Strategic Technologies: Innovation in Higher Education in Romania

Technology is seen as an enabler for gaining new capabilities in universities. Nowadays, higher education institutions have seen how technology enhances the competitive advantage for not only the business environment but as well for their teachers and students. Innovation is mainstream and is creating opportunities to access and learn technologies that were not possible before. Universities should no longer be behind technology compared with other sectors. Although this is not yet explored, new technologies that as next-generation security, the blockchain, cloud, AI conversational interface, and digital credentials can be leverage from different industries. Innovative thinking on the basis of which institutions collaborate with various suppliers, distributors and customers to generate unique value easily replaces the traditional thinking that considers innovation as a property and marketing activity as a static show in one direction. Personalization is the key to offering quality services, and this is what disruptive technologies are offering. Universities have to focus on technologies that are appropriate for their strategy but at the same time to align with key market trends. Students are being more informed and empowered by personal devices that help and assist them in fulfilling their tasks and goals. Anticipating and meeting their needs and expectations suppose automating process and increasing digitization offering in universities. People and things are exchanging data at every moment. The barrier between the digital world and the physical world is crumbling which implies that higher education institutes need to be aligned with them for attracting and retaining students. The most significant technological opportunity for today's institution is to reduce total spend by targeted IT investments that are converted from fixed capital models to a variable cost operating models. Collaboration and co-creation are increasingly crucial for creating value for students and teachers."value" (including the age-old issue of cost optimization) but also higher levels of customer experience.