Course Summary

The process of digitization is characterized by the increasing use of sensors and software. This makes it possible to connect people, products, and services, as well as entire production plants with their specific internal and external planning and production processes, via the Internet. The boundaries between the real and the virtual world become more and more blurred. In this process, data is generated and collected on a massive scale. After analysis and interpretation, this data forms the basis for smart services –data-based services that complement purely physical products and allow a high level of personalization according to specific customer needs and expectations.
With Industrie 4.0, Germany took the important step of driving digital transformation in the field of production with the concept of smart factories. However, digital transformation affects all domains, leading to the disruption of traditional, in part rigid structures of value creation and to interactions extending across companies or even industries. This creates opportunities for the development and implementation of innovative business models, based on platforms in digital ecosystems. Individualized smart services often become more important than offering a physical product. They can help save resources in production, realize new revenue and profit models, create jobs and thus safeguard Germany's competitiveness in the future as well.

In a total of four course weeks, acclaimed figures from the fields of business and science will guide you through the world of smart services, providing you with a theoretical and practical overview that extends across industries. After a general introduction to the topic, you’ll see the disruptive change processes at work within existing business models. At the same time, the potential of smart services to develop new business models will be highlighted. Following this, key technological enablers for implementing smart services will be explained. In the next step, the focus is on the necessary changes in management and business organization. Finally, you’ll get an overview of best practices from various industries or areas of application during week 4.

Course Characteristics

• Starting from: June 19, 2018, 09:00 UTC. (What does this mean?)
  
• Duration: 4 weeks (2-3 hours per week)
  
• Final exam: July 10, 2018, 09:00 UTC – July 25, 2018, 09:00 UTC
  
• Course language: English
  
• How is an openSAP course structured?
  

Course Content

Week 1: Smart Services & Business Model Innovation
Week 2: Technological Enabler for the Smart Service Welt
Week 3: Smart Services, Management, & Business Organization
Week 4: Smart Service Best Practices
Week 4-5: Final Exam

Target Audience

• Management and leading professionals of companies, especially SMEs (small or midsize enterprises)
  
• Politicians interested in data and platform-based business models
  
• Societal stakeholders such as trade unions, associations, Chambers of Industry and Commerce
  
• Anyone with a specific interest in the topic
  

Course Requirements

• No previous knowledge is required to participate in the course.

Who created this course?

This massive open online course is a cooperative venture between acatech - National Academy of Science and Engineering and the Senate company Accenture. It was elaborated as part of the Digital Service Platforms project, and funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) of Germany. More information about this project is available at: http://www.acatech.de/dig-serviceplattformen (in German only).

The German version of this course is available on the acatech channel of mooc.house. The start of the German course is on April 23, 2018.