, capitalize on technological advances and achieve growth fast. But many fail. This audit will help you strengthen existing partnerships and alliances - to avoid these potential pitfalls - and assess the merits of future alliances that you may be considering.

This audit comes in two parts - the first devoted to technology-based alliances in the manufacturing sector, and the second devoted to service sector firms.

Use it to:

• clarify your objectives in entering into the alliance
• assess your own strengths, weaknesses and exposures, and those of your partner (or proposed partner)
• evaluate the merits of the alliance
• decide who will gain most and what you stand to lose if the alliance goes wrong

Then see whether the alliance fits one of the 4 major types, and meets the key criteria for success. Finally, check the 7 Strategic Goals and 8 Golden Rules of partnerships and analyse the risks you face - using the experience of hundreds of alliances.

The Partnership & Alliances Audit ~ 68 pages ~ New Business Search & Development, Inc.