This thesis examines the role of agricultural service organizations in the rural transformation processes in Uzbekistan, which has experienced a chain of agricultural reforms since 1991. These organizations, apart from providing services (i.e. provision of fertilizers, seeds, machinery), fulfill many other socio-political functions. They also act as a social security net for their personnel. The book's analysis reveals that agrarian transformation has produced three types of service organizations, which differ in their distance from and importance for the government and the state procurement system. This distance has implications for their autonomy, market orientation, and potential for long-term sustainability. Thesis. (Series: ZEF Development Studies - Vol. 23)

This book analyzes the set of forces driving the global financial system toward a period of radical transformation and explores the transformational challenges that lie ahead for global and regional or local banks and other financial intermediaries. It is explained how these challenges derive from the newly emerging post-crisis structure of the market and from shadow and digital players across all banking operations. Detailed attention is focused on the impacts of digitalization on the main functions of the financial system, and particularly the banking sector. The author elaborates how an alternative model of banking will enable banks to predict, understand, navigate, and change the external ecosystem in which they compete. The five critical components of this model are data and information mastering; effective use of applied analytics; interconnectivity and “junction playing”; development of new business solutions; and trust and credibility assurance. The analysis is supported by a number of informative case studies. The book will be of interest especially to top and middle managers and employees of banks and financial institutions but also to FinTech players and their advisers and others.

In managerial literature the challenges of ramping-up, growing and enhancing a (Finance) Shared Services Organization are regularly neglected. Therefore, the compilation will address two objectives: First, based on a generic phase model of an SSO’s development, frequently arising questions related to the management of SSOs shall be systematically discussed and practicable solutions derived. Secondly, a picture of the future of SSOs shall be elaborated, resulting in new future management implications.

Through a series of studies, the overarching aim of this book is to investigate if and how the digitalization/digital transformation process affects various welfare services provided by the public sector, and the ensuing implications thereof. Ultimately, this book seeks to understand if it is conceivable for digital advancement to result in the creation of private/non-governmental alternatives to welfare services, possibly in a manner that transcends national boundaries. This study also investigates the possible ramifications of technological development for the public sector and the Western welfare society at large. This book takes its point of departure from the 2016 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report that targets specific public service areas in which government needs to adopt new strategies not to fall behind. Specifically, this report emphasizes the focus on digitalization of health care/social care, education, and protection services, including the use of assistive technologies referred to as "digital welfare." Hence, this book explores the factors potentially leading to whether state actors could be overrun by other non-governmental actors, disrupting the current status quo of welfare services. The book seeks to provide an innovative, enriching, and controversial take on society at large and how various aspects of the public sector can be, and are, affected by the ongoing digitalization process in a way that is not covered by extant literature on the market. This book takes its point of departure in Sweden given the fact that Sweden is one of the most digitalized countries in Europe, according to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), making it a pertinent research case. However, as digitalization transcends national borders, large parts of the subject matter take on an international angle. This includes cases from several other countries around Europe as well as the United States.

The extreme transformation from a traditional Communication Service Provider (CSP) to a Digital Service Provider (DSP) status is covered in this book, specifically: Redefinition of the offerings of "connectivity services" to "digital services"; unification of legacy redundant networks into one; Redefinition of the measurements to customer-centric QoE for all digital and connectivity services; the Best-in-Industry processes and practices to ensure a sustainable network performance at a competitively operational efficiency; a Service-over-IP (SoIP) platform to enable the introduction of unified new services with a time-to-market urgency; the regulatory arrangement for content purification, to liberalize CSPs to become DSPs; an architecture for data mining and analytics; and a migration plan from a CSP to a DSP status. The book is recommended for telecom and digital service professionals planning to embark on transformational projects; telecom and technology equipment manufacturers to help with product development for a DSP status; institutional investors to evaluate and establish their investment decisions; telecom management consultants to help with a solid benchmark for transformation engagement; university students, majoring in telecommunication and technology products as a guide for career planning.

Service design is the activity of utilizing resources and people to build and sustain services that not only meet customers' needs, but also add that little bit of magic or true competitive advantage. In an overcrowded marketplace there is often little opportunity to break away from the pack and influence customer perceptions; Customer-Driven Transformation demonstrates how to use design thinking as a driver for organizational change to translate your vision into compelling services that will delight your customers. How did companies like Netflix, Airbnb and Uber revolutionize industries and win loyal followers? They started here. By thinking about what customers need foremost, you can reinvent your value proposition and deliver services that work. Customer-Driven Transformation shows how to instill an outside-in approach to strategy, moving away from management that's technology, marketing or resource optimization-led, towards being customer-inspired and experimental with innovation. It is a practical guide for any business to lead a transformational programme and use design thinking to change how services are created, ensuring they are expertly designed, elegant in use and advance in customer-mindedness. With ground-breaking case studies from the likes of E.On Energy, Hyundai Motor Company and Bupa, this cutting-edge book will empower companies to take control of customer experience and deliver long-lasting and impactful change. Focusing on one of the hottest management topics, it is an inspiring read for any business leader to understand how to reinvent their value proposition, gain market share and win customers.

In a world dependent on digital technologies, business corporations continually try to stay ahead of their competitors by adopting the most updated technology into their business processes. Many companies are adopting digital transformation models, data analytics, big data, data empowerment, and data sharing as key strategies and as service disruptors for information delivery and record management. Higher education institutions have adopted digital service innovation as a core to driving their business processes. Such services are key to ensuring efficiency and improving organizational performance. Digital Transformation and Innovative Services for Business and Learning is a collection of innovative research on the latest digital services and their role in supporting the digital transformation of businesses and education. While highlighting topics including brand equality, digital banking, and generational workforce, this book is ideally designed for managers, executives, IT consultants, industry professionals, academicians, researchers, and students.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology, DESRIST 2020, held in Kristiansand, Norway, in December 2020. The 28 revised full research papers included in the volume together with 7 research-in-progress papers and 9 prototype papers, were carefully reviewed and selected from 93 submissions. They are organized in the following topical sections: digital public services; data science; design principles; methodology; platforms and networks; and service science. Due to the Corona pandemic this event was held virtually.

In this business bestseller, how companies can adapt in an era of continuous disruption: a guide to responding to such acute crises as COVID-19. Gold Medalist in Business Disruption/Reinvention. When COVID-19 hit, businesses had to respond almost instantaneously--shifting employees to remote work, repairing broken supply chains, keeping pace with dramatically fluctuating customer demand. They were forced to adapt to a confluence of multiple disruptions inextricably linked to a longer-term, ongoing digital disruption. This book shows that companies that use disruption as an opportunity for innovation emerge from it stronger. Companies that merely attempt to "weather the storm" until things go back to normal (or the next normal), on the other hand, miss an opportunity to thrive. The authors, all experts on business and technology strategy, show that transformation is not a one-and-done event, but a continuous process of adapting to a volatile and uncertain environment. Drawing on five years of research into digital disruption--including a series of interviews with business leaders conducted during the COVID-19 crisis--they offer a framework for understanding disruption and tools for navigating it. They outline the leadership traits, business principles, technological infrastructure, and organizational building blocks essential for adapting to disruption, with examples from real-world organizations. Technology, they remind readers, is not an end in itself, but enables the capabilities essential for surviving an uncertain future: nimbleness, scalability, stability, and optionality.

The focus of this review is how to save government, citizen and business time and money by examining the scope of integrating front-line service delivery. The Service Sector is an important economic bulwark in a modern society, with technology revolutionizing the way service providers interact with customers. Yet, with the continued pace of social, demographic and technological change, public service delivery is facing an increasing challenge, with a gap developing between public and private service delivery. Central Government delivers such services through departments, whilst departments make use of agents or agencies alone or in co-operation with local government. Such a system develops a transactional relationship, that is, the department focuses on the specific customer need, but does not take account of the overview, that is the Government's relationship with the citizen, who may need multiple services, but has to contact the various but separate helplines, call centres, front-line offices and websites to obtain the relevant service they require. A similar situation seems to apply to business, with the need to provide the same data to different parts of government, for different services. The report believes that a much more fundamental and widespread change is necessary if the public service economy is to match the performance of the best service providers. The Service Sector should follow international developments and learn from other countries' experiences of creating a more responsive and integrated public service. This report focuses on the opportunities for change in the channels through which services are delivered to citizens and business, especially the development of single points of contact with government to meet a range of their needs and those of business. This report builds on those published by Sir Peter Gershon (ISBN 1845320328) and Sir Michael Lyons (ISBN 1845320093) in 2004 (available on HM Treasury website).