The advent of digital technologies and the emergence of the digital and collaborative economy have had profound social impacts. Every organization is affected by these transformations and must deal with them.

New development opportunities are emerging for institutions that know how to adapt to them. In shifting the relationship with students and staff, the digital transformation is creating expectations in terms of new value-creating services for institutions (development of EdTech, certification of skill sets).

The Covid-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of what is at stake for business schools in this digital transformation. As for many companies, the pandemic has been a real «crash test» for the digital maturity of higher education institutions. The shift to digital technologies to ensure the continuity of activities was not done without hiccups, but it also constituted an opportunity for real managerial and pedagogical innovation that will bring new development opportunities for business schools.

The importance of this issue for business schools prompted the FNEGE to create a Digital Transformation Observatory, whose purpose is to support French business schools in the various transformations they need to undergo to benefit from the opportunities offered by the digital transformation. This is part of a Continuous Quality Improvement approach to managerial practices and support for business schools and faculties – core missions for the FNEGE.

The Observatory has two missions:

1. Produce a report on the digital transformation in business schools every two years, so that each school can gauge its progress and benefit from the experience and practices implemented in otherinstitutions.
2. Provide support to any institutions that want it, through a specific audit on the implementation of processes, work practices and training to face and deal with these changes.

Imed Boughzala and Aurélie Dudézert, both researchers in Management science and Information systems management on these topics, have chosen to offer their expertise to the management science community and are the coordinators of the FNEGE Digital Transformation Observatory.