[AISWorld] Final CfP Book "The Digital Transformation of the Consulting Industry"

[Nissen Volker Prof. Dr. TU Ilmenau]

Dear colleagues,



the deadline for submitting abstracts to the edited book on

"The Digital Transformation of the Consulting Industry"

is approaching (5. Dec.).

I would be happy to receive contributions from this community.



With best wishes,
Volker Nissen
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Prof. Dr. Volker Nissen
Chair of Business & Information Systems Engineering in Services

University of Technology Ilmenau
Faculty of Economic Sciences and Media
Institute of Business & Information Systems Engineering
P.O. Box 10 05 65
D-98684 Ilmenau
Germany

Phone.: +49 (0) 3677 69-4043      (Sec.: -4047    Mrs G. Franz)
Fax.: +49 (0) 3677 69-4219
volker.nissen at tu-ilmenau.de
http://www.tu-ilmenau.de/wid
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Apologies for cross-postings.


CALL  FOR  PAPERS

for an edited book entitled
“The Digital Transformation of the Consulting Industry”


Editor: Volker Nissen
Institute of Business Informatics
University of Technology Ilmenau, Germany
https://www.tu-ilmenau.de/wid/
volker.nissen at tu-ilmenau.de<mailto:volker.nissen at tu-ilmenau.de>

About the Editor:
Prof. Nissen has more than twelve years of practical experience in IT-consulting. Since 2005 he holds the Chair of Business & Information Systems Engineering in Services at the University of Technology Ilmenau, Germany. Consulting Research is one of his main focus areas in academic research. Ilmenau is one of the top 5 educators in Business Informatics at University level in Germany, according to the 2016 survey of Wirtschaftswoche.

Publisher: Springer
Book is scheduled to be published in 2017.

Theme of the Book:
Consulting companies face new challenges today. These challenges, on the one hand, consist of the increased professionalism and price consciousness of the clients. On the other hand, a change to a buyer's market as well as high competitive pressure on standard services has been observed for years. In order to remain strong in the market, consultancies need to critically evaluate their own business model as well as the way they provide their consulting services. The digitization of consulting processes and services can be an innovative strategy for securing the success of the company and supplement the classical consulting portfolio with new, technology-based ‘virtual‘ services. The virtualization of consulting services can basically be understood as a continuum with different degrees of digitization. Its extreme points are determined on the one hand by a merely supportive use and on the other by an exclusive use of information and communication technology in consulting services.
By rethinking the delivery process of consulting itself consultancies can reshape the interaction with the client and reach new groups of clients. Using state-of-the-art technology enables consulting providers to deliver customized solutions anytime and anywhere while the individual work load of consultants can be optimized. The downside of such virtualized services is the reduced direct interaction of clients and consultants and thus the risk of a weaker client-consultant-relationship.
Digital transformation in the consulting industry is a complex process that will substantially reshape the interaction with the client and change the traditional roles of the actors. This requires a high degree of creativity and strategic thinking that reaches far beyond the pure 1:1 transfer of conventional consulting processes into the virtual world. This book will offer orientation and advice to anyone concerned with the digital transformation of consulting.

Topics of Contributions:
Basically all topics related to the general theme of the book are acceptable. Examples include, but are not limited to the following issues:

•       Extending the traditional delivery model of consulting beyond people business – ways and means of virtualizing consulting services and processes

•       Chances/Benefits and Risks/Disadvantages of digital business model innovations in consulting

•       The customer view on digital consulting

•       Security issues in digital consulting services

•       Fully automated consulting solutions

•       Differences in digitization strategies relating either to the consulting field (strategy, organization, IT, HR) or the consulting approach (assessments, expert consulting, coaching etc.)

•       Comparing the situation in different countries and consulting markets

•       The status quo of the digital transformation in the various consulting fields

•       Assessing the virtualization potential of consulting services and processes

•       Organizing the digital transformation of consulting services

•       Integrating digital consulting services with a classical consulting portfolio

•       Examples of digital consulting services, methods, tools and other artifacts

•       Digitization in closely related fields, such as legal consulting, assurance and auditing, or wealth management – what can we learn here for business consulting?

•       Comparisons between digitization in knowledge-intensive professional services and other branches of industry

•       How digitization will influence the consulting market

•       Relation between digitization and outsourcing in consulting

•       Digitization and Inhouse-Consulting

•       Underlying principles and technologies of digital consulting services, such as modularization, standardization, knowledge modelling, automated and case-based reasoning, mobile applications, cloud, big data, IoT, social networks etc.

•       What consulting might look like in the future
Empirical as well as design-oriented research is welcome.

Types of Contributions:
Two types of contributions with a different focus are welcome:

•        Scientific research papers should have approx. 15 – 20 pages. They must include a clear research question related to the theme of the book, outline the research methodology and discuss the results at an academic level.

•        Application-oriented papers should have approx. 8 – 12 pages. They must describe the design, implementation and practical results of sample applications, demonstrating the relevance of digitization in the context of consulting services.
All contributions must be in English language. A Word-template will be provided to prospective authors after 5. Dec. 2016. Original research is preferred. However, as the book intends to collect state-of-the-art contributions on the digital transformation in consulting, submissions may have been published before. In this case, they must be substantially revised in order to avoid a copyright infringement. The copyright will have to be transferred to Springer by the corresponding author of each contribution.

Schedule for Contributors:

•       Prospective authors should send an Extended Abstract of 2 – 4 pages to the editor until
5. Dec. 2016. The abstract must clearly communicate the core contribution of the intended paper and the methodology used to achieve the results. If a full paper is available at this stage, please send the full paper instead of an abstract. All submissions then undergo an editorial review process, based on thematic conformity with the general theme of the book, originality and quality.

•       Authors of contributions not suitable for the book will be informed on 19. Dec. 2016 at the latest. All other submissions are conditionally accepted, provided a full paper according to academic standards is submitted until 12. Feb. 2017. Two types of contributions are possible: scientific research papers and application-oriented papers (see above).

•       Information about final acceptance/rejection of papers or required revisions will be sent out until 6. March 2017.

•       Final versions of papers are due on 3. April 2017.

Please feel free to forward this CfP to interested colleagues. If questions arise regarding the submission deadline or potential topics, please contact the editor at  volker.nissen at tu-ilmenau.de<mailto:volker.nissen at tu-ilmenau.de> .

This CfP is also available at our website:
https://www.tu-ilmenau.de/wid/DigitalTransformationOfTheConsultingIndustryCfP/