Digital Business: Developing Technological and Organisational Capabilities

Introduction

Digital plays an ever-increasing role in business. Almost imperceptibly digital technologies have entered the value creation of most companies. What does digital look like in today's businesses, and how will it affect the businesses of the future?  

These and similar questions will be discussed in this course, which we will approach with a practical and hands-on approach. 

Digitalization occurs when businesses use digital technology in a holistic and integrated way, both internally and externally. The digital company has streamlined all its work processes, leverages digital technology to create a holistic and frictionless customer experiences, and explores how the business model can be changed. In order to succeed in digitalization, it is not sufficient to focus on the new technical solutions, one must also look at existing technology. To stay ahead, one must consider changing the organizational structure, management mechanisms and developing new skills. 

In the course we will start by laying a theoretical foundation that explains how businesses have been, and will be influenced by emerging and developing digital technologies. Next, we will focus on some of the most important digital tools that can contribute both to effective learning during the study period, and to creating an efficient operation and to perform analysis of value creation in a business. The course is thus divided into a theoretical part and a practical part, parts that will eventually be linked as the practical parts will exemplify the theoretical part.  

Digitalisation is when businesses use digital technology in a holistic and integrated approach, both internally and externally. The digital business is recognised by streamlined operational processes, an unified and frictionless customer experience, and is constantly rethinking their business model. Digitalisation is based on technology, but most organisations struggle more with organisational and managerial issues, and find it hard to develop new knowledge capabilities.

We begin the course with a few cases of digital services and businesses to see what is new and novel to understand why some succeeds and others do not. We will continue with some easy to use tools and techniques for prototyping digital solutions. Finally, we will define some underlying mechanisms of how technology evolves over time and use that knowledge to become better prepared for future developments in technology.

Course content

The course will include the following topics: 

• The digital enterprise: Overview of a company's enterprise and system architecture.  

• Data, information, decisions and gains 

• The digital workplace that drives innovation 

• From business to network: How digitalization has affected organizational forms 

• Technology development and technological literacy 

The course will consist of a theory section that discusses the role of digital technologies in a business, and a practical part where common and important tools like spreadsheets, databases and business applications are used. In this way, the student will gain concrete, and not just theoretical digital competence.