DIREC Industrial PhD project: Business transformation and organisational decision making based on AI & process mining

Industrial PhD fellow in Business transformation and organisational decision making based on AI & process mining

Description of the company environment

DCR Solutions was founded in February 2018 with the mission to revolutionize the 8+ billion USD Business Process Management market with a scientifically founded ground-breaking new approach to 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 and 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 that guarantees digital compliance. Our products consist of the DCR Portal where business owners can configure and analyze their business processes, and the DCR Process Engine that is delivered through 3rd party software providers like KMD WorkZone or SBSYS. DCR now has 10 FTE as well as some part-time students. DCR Solutions is a diverse place with six different nationalities in the team. Development is done mostly offshore in Islamabad Pakistan, with research, innovation and core DCR competences handled in Denmark.

Description of the scientific environment

The Department of Digitalization, where the PhD student will be enrolled, cares about the interaction of people, data and technology in all of its manifestations. We conduct research within the following research areas related to information technology and information systems: Design, Implementation, Use and Exploitation, Information Management. The Department’s research is organized to create opportunities for collaboration and to accommodate for the fast-moving pace and radical innovation that characterizes the IT field. This is achieved by organizing part of the research around themes that address societal or business challenges. The themes are topical, popular, inter-disciplinary and dynamic in nature.

More information on the department and research themes can be found on the website:

https://www.cbs.dk/en/research/departments-and-centres/department-of-digitalization

The PhD student will via the co-supervisor also be affiliated to the software, data, people & society research section at department of computer science, University of Copenhagen. See the website for more information and research themes:

https://di.ku.dk/english/research/sdps/

Project description

The PhD project will focus on the role of AI and business process management (BPM) technologies, in particular rule-based process mining and responsible methods for the use of process insights in organisational decision making and business transformation. Through field studies in organizations that are using AI, BPM and process mining techniques you will investigate how organizations implement, use and create value (both operational and strategic) through AI, BPM and process mining techniques. In particular, the project will focus on how organizational decision-making changes with the implementation of AI-based algorithms in terms of decision making skills (intuitive + analytical) of the decision makers, their roles and responsibilities, their decision rights and authority and the decision context.

As PhD candidate you will be enrolled at the PhD School at CBS and employed at DCR Solutions, becoming part of a highly research driven team. DCR Solutions currently employs two Industrial Postdocs, one as part of the EcoKnow project, another as the main researcher on the DREAM project both partly funded by Innovation Fund Denmark. Our CTO, Søren Debis, is an associate professor at IT University, working four days a week for DCR Solutions. The industrial supervisor, Morten Marquard, is founder and CEO of DCR Solutions, and had an industrial PhD student, 2012-2014 together with the co-supervisor, Thomas Hildebrandt. The DCR technology is currently used by more than 20 customers in mainly Denmark, which will provide real life experience for your research.

The PhD project is affiliated to the DIREC Digital Research Centre Denmark initiated in 2020 (Direc.dk) and part of the AI and Blockchains for Complex Business Processes  project, which investigates methods and tools that enable industry to develop new efficient solutions for exploiting the huge amount of business data generated by enterprise systems. Topics researched in the project range from techniques for automatic identification of business events, via the development of new rule-based process mining technologies to tools and responsible methods for the use of process insights for business intelligence and transformation.

As a strong candidate, you should understand traditional AI and BPM methods, have a business or social sciences background and preferably experience in business process management. During your PhD project, you are expected to both advance the foundations of the field of Artificial Intelligence Implementation and Use in business process management and organizations and to build actual business frameworks based on novel ideas. The results of the PhD project are expected to be published in top venues in Information Systems and Management.

Principal supervisor is Associate Professor Arisa Shollo, Department of Digitalization. Co-supervisor is Professor Thomas Hildebrandt, Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen. Industrial supervisor is Morten Marquard, CEO, DCR Solutions.

Job description

The position is available for a 3-year period and your key tasks as an industrial PhD student at DCR Solutions and enrolled at the department of Digitalization are:

• To manage and carry through your research project

• Attend PhD courses

• Write scientific articles and your PhD thesis

• Teach and disseminate your research

• To stay at an external research institution for a few months, preferably abroad

• Work for the department at the company

Formal requirements

Applicants should hold an MSc degree with good results and good English skills. As criteria for the assessment of your qualifications, emphasis will be laid on previous publications (if any) and your educational background in the relevant areas.

Terms of employment

You will be employed by DCR Solutions. As a PhD the terms and conditions will follow terms and conditions for a traditional PhD working at a university, as outlined by Dansk Magisterforening https://dm.dk/english/phd/terms-of-employment-for-phd-students excluding terms for parental leave, where DCR Solutions offers you parental allowance according to Danish laws and regulations.

Application Procedure

The application, in English, must be submitted electronically by applying here on thehub.

Please include

• Cover Letter, stating your motivation and background for applying for the specific PhD project.

• A short research proposal. (Max 2 pages.)

• CV

• Diploma and transcripts of records (BSc and MSc)

• Other information for consideration, e.g. list of publications (if any),

• Full contact details (Name, address, telephone & email) of 1-3 professional referees

As the system on TheHub.io only allows you to upload one document, please append documents into one document before applying. If you have already applied please resend missing documents to mm[AT]dcrsolutions.net.

DCR Solutions and the University wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.

*The deadline for applications is 17th of May 2021, 23:59 GMT +2.

After the expiry of the deadline for applications, applicants are selected for assessment on the advice of the three advisors. Afterwards the advisors will evaluate the selected applications. The applicants will be notified of the composition of the committee and the final selection of a successful candidate will be made by the CEO of DCR Solutions, based on the recommendations of the advisors.

The main criterion for selection will be the research potential of the applicant and the above mentioned skills. The successful candidate will then be requested to formally apply for enrolment as a PhD student at the CBS PhD school. You can read more about the recruitment process at https://www.cbs.dk/en/research/phd-programmes/admission.

Questions

For specific information about the PhD scholarship, please contact the principal supervisor  Associate Professor Arisa Shollo, Department of Digitalization, ash.digi AT cbs.dk.

General information about PhD programmes at CBS is available at https://www.cbs.dk/en/research/phd-programme.