Abstract:

Implementation of the business process management concept at universities has crucially contributed to abandoning traditional and introducing innovative processes in recent years. In particular, information technologies serve as not only means of automation but also a method of altering the approach to conducting business operations. Information technologies either facilitate or hinder the use of faster, better and more cost-effective solutions for implementing business processes. This article presents, examines and discusses the concept of cloud computing, cloud standards, available services, and the possibilities of their implementation in supporting business processes in higher education.

The analysis of universities' business processes identified four mega processes - the learning and teaching process, the research process, the enabling processes and the planning and governance processes, and subsequent decomposition identified numerous major processes.The article analyses the possibilities and methods of supporting the universities’ processes making the greatest contribution to their innovative and entrepreneurial component in the area of conducting educational and research work. A special focus is placed on the potential benefits, risks and limitations of the application of cloud computing and adoption strategies contributing to their accomplishment. Depending on the degree of utilisation of cloud computing, the possible cloud architectures for universities, contributing to the implementation of the virtual university concept, are also analysed.

Finally, the article provides a detailed overview of university study programes studying courses with contents from the area of cloud computing, and the perspectives and further avenues of their research.

Keywords:

Cloud computing, university, potentials, benefits.