Digital Transformation in Business

You'll get an introduction to IT, strategy, transformation, disruption, and cybersecurity. Even if you don't hold an IT role in your organization, successful leaders have a strategy to navigate these considerations and stay innovative. In fact, if you're new to IT strategy and absorb the content in this module, you could be well-positioned to grow in your current role!

In this module, we will focus on infrastructure and emerging technologies. To implement a successful IT strategy, leaders need to ask the right questions and gather reliable information. Because technology is always evolving, strategies also need to be adaptable to change. You'll see in this module that even companies with well-thought plans face an IT crisis or two.

User-created internet content also generates tremendous amounts of user activity data on Facebook, Google, eBay, and other platforms. All that information created day after day is part of Big Data. When interpreted correctly, Big Data can give organizations powerful insights to inform IT decision-making. In this module, you'll explore how analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help leaders identify important patterns and make better decisions.

Making big decisions by looking at a bunch of raw data isn't easy. First, you need to extract the important information from the data and then turn that information into knowledge that can be shared through knowledge management systems. This process is delicate and hinges on factors like timeliness, accuracy, and interpretation. It's a process that innovators like Uber, Google, and Amazon excel at.

Cyberbullying on a personal level and cyberattacks on a global scale are two less appealing consequences of social media use. Nevertheless, maintaining an online presence is an important part of an organization's IT strategy. Social media offers a 2-way communication platform on a global scale. Social media can be an important and effective listening device. Positive or negative, customers will let you know how you're doing in online reviews, and those reviews can directly influence current and future customers -- especially if a review goes #viral. On the bright side, a firm can use those opportunities to respond and to change its practices when appropriate. Social media also gives a firm the ability to see how competitors are reacting to their own challenges. Ultimately, knowing when to broadcast and when to listen is a major challenge for any organization.