## 3 Servitization Scenarios of Top 5 IT Enterprises
### General Evaluation of Servitization Similarities and Differences by Five Players  
In this subsection, we summarize the common effects of Servitization on the five IT companies studied in this paper. We separate these effects into two aspects, reflecting the similarities and differences among the analyzed five cases. The similarities among all five cases are as follows [77; 78; 79; 80; 81; 82; 83; 84; 85; 86; 87; 88; 89; 90; 91; 92; 93; 94; 95; 96; 97; 98; 99; 100; 101; 102; 103]:  
* Market Expansion--All analyzed companies attempted to enter new markets with higher growth potential or higher profit margins by adding services to their portfolios. The approach taken and the market entered depended on the fundamentals of their original core business;
* Transformation of core business--In the last decade, aside from HP, all companies transformed their core businesses, which were either hardware sales or software sales, towards a combination of sales and service delivery. The choice to add services to their core business or increase the importance of the service core business is evidence that Servitization is occurring in the IT industry. Additional evidence is that the growth rate of services has been increasing rapidly;
* Product as a Service--The major players started to offer their customers a new way to interact with them. Instead of buying the products and taking ownership of them, this new method consisted of, depending on the fundamentals of the business, either the rental of the products, as in the cases of IBM, HP and Xerox, or the licensing of/subscribing to the products, as in the cases of Microsoft and Oracle;
* Key Knowledge consulting--Four of the five cases created a new revenue stream, which was generated by offering their accumulated business knowledge to their business model. IBM and HP offered their knowledge of IT infrastructure and helped optimize costs for their customers. Oracle started consultations based on their vast knowledge of data management and the increase in big data analytics;
* Acquisition Integration Challenge--Major switches in business segments were usually triggered by large acquisitions by the companies analyzed. These acquisitions often required a rethinking of the business models of the companies and a long internal integration processes to improve customer satisfaction and return profits. * Change of PSS--Invariably there was a visible change in their orientation towards a more service dominant PSS. Most companies started with a product-oriented PSS and switched to a use-oriented  
Figure 39: Positive/Negative Effects of Servitization - Xerox. PSS. In several cases, they took it a step further, to a results-oriented PSS, which is mostly performed by the companies whose foundation was in hardware. In comparison to the similarities, there are fewer differences for all five cases. However, they are important to mention [77; 78; 79; 80; 81; 82; 83; 84; 85; 86; 87; 88; 89; 90; 91; 92; 93; 94; 95; 96; 97; 98; 99; 100; 101; 102; 103]:  
* Separation and Integration--One of the key differences is in the approach companies took towards Servitization. Hardware IT companies first diversified their portfolio with services and then started to separate or disinvest certain product lines to strengthen their new core businesses. Software IT companies previously had a strong mix of software and services and diversified their businesses to include some hardware, to increase their interaction with customers and the synergies of their all-round solutions;
* Cloud Services--Another difference was in the approach to cloud services. Three of the five companies included cloud services as a major segment with growth potential. Notably, Microsoft and Oracle integrated cloud services as the future of their business strategy. IBM integrated cloud services as support and a possible future trend to aid their customers in going digital.