In today’s economy, services are no longer considered just as a necessary extension to products. On the contrary, almost every modern product is combined with services, and it is the joint product-service experience that is judged by customers, thus truly generating real value and corporate profit growth. Since services are provided and consumed through systems, there is a need for studies that will focus on the dedicated theories, methods, and tools for designing software systems and applications supporting provision of ICT service solutions in general, and specifically for social innovation.
The term ‘social innovation’ refers to all kinds of concepts, ideas, processes, activities, tools, etc. that bring about an invention that addresses a particular social need and creates economic value through risk-taking joint venturing. In the age of information and massive connectivity, the main challenges of the developed world become delivering means and infrastructure for ICT-supported lifestyle management and providing innovative services to different groups of the society, tailored to their individual needs and demands.
The emergence of consumer markets as the primary driver of ICT innovation has been a major industry shift, challenging the way companies innovate and evolve with the ICT. Service innovations, new ways of service creation, orchestration and consumption, using and creating vast amounts of openly available or user-generated data offer great potential for improving everyday life of large parts of our society. New business models and ways of value creation become critical, as a big opportunity, but alsas a challenge for organizations and society at large. Consumerization describes the tendency for new information technology temerge first in the consumer market and then spread intbusiness and government organizations.