Reference no: EM133349349

Case: Service Industrialization, Convergence, and Digital Transformation, Part 1: Information-intensive services already dominate the US and other developed economies in GNP and wage bill share. Economies around the world are following this trend at differing rates as technological industrialization drives massive changes, not only for economies and industry, but also for firms, work processes, and jobs. The consequences of this transformation present a mixed picture for economies, companies and individuals. While average wealth in the US continues to increase, employment is declining in many job categories along with losses in wage share. Technology has created fundamental changes in the economics of service processes, enabling their industrialization and thereby altering industry structure. As a result, previously distinct service sectors have begun to converge in ways that are leading to significant structural changes, including vertical de-integration, horizontal dominance by specific technologies, the outsourcing of non-critical processes, third party provision of web services, the emergence of platform strategies, and a rapid growth of lateral bundling. These dramatic changes have already severely disrupted many service sectors, leaving others on the edge. Managers and policy makers need to respond swiftly to such changes which are likely to continue to occur for several decades. Delays could prove very costly.

Service Industrialization, Convergence, and Digital Transformation, Part 2: Information and communication technologies are driving a new wave of industrialization which is changing industry structure across all sectors. The greatest impact has been on information intensive services, many of which have already experienced severe disruptions, while others soon will. The effects are also reaching into physical service sectors. As a result, companies need to reexamine their strategies and find ways to reposition themselves. Often, they must restructure internally, sometimes radically, through process industrialization and digital transformation. These changes and disruptions are occurring in major information intensive service sectors such as transactional, functional, content based, and knowledge-based services. The changes follow patterns which are predictable to a certain extent because they arise from the nature of the new technologies, the characteristic economics of information processes, and the phenomenon of convergence. These factors influence consumer consumption behavior, customer experience, service delivery, and even physical services. While consumers generally benefit from the changes, the effects on firms and jobs can be less positive. And companies that are late to adapt or slow in pursuing appropriate industrialization and digital transformation strategies may find themselves in irreversible difficulties.

Question 1: Describe any service company where digital transformation has made a major difference.

Question 2. Summarize the readings above (part 1 and part 2)