1.2 Should BSL continue to develop its own inhouse capabilities or increase its own supplier base of ‘associated service providers’? Building Services Limited (BSL) was originally formed to provide basic building maintenance services to small to medium companies not wishing to employ their own maintenance team. BSL was able to employ area teams of mechanical and electrical building engineers to provide a fast response to immediate problems, in addition to routine maintenance activities. The speed of response to incidents and frequency of maintenance were laid down in service-level agreements.

BSL realised that it needed to develop new capabilities to manage its customer relationships, and appointed client managers for their largest and most profitable accounts. As a result, the business grew and some of its customers began asking if BSL could take on more of the customer’s outsourced requirements. This meant that BSL would now be responsible for servicing more specialised areas, such as air-conditioning and clean rooms for semiconductor production.