Prospectus

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Impact Challenge KPN: Building a Bridge between Tech and Business

Course
2022-2023

Admission requirements

This course is an (extracurricular) Impact Challenge aimed at third year bachelor's students and master’s students. Students should apply with a general business idea or an area of interest/challenge they would like to address during the course.

Topics

Sales, Technology, IT, Change, Digital security, Corporate communication, Cloud & Workplace technology

Disciplines

IT, Telecom, Communication, Leadership

Skills

Collaborating, Oral communication, Written communication, Reflecting

Description

These days cloud services are an integral part of our daily lives, for consumers as well as businesses. KPN is a leading corporation in cloud computing and currently we are developing new cloud infrastructure solutions that will have a major impact on the way people work. Developing such solutions is not as easy it appears, because in our Cloud & Workspace department we experience a tension between the sales side and the development side.

There are different professionals, with different roles, working at these two sides. The sales professionals are in contact with clients, have sales targets, and expect that the development side can cater to their requests. The development side, on the other hand, is comprised of engineers and developers, who focus on the technical possibilities and don’t feel understood by the sales side. While there is always some tension between sales and development, and some tension can be productive to push everyone to do their best, at this moment it has become unproductive.

We are therefore looking for an analysis of how to bridge the gap. Which interventions are useful to make the natural tension work for us? How can we improve the internal communication and cooperation?

This project allows you to get a thorough understanding of the way a corporate works and provides you with knowledge of current technologies. Cloud & Workplace is a large and important department within KPN, and we would like to improve its visibility within KPN. We therefore welcome the fresh perspectives of students. You will have the opportunity to conduct interviews and propose your solutions, that can make a real-life impact at KPN.

Course objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • work within a team of students with diverse backgrounds;

  • work in a project-based manner;

  • analyse a real-life problem from within KPN from multiple angles;

  • involve and interview multiple stakeholders;

  • incorporate feedback into their product(s);

  • reflect critically upon the current operational practices of KPN;

  • present their results to a variety of stakeholders within KPN;

  • display professional behaviour within a corporate environment;

  • reflect on their personal progress, role within their team and their experience with working within a company like KPN.

Programme and timetable

The program will look as follows:

  • Kick off on Monday, 31 October 15.00 - 18.00

  • Weekly (online) progress meetings on Tuesdays (Time to be determined with the group)

  • Final presentation project results in June

  • Other activities (interviews, meetings, etc.) to be determined together with the course coordinator and other group members

Approximate time investment: 8-10 hours per week

Location:

KPN Teleportboulevard, Amsterdam Sloterdijk
Kickoff: KPN Headquarters, Wilhelminaplein 123, Rotterdam

Reading list

Reading materials will be provided by the course coordinator

Course load and teaching method

This course is worth 10 ECTS, which means the total course load equals 280 hours, or about 8-10 hours per week, on average.

  • Plenary meetings: 4 of 2 hours = 8 hours;

  • Sessions with coach: 12 sessions of 1 hour = 12 hours;

  • Independent group work: 140 hours;

  • Literature reading: approx. 30 hours;

  • Final report: 80 hours;

  • Final presentation: 10 hours

Assessment methods

The assessment methods will look as follows:

Individual assessment:

  • 30% Individual reflection report

Group assessment:

  • 50% Advisory report or another final product;

  • 20% Presentation of (intermediate) results.
    The class will be evaluated in a qualitative manner (sufficient/amply sufficient/good, etc).

Students could only pass this course after successful completion of all partial exams.

Brightspace

The Brightspace environment of Leiden University will not be used in this course.

Registration process

Applying for this course is possible from Monday 12 September up to and including Sunday 25 September 23:59 through this link.
Applicants are asked which challenge they want to work on. In their motivation they have to reflect on their affinity and/or experience with the topic.

Please note: students are not required to register through uSis for Impact Challenges. Your registration will be done centrally.

Contact

impactchallenges@ha.leidenuniv.nl