Im Rahmen des Master-Studiengangs „Content Strategie“ an der FH Joanneum schrieb ich meine Masterarbeit über „Digital Strategy and Digital Governance at Universalmuseum Joanneum“. Diese Arbeit bietet die Grundlage für die Initiierung und Umsetzung des Projekts “Digitale Transformationsstrategie am Universalmuseum Joanneum” (Start Herbst 2018), welche das Joanneum Ende 2019 als erstes österreichisches Museum veröffentlichte.
Summary
Large international organisations such as the Met Museum in New York City, the Tate Museum in London, the Museum Victoria in Melbourne or the Städel Museum in Frankfurt drive the conversation around digital strategy and digital transformation.
According to a survey among museums by Axiell Group AB, more than half (53%) of survey respondents stated the digital strategy is either related to, or integrated into the institutional strategy,” showing a clear direction of where museums are heading. However, a solid digital strategy is required to ensure that digital initiatives have a lasting effect and are not disproportionately planned and implemented. Otherwise costly initiatives wont be integrated into the organizational structure, nor can technology lead to new value-added processes, thus preventing digital culture from evolving.
A digital strategy can only be successful when leadership embraces the approach and makes employees understand the importance of adoption. Therefore, this thesis should build a case for the establishment of a digital strategy at Universalmuseum Joanneum, to support both audience-facing and behind the scenes business goals. The strategy will be presented to upper management to start the process of eventually achieving buy-in from all stakeholders.
In the first chapter, the strategy for Universalmuseum Joanneum discusses digital initiatives for marketing, education and internal processes. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of this thesis discuss the importance and impact of digital governance to support the digital strategy and drive digital transformation by clearly outlining who has the authority to do what, and how things need to be done. Defining the digital team is an essential process to ensure that responsibilities are documented going forward and to achieve acceptance for digital across the board. By outlining a proposed digital strategy and making suggestions for the design ofa digital governance framework available publicly, supported by best practice examples this thesis can facilitate other museums in their process of defining a digital (transformation)strategy.