Symptom: Routine operations are not the cheapest, most reliable, and safest in the industry.
Service Bureaus are tasked with keeping technology-based services running reliably, efficiently, and safely. They have tight procedures for change control, scheduling, backup and recovery, dark operations, capacity planning, and disaster recovery.
Service Bureaus are not encouraged to innovate in fundamental ways, but rather to pursue stability, customer service, and cautious evolution. Of course they are encouraged to broaden their product line to serve a diverse market of clients.
Another (more generic) way to state the problem is as follows:
