There are many perceptions about Product and Service and what is what.
A common perception is that Product can be divided into two types: Product and Service. Others say that all services are products, but that there are also products that do not contain any services.
As usual, we have studied several different sources and will try to sort out the concepts. We have found the most comprehensive description on the site DifferenceBetween.net which provides "Difference Between similar Terms and Objects". They offer the following explanation in brief:
The major difference noted between the two is that a product is physical in nature and it is tangible. On the other hand, it can be seen that a service is intangible and it cannot be held therefore cannot be separated from the provider. Quality of the product is determined by the customer while the quality of a service is determined by the provider. A product can be stored for future use or sale and it can be returned to the buyer if the need arises. However, a service can be consumed the moment it is offered and cannot be stored for future use. A service cannot be returned to the service provider for any reason since it is jot tangible.
DifferenceBetween sets the following criteria that show the difference between "product" and "service" (the illustration and translation is an interpretation on our part. For exact reproduction in English, see links below.):
Closer study of the concepts in sources such as the National Encyclopedia and ArchiMate gives us a partly different picture.
The Swedish National Encyclopedia
The National Encyclopedia provides the following definitions:
Product
"Something made by man or by nature."
Service
"Does not exist until it is experienced by the customer, and it is common for production, delivery and consumption of a service to take place simultaneously."
Clarification
An example of a product is a chair made in a furniture factory. In that case, the product is a commodity. But services are also products. For example, a vacation trip sold by a travel company is a product.
ArchiMate
ArchiMate is in the same line as NE.se and has separate meta objects for "product" and "service", as well as a meta object for "contract" that is related to the product.
Prime Arch's point of view
Prime Arch has chosen to go on NE.se and ArchiMate. NE.se has simple and clear definitions, and ArchiMate gives us the meta objects and relationships. We can of course see that DifferenceBetween has a point in their reasoning, but to work with business architecture, their division is not of much help.
Based on ArchiMate, it gives us the following model:
Prime Arch's definition of "Product":
A combination of services and / or goods that are delivered as a whole to (internal or external) customers, where the use is regulated in an agreement.
In addition to the meta objects described above, we have also added "business objects" which in this case represent the product that often forms part of a product.
Example
Here, the representation of product is a "Thirst quencher" offered by a beach cafe.
Links
Prime Arch
External sources
- ArchiMate 3.1 Specification - Chapter 8 Business Layer
- Swedish: NE.se Produkt (requires login for extended article)
- Difference Between