The digital economy relies on innovative, advanced technologies in both the manufacturing and service sectors to improve products and processes. What this means for factories and production floors is that manufacturing processes are enhanced through cyberphysical integration of assembly lines. It involves digitalization and automation using devices, sensors, and robotics for work processes. It also facilitates connectivity through the integration of information, computing, and networking to improve manufacturing productivity, customization, flexibility, predictability, and performance.
For the service sector, which includes professional services and financial technology (fintech) firms, however, the methods are quite different. Productivity is often enhanced through measures and techniques aimed at protecting the integrity of data, computing devices, and other systems from damage or theft, and preventing disruption to the system’s overall functionality. Specific measures may include encryption, cyberintelligence, and the development of security control mechanisms to reduce risks. It also involves collecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data to discover useful information and provide critical insights. Such value-added services in data and business analytics are geared toward informed decision making.

This e-learning course will focus on introducing productivity and innovation tools, techniques, and methodologies in the service sector to acquaint participants with the latest solutions. The knowledge gained and sharing of experience will prepare participants to advance smart transformation ideas and initiatives across APO member countries and therefore prepare them for the digital economy.

This course has the following objectives.

1) Discuss the latest productivity concepts, tools, and methodologies for service-sector enterprises.

2) Introduce innovation-led productivity improvement solutions for the service sector in the digital economy era, including big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and cloud solutions.

Module 1: Service-sector productivity and innovation for the digital economy and Quiz 1

Module 2: Applications of productivity solutions in the service sector and Quiz 2 

Module 3: Data analytics, cloud computing, and AI contributions to labor productivity in service enterprises and Quiz 3

Module 4: Case studies of productivity and innovation in the digital economy and Quiz 4

Module 5: Summary and future directions for service productivity and innovation in the digital economy and Quiz 5

Final examination