Research Center Name Change Reflects Evolving Digital Business Environment

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (March 1, 2007) – The eBusiness Research Center at Penn State's Smeal College of Business is changing its name today to the Center for Digital Transformation to more accurately reflect its focus on the continually evolving impact of information and communications technologies on global business.

The function of the research center, to further research, teaching, and outreach to help businesses realize the challenges and opportunities presented by the digital economy, remains the same.

The Center for Digital Transformation brings corporate executives together with leading academics in the fields of entrepreneurship, information sciences, management, marketing, supply chain, and more, to study how the use of networked digital resources alters competition, strategy, and execution.

The name change developed in conjunction with the arrival of Dean James Thomas, a scholar of management and organization who has extensively studied alignment of information technology and corporate strategy.

"As the business environment becomes increasingly global and digital, executives are facing new kinds of issues, whether in security, leadership of distributed workforces, investor transparency, cycle time, and many others," Thomas noted.  "In many cases, how well the company navigates technology adoption and deployment determines its market success."

"Today's corporations are relying more and more on digital technologies and communications," said John Jordan, executive director of the center. "This digitization process changes business practice in fundamental and often unforeseen ways. In the end, even basic concepts such as work, assets, and transactions are challenged."

The Center for Digital Transformation relies on industry research partners, led by AT&T, SAP, Verizon, and Xerox. Current investigations include security, services architectures, vertical search, risk management, technology deployment among small and medium enterprises, decision quality, and multi-channel customer service optimization.

The center's semi-annual research forum is scheduled for May 15 and 16 on the "Risks and Opportunities in the Data Economy." Leading academics and executives will discuss security and privacy issues as well as analyze some emerging opportunities that arise from today’s networked business environment.

To coincide with the name change, the Center for Digital Transformation is launching its new Web site today at www.smeal.psu.edu/cdt. The site describes in depth the goals of the center, identifies current projects, and offers access to center publications.

It's also home to an e-newsletter, Early Indications, which Jordan has written since 1997. Each month, Early Indications analyzes emerging business trends, tracks potentially important industry developments, and offers predictions on everything from the next major consumer technology to tech buzzwords for the coming year.

The center will soon introcude its new RSS feed of the newsletter—a first for Smeal. Subscribers will be able to choose to receive the newsletter via e-mail or RSS.

For details on this and other projects of the Center for Digital Transformation, visit www.smeal.psu.edu/cdt. To request an invitation to the center's "Risks and Opportunities in the Data Economy" conference, contact Heather Weikel at hmw2@psu.edu.