Business Digital Transformation: Selected Cases from Industry Leaders

ISBN-13: 9783031336645 / Angielski

Alex Zarifis; Despo Ktoridou; Leonidas Efthymiou

Spis treści

1. Introduction to digital transformation in Business

Dr Alex Zarifis, University of Nicosia, University of Cambridge

Prof. Despo Ktoridou, University of Nicosia

Dr Leonidas Efthymiou, University of Nicosia

Prof. Xusen Cheng, Renmin University of China

The introductory chapter at the start of the book explains why each chapter was chosen, the common threads and some key findings. 

Each case brings a different piece of the puzzle, but it also serves to test and verify our current understanding of digital transformation. There are common lessons across all cases, along with the specific lessons some cases offer for those specific sectors of the economy.

2. Insight and Control over Personal Data for Swedish local Government: A citizen-centered model for public-private data sharing

Theo Anderson, Business Intelligence Officer / Omvärldsbevakare at DIGG – Swedish Agency for Digital Government

In July 2020, the Swedish Public Employment Service, the Swedish eHealth Agency, the Agency for Digital Government (DIGG) and the Swedish Tax Agency were collectively tasked with showing how an individual's ability to have insight and control over data that have been stored about them by the public sector – and, in the long term, in the private sector – can be enhanced.

Large quantities of data about individuals are processed by public administration, for which there is support in statutes or agreements. The public sector often not only has the right but also an obligation to process personal data in order to perform its duties. 

It is widely believed that it would make things easier for individuals, and introduce efficiency improvements for the public sector, if it were possible for another party to reuse information already possessed by an authority as the basis for making decisions or taking certain measures. It is however unclear exactly how this can be achieved and what prerequisites need to be in place for such user-centricity to be achieved in the design of these services.

The initial external monitoring and analysis of these issues focused on various publications from amongst others, the EU, UN and OECD in order to determine if there exists a consensus regarding whether individuals are or should be, entitled to increased insight into and control over the data stored about them. After confirming that indeed there seemed to be such a consensus, we were interested in how well technological developments and discussions on policy, data management and public agencies instructions agreed with the vision for how this insight and control will be achieved and then given to, and managed, by the individual.

3. Virtualizing New Product Development in Heavy Asset Industries

Mads Jørgsholm Bierrings, Implement Consulting Group, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, mabi@implement.dk

Nico Wunderlich, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark, nicw@itu.dk

Reliability and validity have been long-term quality criteria in heavy asset industries. Due to the capital-intensity and long product cycles, companies traditionally invested extensively in expensive physical test rigs to carry out long-winded prototype trials preparing for the product launch. The technological trend of modularization as well as increasing client demands for customization and non-disruptive on-site maintenance force even heavy asset industries to accelerate and flexibilize their new product development. Industries less dependent on physical elements in their products and service, such as the financial and media sector, have been already facing strong shifts in market demands, which unleashed transformational forces and initiated processes of infinite constant change. In this chapter, we study the case of one of the world's leading manufacturers of highly reliable, sustainable energy systems and how this company digitally transformed their new product development by virtual prototyping to become more cost and time efficient and more agile from scaling up the number and configurations of tested and validated models.

In the case company, the emergence of big data from real-time streaming of digital twins and other industry 4.0 developments allow to evaluate model designs before building a physical prototype of the product. Designers and engineers are now capable of detecting design problems and errors early in the product development process (Carulli et al., 2013). Virtual prototyping is digital technology that enables processes of constructing and testing digital prototypes. New product development in the company adopted virtual prototyping due to the improved availability and lowered prices of this digital technology (Choi et al., 2015). While computer-aided design tools have been commonly used in product design for decades, the case company transformed their new product development to verify their models in the virtual hemisphere. Shifting the physical validation at the latest possible time of the development process can be subsumed as the ability of front-load verification, “in front” of the physical prototyping stages. Virtual prototyping thus limits physical iterations and increases the confidence in the models before proceeding to the physical test stages, while integrating experimental test data. The opportunity to involve customers in the early design phases is another benefit of virtual prototyping. This activity gathers input from external sources and allows to access knowledge beyond the organizational boundaries. Embedded in a data landscape of industry 4.0 and digital twins, the case company adopted principles of digital business from influential software companies and emphasizes virtual prototyping as major technology for digitizing new product development in heavy asset industries. Testing and validation in the digital hemisphere provides scale, scope, and learning effects at low cost, in short time, and enriched by early collected customer feedback which utilizes the advantages of digital technology for the sustainable evaluation of traditionally heavy weight models in the light-footed, agile virtuality.

Data collection:

16 semi-structured interviews with managers and executives from new product development units and secondary data collection (ethnography, team meetings, guidelines, documents) over a four months' period in 2020

References:

Carulli, M., Bordegoni, M., & Cugini, U. (2013). An approach for capturing the Voice of the Customer based on Virtual Prototyping. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-012-0662-5

Choi, S., Jung, K., & Noh, S. D. (2015). Virtual reality applications in manufacturing industries: Past research, present findings, and future directions. Concurrent Engineering, 23. https://doi.org/10.1177/1063293X14568814

4. What are we automating? On the need for vision and expertise when deploying AI systemsDr Alex Rast, Oxford Brooks University

Abstract: The emergence and availability of powerful, easy-to-use frameworks like TensorFlow or PyTorch appears to make implementing in-house AI simple and attractive. Neural networks,

in particular, are often seen as a sort of 'cure-all' panacaea for any difficult problem or opportunity businesses across numerous sectors may face. However, such systems have subtle and often very surprising behaviours that require considerable domain expertise in order to implement a functional system not vulnerable to unexpected pathologies. More fundamentally, they need to be deployed with a clear sense of what the AI system is going to achieve. Careful attention must be paid at the outset to draft a clear and concrete design specification that indicates the intended function, and equally, draws a line under capabilities that are out of scope. Likewise, an effort needs to be made either to identify in-house people with the required skill sets to develop the system, or alternatively to enter into close working partnerships with external providers who can identify the needs and clearly articulate an appropriate solution. If these crucial prior steps are omitted or dismissed in the rush to develop and deploy a 'solution', the result is often an impenetrable mash-up that serves no one's needs, yet remains opaque to serious internal review. But implemented well, the result can be a powerful tool that leverages the company's internal skills.  

5. Digital Transformation in Biotech: Producing antibodies by using the innovative IMG-AbS™ platform technology

Lilla Nedeczky - Immunogenes 

The Biotech industry is turning to digital transformation to help it innovate faster and bring down costs. ImmunoGenes is a Hungarian biotech company established in 2007 with a cutting- edge technology in antibody and genetically modified animal technologies. Our goal is to support R&D of pharma companies and academics to improve their efficiency in identifying new therapeutic targets and therapeutic candidates. 

ImmunoGenes produces monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies using our IMG-AbS™ platform technology. This patented technology allows us to produce high quality and diverse antibodies against challenging antigens. IMG-AbS is redefining the parameters of antibody production by offering highly customized antibodies that are difficult or impossible to generate using standard methods.

ImmunoGenes' patented technology platform IMG-AbS, is an FcRn technology using genetically modified animals that overexpress the neonatal Fc Receptor (FcRn). Because of FcRn's role in antigen presentation, the company's animals are able to mount a strong immune response against weakly immunogenic targets.

Our recent studies have illustrated the advantageous effects of FcRn overexpression to significantly improve humoral immune response in the generation of antibodies, in principle, as biotherapeutics or in diagnostic assays. IMG-AbS technology offers: 

• Higher levels of circulating antibodies

• More efficient antigen presentation

• Higher antigen-specific immunoglobulin titers

• More diverse B cell repertoire

• Increased number of antigen-specific hybridomas

• Efficient humoral immune response against weakly immunogenic targets

• Production of antibodies against of highly conserved antigens - breaking immune tolerance

6. Digital transformation in Regtech: The impact of Regtech in Fintech

Anastasios Ttiniozou

Regtech is an important area of innovation that affects the financial sector and Fintech. The ability of technology to adapt faster to new regulation creates new opportunities. At the same time technology also requires new forms of regulation that might slow a company down.

Powered by customisation, and breakthrough technologies, our solutions are unique to their nature. Our software offers a smooth user friendly interface making them easy to learn and enabling seamless operation. As of lately, our primary focus is on experimenting with new technologies such as BI analytics and machine learning, embedding them to iSPIRAL’s software, aiming for breakthrough automated solutions that will revolutionise the way firms operate compliance and risk wise.

7. Transition of Businesses in India towards Digitalisation and the Challenges Thereafter - Case Study

Ambika Kulshrestha, Sandeep Kulshrestha and Leonidas Efthymiou

 

 

The trajectory of digitalisation as an imperative element of corporate strategy has transcended its role as an aid to business processes to that of a disruptor. The Covid-19 phase furthered this role, thereby acting as a catalyst, with a shift in focus of business value creation, from value chain to value networks with the use of transformative technologies. However, this paradigm shift impacted businesses with new processes and related challenges that appeared concurrently.

This chapter ponders deeply into the transitionary stage of organisations in the service sector in India in context of adaption of digitalisation and how this paradigm shift impacted the businesses especially in terms of people, processes, technology and culture. Also, while drawing on interviews with business leaders, the chapter contextualizes the adoption of best practices in terms of processes and customer value creation. 

Type of organizations: SME’s, Business Consulting

Sector: Services

Research Method: Qualitative, Primary/ Empirical 

Country and industry focus: India/Service Sector

Sample: Organizations from the Services Sector

Data Collection Methods: Survey and Interview

Research Methodology: 

1. Collection of data on pre digitalization and post digitalization

Statistical Test – Chi Square

2. Interviews:

on pre digitalisation phase and post digitalisation impact (challenges faced)

strategies applied to mitigate the challenges faced

8. Digital transformation with AI in insurance in Europe and Asia Prof. Xusen Cheng, Renmin University of China

Dr Alex Zarifis, University of Nicosia, University of Cambridge

Digital transformation is influencing every part of the globe but is this influence the same everywhere? This chapter explores how digital transformation is unfolding in Europe and Asia. Is the final vision the same? Is the journey the same? What are the initial results of this change? This comparison enables us to understand these two continents better, but it also enables us to get a more holistic understanding of digital transformation that would benefit the rest of the world.

9. DP World: Strategizing amidst digital transformation in the maritime sector Dr Leonidas Efthymiou, University of Nicosia 

Digital transformation aims at facilitating system interoperability and automation in the Shipping industry. Technologies, such as the National Maritime Single Window (NMSW) and its harmonization through the European Maritime Single Window (EMSW), offer opportunities for minimizing instances of crisis, and reducing the administrative burden of ships. Within this ever-changing environment, the current chapter explores how DP World, a multinational logistics company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, utilizes such technologies strategically, towards enhancing the competitiveness and efficiency of its ports.  

10. The Impact of digitisation on Education and Learning in Universities

Prof. Despo Ktoridou, University of Nicosia

Dr Alex Zarifis, University of Nicosia

The new capabilities of technology along with the pandemic have encouraged, or even forced, universities to change how they deliver education. In some universities this transition is a top-down approach with senior leaders dictating the future strategy. Other universities attempt a more organic approach with students, academics, management and other stakeholders having their say. This chapter sheds light on these issues and helps increase the opportunities and reduce the threats for universities.

O autorze

Alex Zarifis is a Lecturer at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, and a research affiliate of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge, UK. His research is primarily on trust and the technology of finance.

Despo Ktoridou is a Professor and Head of the Management & MIS Department at the University of Nicosia School of Business, Cyprus. Her research is on education technology and digital transformation.

Leonidas Efthymiou is a Lecturer at the University of Nicosia School of Business, Cyprus. He researches education and tourism among other areas.

Xusen Cheng is an Associate Professor and Chair at the Department of E-Business at Renmin University of China in Beijing. He has published research on the sharing economy and the metaverse.

Blurb

Digital transformation involves the union of technological change and innovative technologies. It is about constant innovation, evolution and acceleration. It is true that technology is an enabler of digital transformation, but transformation often involves people, process, and technology. This collected volume addresses organizational challenges and pitfalls experienced during the implementation of, and experimentation with, digital transformation.

The editors aim to reveal examples, experiences, and best practices in the business sector where the grounds of digital transformation were set. The contributors provide taxonomies as well as historical points of digital transformation in the business sector, along with their impact on selected corporate entities, as well as including cases and best practices from industry leaders.

The interrelation among people, technology needs, and organizational structures are the major themes of this edited book. It will be of great value to students and scholars of digital business, innovation, strategic management and sustainability.

Alex Zarifis is a Lecturer at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, and a research affiliate of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge, UK. His research is primarily on trust and the technology of finance.

Despo Ktoridou is a Professor and Head of the Management & MIS Department at the University of Nicosia School of Business, Cyprus. Her research is on education technology and digital transformation.

Leonidas Efthymiou is a Lecturer at the University of Nicosia School of Business, Cyprus. He researches education and tourism among other areas.

Xusen Cheng is an Associate Professor and Chair at the Department of E-Business at Renmin University of China in Beijing. He has published research on the sharing economy and the metaverse.