The project’s primary objective is to improve the comprehension and measurability of the productivity of services. In this connection, the productivity of the provision and usage of IT-based, business-related services constitutes the focal point.  From an economic perspective, the applicability and significance of existing concepts of productivity are reappraised, for the German service sector, using statistical and econometric analysis. Furthermore, from a business or more practical perspective, the sourcing of IT-services and software-centric services will be profoundly investigated.  In terms of a conceptual and methodological contribution of the undertaking, the measurement and assessment of productivity of IT services and knowledge-intensive services from different levels of analysis are integrated in a single, conjoint framework. Thereby, statistical and econometric productivity analyses are carried out at the sector and the firm level. The managerial aspects of the productivity of sourcing IT services and software-centric services are analysed along the supply chain on an organisational level and on a process level. Therefore, expert-interviews and case studies are carried out. Based on the empirical analysis suitable and refined measures for Input and Output quantities can be developed. The applicability and feasibility of these measures are tested in the context of a company survey. The results allow to give recommendations to companies for the improvement in productivity measurement of their IT-based services from both a user and supplier point of view. In order to fulfill academic requirements and simultaneously assure a strong practical focus, the project is supported by the interaction with academic co-operators on both a national and international level, as it is by IT-service enterprises, especially SMBs in Germany. For further information, see the project website http://www.zew.de/prodit2013http://kooperationen.zew.de/en/prodit/home.html