Services Innovation

Ireland – Leading in Services and Committed to Innovation

Services activities are now the prime drivers of growth in developed and developing countries, accounting for 60% of global employment and almost 70% of value added in OECD countries.

• Ireland has become a major centre for services activities, with two-thirds of the Irish workforce now involved in services delivery.
• Much of the services activity in Ireland is for export, so that Ireland is ranked 10th-highest exporter of services in the world.
• Ireland’s services sector is driven by Foreign Direct Investment from global leaders in the services industry, including Google, Accenture and Hertz.
• As well as securing new investment from these companies, IDA Ireland has worked closely with product-based companies, such as Apple, IBM and Cameron, as they expanded their Irish manufacturing operations into the services domain.

IDA Ireland – Driving Services Innovation

The dominance and success of the leading services companies located in Ireland is greatly enhanced by a culture of ongoing innovation. Recognising both the importance of innovation in services and the fact that services innovation often has unique features, IDA Ireland established a dedicated Services Innovation Department in 2008. The SID is focused on: activating and enabling human capital thinking in services innovation.

Defining Services Innovation

It’s clear that innovation is as important in achieving sustainable competitive advantage in services as in manufacturing - but the nature of innovation differs significantly between the two activities.

• Innovation in services tends to be less tangible (as it is generally not product-based) and so can be more difficult to define and to measure.
• The key to understanding services innovation is that it seeks out new solutions to customer problems or needs.
• This often involves exploiting and integrating existing technology to provide solutions.
• Services innovation generally has a strong focus on development rather than research and on the end customer.
• Innovation in process, organisational structure and business model are key features.

IBM, one of the leading global innovators in both services and manufacturing, describes services innovation as:
“A combination of technology innovation, business model innovation, social organisational innovation and demand innovation, with the objective to improve existing service systems (incremental innovation), create new value propositions (offerings) or create new service systems (radical innovation)."

Working to Enable Services Innovation

IDA Ireland has conducted extensive research with client companies engaged in services activities in Ireland. While many are already actively committed to continuous innovation, for some it remains an aspiration, but we made the following key observations:

• Creating space for innovation thought and exploration is key for developing ongoing services innovation.
• Many elements of services innovation are based on a technology platform which can exploit clients’ existing technology.
• Human capital lies at the centre of services innovation.

Services Innovation Training and Expertise from IDA Ireland

IDA Ireland’s Services Innovation team is a repository of knowledge and expertise on services innovation. We provide information and advice on:

• Best practice in leading services innovators worldwide.
• Leading Irish-based services innovators.
• Academic research and theory on services innovation.
• How the services innovation ecosystem in Ireland works: corporate competencies, research capabilities, government agencies and experts can all be drawn upon in developing services innovation.

Why Ireland Wins Services Innovation Business

Some of the world’s leading companies have chosen Ireland as the hub for their innovative services activities because we offer all of the essential qualities for optimum services delivery and continuous innovation:

• A young, highly-skilled workforce with excellent customer service and multilingual skills
• A workforce with longstanding experience of working with MNCs and a reputation for adaptability, flexibility and creativity
• A national team of industry, academia and government agencies working together to facilitate FDI
• A location ideally situated to deliver services across the EMEA region
• A highly-developed IT sector and telecommunications network
• A low corporate tax rate and additional tax credits for RD&I activity
• A favourable and respected tax and regulatory regime