Business Solutions on Demand : How to Transform from a Product-Led to a Service-Led Company

"It argues convincingly that companies should look at what solutions they can provide consumers with, rather than looking at what products they can foist upon them ... This is an effective guide to delivering real value to the customer through genuine innovative thinking."

The Marketer

"One of the most successful business solutions tomes ever published."

PCPlus Business

Based partly on IBM's own transformation, and partly on the transformations that IBM has helped its clients to achieve, this ground-breaking book shows how companies can increase sales and improve margins by introducing a range of solutions.

Highly readable, motivational and fast-paced, Business Solutions On Demand is packed with examples from many diverse industries. The authors emphasize that for today's business to compete and survive, it has to exceed the expectations of its customers. Technological advancement, globalization, increased competition, market saturation and easy access to information are all conspiring to make traditional business models redundant.

Mark Cerasale is a Senior Consultant in IBM's Business Consulting Services division. He specializes in customer management, e-business and solution transformation, helping clients to improve business performance through innovation, operational efficiency and customer loyalty. Mark's consulting experience covers many sectors, including automotive, chemical and petroleum, media and entertainment, telecommunications, electronics and IT.

For several years he worked as a Client Manager and was responsible for managing IBM client relationships and providing some of the world's most successful companies with information technology-enabled solutions. Mark, together with Merlin Stone, has co-authored several articles and management briefings, and has contributed to many white papers and books. For more information, please visit www.markcerasale.com

Professor Merlin Stone is one of the UK's top specialists in changing organisational capability to meet the needs of customers and stakeholders. His experience covers many sectors, and he also trains, coaches and mentors senior managers. He is Research Director and Director responsible for the Customer, Citizen and Stakeholder Management Practice at WCL, specialists in change management and customer/stakeholder management.

Merlin Stone is author or co-author of many articles and thirty books on transforming marketing, sales and customer service capabilities, including Customer Relationship Marketing, Consumer Insight, Marketing Revolution and Business Solutions on Demand. The UK's Chartered Institute of Marketing listed him in 2003 as one of the world's top 50 marketing thinkers, while NOP World nominated him in 2004 as one of 100 most influential individuals for their input and influence on the development and growth of e-commerce and the internet in the UK over the previous 10 years. He is an Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and an Honorary Life Fellow of the UK's Institute of Direct Marketing. He is also on the editorial advisory boards of several academic journals and writes for several trade publications.

Merlin Stone has a first class honours degree and doctorate in economics from Sussex University, UK. In parallel to his business career, he has also pursued a full academic career. He has held senior academic posts at various universities. He is now a part-time professor at Bristol Business School and a visiting professor at several others.