Onto-digital: an ontology-based model for digital transformation’s knowledge

Published Online December 2018 in MECS DOI: 10.5815/ijitcs.2018.12.01

• I.    Introduction

  The latest reports on digital transformation [1] highlight an exponential trend of companies digitalization. It concerns more specifically the industrial enterprise with the industry 4.0 concept. The level of digitization of the industrial enterprise being of 33% in 2016, studies affirm that in 2 years this level will increase by 39% arriving to 72% in 2020.

The digital transformation is therefore the cornerstone of any business development strategy. It is at the root of a socio-economic transformation, achieved by the massive adoption of ICT to generate, process and share information [2].

In the enterprise context, digital transformation is the integration of ICT in; the value chain, the supply and access to the products and services provided by the company.

The reflection on the digital transformation can be organized on three main axes, which the following questions express: Why to digitize a company? What are the dimensions to consider when digitizing a company? And how to digitize a company?

Numerous papers have examined the why of the digitalization of the company, mainly supporting the strong socio-economic impact of the digital transformation, of which [3,4].

As for the remaining questions, of what and how of digitalize a company, and because of the urgency and the need to follow the companies digital transformation impulse, this paper proposes to look into these two questions in order to propose a knowledge model that represents all the dimensions related to digital transformation.

A literature review allowed identifying the different paths of digital transformation, through ICT integration models. In fact, various prototypes are proposed in the studied papers, most of them are adjusted to a particular sector. From these models inventory, we have been able to identify the main pillars of the digital transformation, and also detect a kind of complementarity between these models, insofar as each of these models tackles the digital transformation with a specific vision. Precisely, the reflection on this transformation is often established according to a distinct nail of sight and delimited by the nature of the activity, which is not of less importance. However, it is necessary to consider the digital transformation, outside sectoral limitations, as an economic development model by identifying all the conceptual components that can directly or indirectly impact digitalization, and thus to study the possibilities of designing a digital transformation knowledge model.

In this paper, we have relied on the analysis of the existing literature dealing with digital transformation, whether in a generic way, or of the three main branch of activity, namely education, health and industry in order to build a digital transformation knowledge model adaptable to the activity area targeted by digitalization.

The proposed model is based on an ontology representing the knowledge of digital transformation, in order to guide ICT integration in the company. This ontology, adjustable to any activity area, includes the fundamental pillars of digitalization.

The opportunity of this ontology, in comparison with other approaches of digital transformation models, is the exhaustiveness of the conceptual components composing it. This is what supports its generic character and extends its exploitation possibilities.

Targeting the design of a digital transformation knowledge model, this paper is organized into 7 sections. The second section deals with the literature review. The third, is about building methodology of the knowledge model to prepare the identification of digitalization’s knowledge of the fourth section and the construction of the digital transformation knowledge model introduced in the fifth section. The sixth and seventh section presents the research synthesis, conclusion and perspectives of this work.

• II.    Literature Review

In order to devote a generic reflection on digital transformation knowledge model, we relied on a literature review, targeting ICT integration models in different sectors of activity, and motivated by the hereafter research question; what are the digital transformation models proposed by the literature?

The models we met include a significant number of methods, concepts and assumptions that we have collected and organized by business sector in order to optimize the data analysis and the knowledge extraction in relation with the digital question.

The digitization of the education sector is one of the concrete cases that have followed the exponential pace of ICT evolution and use. E-Education aims to improve / create new learning processes, so current education reforms focus on integrating ICT into the school through strategic plans for ICT adoption, development and innovation [5,6].

Several models are therefore proposed by the literature, varying in the approach adopted for the integration of ICT in schools, but there are many fundamental components towards which these models converge, among others, the pedagogic, technological or cultural axis [7,8].

The same goes for e-Health, this concept has emerged post-deployment of ICT in the health sector, and aimed to improve medical services and the patient’s quality of life, which means, diagnosis, treatment, prevention against diseases, etc. [9]. The technological opportunity has been seized to inject a particular dynamism into health systems currently designed on the basis of ICT adoption. This is confirmed by the identified models, which focus, inter alia, on technological, informational and other components.

As for the industry sector, the new impetus of digitization that knows this sector is unique. The digitization of the factory, or the industry 4.0, is an industrial revolution allowing innovation, cost reduction, a better cover of needs, optimal solutions, intelligent systems and alternatives to the production on demand [10].

ICT integration in the industrial enterprise has implied major transformations including; the establishment of global networks integrating machines, warehouses and means of production involving intelligent machines, storage systems and production facilities capable of exchanging information, triggering actions and selfcontrolling [10].

ICT integration models identified vary according to the axes constituting them, including; technological, organizational, informational, etc.

Though this sectorial organization of ICT integration models identified in the literature, we were able to identify the main dimensions / knowledge proposed by each sector of activity. We have subsequently ranked them by level of abstraction as presented in the following sections.

The literature review, not only nourished our thinking about ICT integration models, but also provided a point of reference to assess the paper’s study and to evaluate its contribution and scope.

We review in the following some examples of ICT integration approaches covering the pioneering business sectors of development, namely: education, health and industry.

• A.    Education

  ICTs enable us to create, collect, store and use knowledge and information, to connect people and resources around the world, to contribute in knowledge creation, to share and to benefit from knowledge (ICT in the primary school, Learning and teaching with ICT, 2002). ICT integration in schools has been able to improve the quality of teaching and learning. However, it is a complex process involving fundamental changes. There are, moreover, different methodologies for ICT adoption in schools [11] presenting all considerable challenges.

In the paper [12], the key components of a generic model guiding ICT integration in education are pedagogy, social interaction and technology. The educational system is thus the correlation of these dimensions [13]. Pedagogy is the set of approaches used to teach and facilitate learning. The social aspect in a learning environment involves; communication, exchange and sharing of information between individuals. As for technology, it involves ICT tools used in teaching/learning process.