Study 1: Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs

The first study was carried out in 2016 on behalf of Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS 2016). When The basis is over 12,000 qualitative interviews with various people Employees from Germany across all industries and hierarchical levels. More thematic The focus was on the design of work models in companies with the Focus on place / time, use of technology, education, social security and participation.

The active design of the place of work and the According to the experts questioned, working hours should be an essential criterion for the The future of work. Teleworking, remote working and Home office. Part-time models and flexitime should also be important working models in the context of digitization, according to the study.

Another focus is the use of Technology in Business. So should the use of computers, of modern Software as well as Industry 4.0 applications are a decisive factor Play a role in everyday work, which means that the time in front of computer screens will increase significantly and standard tasks are increasingly being outsourced to technology become.

The next focus relates to the topic (Further education. Due to the increased use of computers it is becoming increasingly common expected higher qualifications. The further training in the form of Computer courses is a crucial aspect here. In addition, for so-called ‘Low wage earners’ (e.g. unskilled workers) run the risk of the current job could be automated, putting this professional group at risk is.

Another aspect is social security. It shows that the security of professional careers and employment contracts is lower has become, even in large corporations, which has long been considered comparative certainly counted. By contrast, the risk of job loss has in many Professions increased. The study participants confirm an increased Insecurity on the job market and show a need for social security by the state or for a secure job z. B. in public sector.

The last focus concerns employee participation in the company. A distinction is made between collective and individual co-determination: At the collective level, employee representatives and the exchange of employee representatives with board members are required. At the individual level, more influence on one’s own field of activity, on the degree of self-realization at work and on personal advancement should be enabled.

Study 2: IDG Research Center

The second study was from the IDG research center (2018) carried out. The aim was to examine the workplace in context of digitization. Over 300 IT managers and 300 Interviewed company experts. The focus of the study is adaptation of the entire IT in the workplace to the requirements of employees and Customers.

They see the biggest challenges at the moment surveyed study participants on the following points:

• Adaptation of the IT infrastructure (50,9 %),
• Data security (48%),
• Setting standards (26%),
• Effective linking of IT (22.5%) and
• Replacement of legacy systems (19.6%).

In addition, the most important wishes of employees in the workplace were included in the study. Above all, the following were mentioned: flexible working hours, fast and efficient IT, a feel-good atmosphere at the workplace thanks to new office concepts, ergonomics and teamwork as well as a large number of self-services in the IT area. In addition to efficient IT, realizing these wishes often involves renovating existing office space. The following illustration shows what you want.

Another point in the study relates to the hardware and software equipment in the workplace. The hardware such as smartphones, several monitors, tablets and the cooperation of the mentioned hardware z. B. by integrating software or docking stations. On the other hand, software for video conferencing and chat systems are mentioned. In this point, too, the cooperation of the software is important for the study participants (see figure).

Conclusion

According to the experts questioned, the active design of the place of work and working hours should be an essential criterion for the future of work. The studies provide numerous information on hardware and software. In addition, the most important wishes of employees in the workplace were included in the study. In addition to efficient IT, realizing these wishes often involves renovating existing office space.

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BMAS. (2016). World of values 4.0. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.bmas.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/PDF-Publikationen/Forschungsberichte/wertewelten-arbeiten-vier-null.pdf;jsessionid=DD818B61A983EC4DBBC558215A0DCC78?__blob=publicationFile&v=2

IDG 2018 – Workplace of the Future – https://www.arbeitsplatzderzukunft.de/wp-content/uploads/IDG-Studie_Arbeitsplatz-der-Zukunft_2018.pdf

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Der Beitrag Current studies on work 4.0 erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Study 1: Müller et al. 2016

The first study was by Müller et al. (2016) carried out. On the basis of a survey of over 60 companies, the authors found that new business models in particular with the help of technology require high investment costs and are therefore still rather hesitant to be implemented. According to the study participants, such investments in digital business models are much more difficult to approve, evaluate and justify compared to traditional investments and are generally considered to be riskier.

In addition to the costs (50%), the following aspects are cited as current obstacles for digital business models:

• Lack of staff and knowledge (38%),
• No need (31%) and
• No management support (30%).

According to the study, companies in the SME sector in particular often have less need to introduce digital business models due to long supply contracts with customers. Other obstacles are legal framework conditions such as data protection and often patenting options.

Still, companies are currently trying to do this new business models implement. The goals to be emphasized are the creation of availability and the individuality of one’s own services with regard to the customers. Special drivers are:

• Internal ideas (57%),
• Profiling in the market (49%),
• Subsidies (46%),
• Partnerships (44%) and
• Availability of skilled workers (43%).

Study 2: IHK 2019

Another study was carried out by the IHK (2019) in the Stuttgart area. Almost 300 companies with fewer than 500 employees, whose core activity is the production of material or physical products, were surveyed.

According to the participants, the most important objectives of new business models are:

• Development of new products or services (41%),
• Cost reduction (30%),
• New sales channels (26%),
• Quality improvements (23%) and
• New business areas (24%).

Excursus: e-commerce as a sales channel

New sales channels in particular are widespread in the current business world. One example is your own online shop to sell products on the Internet and to enter the e-commerce sector. But what is e-commerce? E-Commerce is the English form for electronic commerce on the Internet.

For implementation, companies often resort to existing ones due to a lack of know-how E-commerce solutions back. An e-commerce consultancy or e-commerce agency can often help. Often these are from the secret capital of e-commerce Berlin.

The majority do not see the core business as being threatened

In general, over two thirds of the study participants currently see no threat in their core business digital business models of potential competitors and rate the current existing business model in the traditional market with 80% as the most important source of income. The use of new business models should, however, mainly be tested in the company’s traditional market. Only 20% of the participants aim to test a new business model in new markets. In particular, the technologies are to be used in the areas of business initiation, customer support and monitoring the quality of services / production (Figure).

Conclusion

As I said at the end, 2/3 of the participants currently see no threat in their core business from digital business models. A special focus is currently on the use of the traditional business model under new sales channels such as online shops and new customer service such as chats. Only 20% of the participants aim to test a new business model in new markets.

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Simon C. Müller, Markus Böhm, Marina Schröer, Alexander Bakhirev, Bogdan-Cristian Baiasu, Prof. Helmut Krcmar, PIMW (2016). Business models in the digital economy. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/156641/1/StuDIS_2016-13.pdf

Chamber of Commerce Stuttgart. (2017). Digital business models. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.isi.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/isi/dokumente/ccp/2017/Lerch_et_al_2017_Digitale_Geschaeftsmodelle.pdf

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Der Beitrag Current studies on digital business models erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

In the course of my research, I analyzed two studies, which I would like to explain in this article, to show the current state of agility.

Study 1: Status Quo Agile Methods

The first study was carried out by Komus (2020). With the help of an online survey, over 600 specialists were asked about the current use and importance of agile methods. The survey shows that the vast majority of the respondents’ projects are currently organized in a mixed manner, i.e. contain agile and classic elements. According to the participants, the proportion of consistently agile projects is 20%. In addition, the majority of the projects focus on software development and IT-related topics (see Figure X). According to the study, almost 90% of the specified consistently agile projects can be found in the IT area. Reasons for using hybrid approaches are often internal framework conditions or the difficult implementation of agile methods.

According to the study participants, the main reasons for using agile methods are:

• Optimization of the product development speed (56%),
• Optimization of the product development quality (39%),
• Reduction of risks (38%) and
• Optimization of employee satisfaction (35%).

In the study, 85% of the participants stated that the continuous or partial use of agile methods led to an improvement in a certain form. Only 15% did not experience any change. At the same time, 70% of the participants surveyed confirm that the effort was significantly higher than expected. The main agile methods used are:

• Scrum (55%),
• Kanban (25%),
• DevOps (20%) and
• Design Thinking (15%).

As mentioned, agile methods are increasingly being used with classic approaches. According to the participants, the most important elements adopted by the agile methods are:

• Spring Planning (82%),
• Daily Scrum (82%),
• User stories (80%),
• Product backlogs (80%),
• Sprint Review (78%),
• Sprint retrospective (77%),
• Kanban boards (77%).

A last essential point are frameworks with the help of which agility is to be scaled through the combination of methods in the company. More than two thirds of the respondents reject these frameworks. The reasons for this are that the focus is currently on establishing at team level or that there is insufficient knowledge of how to use the framework in the company. The most important frameworks mentioned by the other participants are:

• Scaled Agile Framework (54%),
• In-house development (35%),
• Large Scaled Agile (23%),
• Spotify model (16%),
• Nexus (15%).

Study 2: Perceived Agility

Together with the University of St. Gallen, the consulting company Campana und Schott conducted interviews with over 500 executives on the subject of agility across all industries in 2019. The focus should be on the managers’ assessment of the agility of their own company.

According to the figure, almost three thirds of the participants noticed an increase in the agility of the company. The increases relate to the following areas:

• Speed of task completion (90%),
• Employee satisfaction (81%),
• Business performance (79%) and
• Team orientation (74%).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that agile methods have become an important part of companies and have shown significant improvements in some areas. It was particularly evident that the key to success is not using the entire method, but rather individual agile best practices. The following applies: Constructive agility in parts of the company increases the perceived agility.

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Campana bulkhead. (2019). Future Organization Report 2019. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.campana-schott.com/de/de/unternehmen/media-events/studien/future-organization-report

Komus, A. (2020). Result report: Status Quo Scaled Agile 2019/20. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.process-and-project.net/studien/studienunterseiten/status-quo-scaled-agile-2020/

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Der Beitrag Current studies on agility erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Study 1: CRISP 2018

In the first study, the influence of automation on corporate success was assessed on the basis of interviews in over 150 companies from all industries (Crisp 2018). According to their own information, the majority of companies are currently still at the beginning of the automation of processes. The results of the study are:

• In our company, the IT and business processes are digitally supported, but still largely controlled and performed manually (25%),
• In our company, the first or selected IT and business processes are controlled automatically (47%),
• In our company, a large part of the IT and business processes are automatically supported or controlled (21%) and
• Almost all IT and business processes in our company are fully or highly automated (7%).

The main goals of automation are lowering costs, increasing scalability and reducing staff. Nevertheless, two thirds of those surveyed assume that personnel costs will not change significantly as a result of hiring new specialists for automation.

In order to implement automation in the company, companies primarily use robots, artificial intelligence and cloud applications, although the majority of these are still in planning and not in productive use (see figure).

Study 2: OECD 2019

Another study was carried out by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development – OECD (2019). It examines the change in work due to increasing automation in companies. The key messages of the study (OECD 2019) are:

• It is estimated that automation could cause 14% of current jobs to disappear in the next 15-20 years.
• Another 32% are likely to change radically as individual areas of activity could be automated.

The focus of the study is on securing jobs in the face of increasing automation. According to the study, there are major risks of job loss in manufacturing, in many service industries as well as in health, education and the public sector. Accordingly, skilled workers without adequate computer skills are particularly affected, which is said to be particularly true of older employees. According to the study, there were 28 people over 65 years of age for every 100 people of working age. This number is expected to double by 2050 (Crisp 2019).

According to the study, a decisive factor is the targeted further training of skilled workers, especially in the low-skilled and elderly. It should be noted that companies’ further training measures are often not geared towards this target group. The study criticizes the fact that current trends tend to point towards investments in highly qualified employees, as this is expected to result in higher returns. According to the study, the rate of further training for low-skilled employees is 40 percentage points lower than for highly qualified employees.

Conclusion

The main goals of automation are lowering costs, increasing scalability and reducing staff. This will particularly affect employees in the low-skilled area. This can be prevented through targeted training. Many companies also assume that automation will result in significantly higher costs in the first few years.

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CRISP Cloudflight. (2018). Cloud Automation Excellence. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://de.cloudflight.io/reports/cloud-automation-excellence-with-automation-zu-scalable-digital-business-models-25816/

OECD. (2019). OECD Employment Outlook 2019. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from http://www.oecd.org/employment/Employment-Outlook-2019-Highlight-DE.pdf

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Der Beitrag Current studies on automation erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

In the course of my research, I analyzed two studies that are intended to show the current status of leadership in digitization. The first study examines the skills of managers in connection with digitization and their acquisition. The second study relates to specific changes for managers that are related to digitization.

Study 1: Executive Competencies

The first study was carried out by the German Society for Personnel Research (DGFP 2016). An online survey was used to collect data on leadership in the context of digitization. Participants were over 300 specialists with management responsibility across all company sizes and industries.

The study participants were asked in the study to evaluate competencies in connection with digitization. The most important competencies according to the ranking of the study are:

• Collaboration with employees (2.55)
• Collaboration with other executives (2.69)
• Network in the company (2.72)
• Communication and Transparency (2.77)
• Leadership Development (2.89)
• Implementation of projects (2.91)
• Use of collaboration technology (3.16)
• Use of social media (3.17).

The executives should then evaluate the most important opportunities to acquire the mentioned competencies. The results are also shown in a ranking:

• Learning by Doing (2.01),
• Networking outside the company (2.20),
• Private use of technologies (2.25),
• Use of company technology (2.31),
• Exchange with employees (2.41) and
• Internal or external trainings (2.96).

It can be seen in both cases that managers are increasingly developing skills through their own learning methods or in exchange with other managers in order to introduce new technologies and improve cooperation with employees.

According to the study, there are also behaviors that managers want to change in the course of digitization. These were also arranged in a ranking by the executives. The most important are:

• Change in management communication (1.74)
• Promotion of digital business models (1.88)
• Non-hierarchical thinking (2.06)
• Active use of new methods (2,10)
• Active use of modern technology (2.44).

Study 2: concrete changes for managers

The study by the consulting company Capgemini (2015) examines the skills of executives associated with digitization in their implementation. The results come from the Capgemini Change Management Study, for which more than 180 executives were surveyed on various topics.

The results were summarized in seven categories, which correspond to the changes in the context of digitization that managers consider to be significant. These changes are listed and explained below (Capgemini 2016).

• Networking: Cooperation is increasingly taking place in teams that cooperate in a higher level of self-organization.
• Knowledge management: Collective knowledge replaces individual knowledge – for example, experienced experts should trust the knowledge of third parties, as subject areas become significantly more complex.
• Flat hierarchies: Virtual and short-lived teams replace bureaucratic and hierarchical team structures.
• Communication: Communication changes due to virtual workplaces in different time zones.
• Influence: Informal groups and opinion leaders can have a major impact on an organization’s success.
• Working methods: Part of virtual teamwork is characterized by interactions and non-routine processes.
• Speed: In some work areas, the innovation and thus also the rate of change are increased.

Conclusion

Both studies show that managers are increasingly developing skills through their own learning methods or in exchange with other managers in order to introduce new technologies and improve collaboration with employees. The behavior of executives should also change massively. Numerous recommendations were made in this regard in Study 2.

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DGFP. (2017). Digital leadership readiness. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.strategy-business.com/article/10541?gko=8738d

Capgemini. (2016). Digital leadership – leadership development in the digital age. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.capgemini.com/consulting-de/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2017/08/14-10-16_digital_leadership_v11_web_17102016.pdf

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Der Beitrag Current studies on leadership in digitization erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

To get an overview of the topic, I present two studies that I analyzed in the course of my research. Study 1 examines the specific use as well as the potential and risks of cloud computing. Study 2 has a similar focus, which compares the results of the two studies.

Study 1: Concrete use as well as potentials and risks

The first study is Bitkom’s Cloud Monitor (2019) and is based on a survey of over 500 companies on various aspects. The study shows that more than 70% of the companies surveyed are now testing or actively using cloud technologies. The results are:

• Cloud users (73%),
• Cloud planner (19%),
• Cloud objectors (8%).

According to the participants, particular potential is the digitization of internal processes and procedures in the company, the development of new business models and the testing of trending topics such as Industry 4.0 and big data scenarios.

A special aspect for companies is data protection, which, according to the study, is the essential factor in avoiding the use of cloud technologies. According to the study, however, more and more secret and even sensitive data is being stored in the cloud. The results are:

• Non-critical information (81%),
• Data worth protecting (57%),
• Secret information (33%).

The use of clouds is said to offer potential for companies, with the study mainly citing

• Faster IT scalability (80%),
• Geographic collaboration (76%),
• IT availability and performance (64%) and
• Organizational flexibility (61%).

With the help of flexible and rentable systems, the internal IT should be changed more quickly. Another effect is that e.g. B. with browser-based software, better access to data from distributed locations is possible and distributed work is to be made easier. Furthermore, by increasing the performance of your own IT, the satisfaction of customers and employees should be increased. The last mentioned effect is the increase of flexibility in the organization. Changes in the company should be implemented more quickly through flexible changes from workplace IT and IT in general.

In addition to the opportunities and potential, there are also concerns and obstacles for the study participants. The most important are:

• IT failures (43%),
• Data protection incidents in companies (39%) and
• Increase in IT costs (34%).

IT failures in particular can have a serious impact on companies and even prevent work for a short time. Incidents due to the misuse of data or cyber attacks are also a high risk for companies. According to the study, more than a third of the companies surveyed had such an incident in the previous twelve months. A third aspect is the increase in IT costs. More than a third of the study participants stated that the planned budget was significantly exceeded.

Study 2: Further potentials and risks

The second study was carried out by the consulting company Lünendonk (2019). Interviews were conducted with over 130 IT decision-makers from the IT sector. The most important results are (Lünendonk 2019):

• Almost a third of the IT resources of the companies surveyed are already provided from the cloud.
• Flexibility and scalability are the most important potentials for the companies surveyed. The reasons for this are the better integration capabilities of the applications and higher security standards from the cloud providers.
• Half of the companies state that they are more and more insecure about the correct drafting of contracts with the cloud providers. According to the participants, cooperation with more than one cloud provider is often too complex.
• Eighty percent of the companies surveyed state that they spend a lot of time changing core processes in the company and have high costs through using the cloud.

Conclusion

The degree of cloud usage is similar in both studies. Both studies show that resources are increasingly being drawn from the cloud. The information on the potential through the use of cloud technologies largely corresponds to one another or overlaps. Differences can be found with regard to the uncertainty compared to the cloud provider, since Study 1 rather refers to risks in the area of internal IT security. There are differences in relation to the high expenditure due to changes in processes and costs.

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Bitkom. (2019). Cloud Monitor 2019-A study by Bitkom Research on behalf of KPMG. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.bitkom.org/sites/default/files/2019-06/bitkom_kpmg_pk_charts_cloud_monitor_18_06_2019.pdf

Lünendonk. (2018). IT strategies and cloud sourcing in the course of digital change in Germany. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.luenendonk.de/produkte/studien-publikationen/luenendonk-studie-2019-der-markt-fuer-it-sourcingberatung-in-deutschland/

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Der Beitrag Current studies on cloud computing erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Study 1: Bertelsmann Foundation

The first study was carried out by the Bertelsmann Foundation (2018). A globalization index is derived from statistics. In an international comparison, Germany ranks 18th (66.29 out of 100). The first three places are Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium. The index is based on data on economic, social and political globalization. The study shows that, especially in Germany, the gross domestic product depends to a large extent on the success of globalization. Global trade is decisive for Germany, especially as export to other countries.

Study 2: Haufe 2017

For cooperation in the course of globalization over Crossing national borders, the virtual team of is particularly useful in knowledge work Meaning. In a study by Brauner et al. in a magazine by Haufe (2017) were over 600 working professionals, some of them international interviewed virtual teams. The study focused on the conditions for efficient work in virtual teams.

The results are according to the criteria Competence, goodwill, integrity and transparency orderly. competence means own technical expertise, qualifications and reputation of the respective employee. The study also examines a specific implementation in software, whereby software with online profiles, special bagdes (gamification) and online feedback forms are judged to be helpful.

Another criterion is that Benevolence . The authors differentiate here between professional and personal support. Concrete implementation options arise through chat forums and virtual meetings.

Furthermore is integrity an essential criterion according to the study. It is shown in compliance with deadlines, availability and respect for internal company rules and guidelines. According to the study, this can be ensured through value profiles, default response times / availabilities and regular meetings.

The last criterion is that transparency . According to the study, this means clear tasks and responsibilities as well as sharing information across the team. Project plans and electronic documentation are mentioned as aids. The following figure summarizes the criteria.

Conclusion

Global work is becoming more and more important and there is a need for a meaningful and constructive IT landscape and processes. These are not simple and very complex. It is still difficult to capture these in concrete studies, but the frameworks are a first aid.

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Bertelsmann. (2018). Globalization Report 2018. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/fileadmin/files/BSt/Publikationen/GrauePublikationen/MT_Globalisierungsreport_2018.pdf

Heap. (2017). Success factors for virtual communication and cooperation. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.haufe.de/download/personalquarterly-22017-virtuelle-kooperation-personalquarterly-411834.pdf

Image source:

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Der Beitrag Current studies on globalization in digitization erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Study 1: Lünendonk 2019

The first study was carried out by the consulting company Lünendonk (2019). It is an online survey of 70 senior executives from companies. According to the respondents, almost half of the companies have their own unit or staff unit for analyzing new technologies to generate innovations in the company. The other companies state that they develop innovations across all areas of the company. According to the study, the most important results of the innovation departments of the surveyed companies are:

• Generation of marketable products (43%),
• Process improvements (14%) and
• Prototypes (11%).

Another factor with regard to generating innovations is the internal suggestion system. More than two-thirds of those surveyed state that ideas are rewarded with a bonus and that these mainly come from the management level. Another option is to work with external partners, something that more than half of the participants are currently doing. These are mostly research institutes, customers and suppliers. According to the participants, special potentials that arise from such cooperation are:

• Know-how transfer (83%),
• Early detection of trends (62%) and
• Get to know technologies (58%).

Study 2: ZEW 2016

Another study was carried out by the Center for European Economic Development – ZEW (2016). Data from surveys and expert interviews as well as from practical workshops by or with over 80 executives from all industries, mostly SMEs, were evaluated.

The majority of the SMEs surveyed (80%) finance new technologies in the context of innovations from current reserves. Only a third use loans or public grants. According to the study, 30% of excess profits are invested in innovations. Overall, the SMEs surveyed in the study often participate in innovations with customers, suppliers and competitors. the following figure shows the distribution of the external innovation projects among the selected partners.

Essential technologies for the purpose of generating innovations are for the SMEs surveyed:

• Desktop software (82%),
• Cloud software (79%),
• Embedded machine systems (33%) and
• Big data applications (14%).

Conclusion

In general, both studies show that innovations are generated either internally by departments / staff units or with external partners. In this way, human resources and costs can be shared. Many innovations relate to the area of process improvements and are implemented with the help of desktop or cloud software.

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Lünendonk. (2019). Innovative business models, products & services. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.luenendonk.de/produkte/studien-publikationen/luenendonk-studie-2019-innovative-geschaeftsmodelle-produkte-services/

ZEW. (2016). Final report: Innovative SMEs 2025 – challenges, trends and recommendations for action for business and politics Study on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Retrieved May 20, 2020, from http://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Publikationen/Studien/studie-endbericht-innovativen-mittelstand-2025.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=14

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Der Beitrag Current studies on innovations in digitization erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Study 1: Bitkom 2014

The first study was carried out by Bitkom in 2014. On the basis of over 500 participants, senior managers from German companies were surveyed online. The study is no longer completely up-to-date, but the information can help to compare the results from 2014 with the second selected study from 2018. First, the study will be presented to Bitkom (2014).

The aspect of the use of Big should be emphasized Data in companies. According to the study, 9 out of 10 participants initiate the Time of the survey Projects in the company that deal with the topic of Big Data are to be assigned. The companies try to evaluate the following data:

• Master data (3%),
• Transaction data (3%),
• Log data (31%),
• Sensor data (25%) and
• Web content (9%).

The main areas of application for data evaluation are the areas

• Marketing & Sales (74%),
• Finance (44%),
• IT (33%),
• Logistics (33%) and
• Staff (26%).

The main potential that companies expect in this area are listed in the following figure. In this context, what should be mentioned above all is the addition of previous decisions, the improvement of customer knowledge and the creation of trend analyzes.

Current obstacles in the use of big data were also recorded in the study. The most frequently mentioned were:

• Criticism from customers (31%),
• high costs (23%),
• Damage to public image (23%) and
• Ethical and moral reasons (14%).

Commerzbank 2018

Another, more recent study on this topic was carried out by Commerzbank in 2018. The study results are based on a survey of over 2000 managers from companies who say they are responsible for big data projects.

According to the study, over 80% of the Study participants carry out big data projects in the company. Most projects are in the retail (49%), wholesale (46%) and manufacturing industry (46%) as well as in companies with over 100 million euros Sales (52%) realized. These details are in a clear In contrast to those from the Bitkom study from 2014.

Also exist regarding the source of the data Differences to the study from 2014, as mainly internal data and few external sources are mentioned:

• Financial data (67%),
• Employee utilization (55%),
• Inventories (54%) and
• Customer satisfaction (50%).

In an overall view, many results show both Studies have similarities and rather differ in the strong focus of the Study by Commerzbank (2018) of retail companies (e.g. utilization of Employees and stocks).

Two further aspects regarding the chances resp. the barriers to using big data in the company. According to the study are the main opportunities:

• Decision-making confidence (58%),
• Utilization of resources (57%),
• Automation of processes (54%) and
• Financial analysis (46%).

With regard to the obstacles in the use of big data, the following were primarily mentioned: quality of the data, qualification of employees and problems with the evaluation (see figure).

Conclusion

Overall, the comparison of the odds between the two studies reveals many similarities. Clear differences can be found in relation to the obstacles, which in the first case are seen more in costs and damage to the image and in the second as internal obstacles in the form of employees and the data basis.

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Commerzbank. (2018). The raw material of the 21st century: Big Data, Smart Data – Lost Data? Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.iais.fraunhofer.de/de/geschaeftsfelder/big-data-analytics/referenzprojekte/big-data-studie.html

Bitkom. (2014). Potential and use of big data – results of a representative survey of companies in Germany. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.bitkom.org/sites/default/files/file/import/Studienbericht-Big-Data-in-deutschen-Unternehmen.pdf

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Der Beitrag Current studies on big data erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

In the course of my research, I examined two current studies on Industry 4.0 and would like to summarize and compare them below.

Study 1: Bitkom

In the first selected study, Bitkom (2019) surveyed over 550 industrial companies of various sizes on the subject of Industry 4.0. Over half of the companies surveyed stated that Industry 4.0 was being used for the first time. 21% of the companies surveyed are also planning to expand this. A special field of application is the linking of machines with the Internet in order to enable a link and a targeted data analysis.

The majority of the companies surveyed state that 20-50% of the machines in production are currently connected to the Internet. According to the companies surveyed, the currently noticeable advantages are primarily the increase in productivity, the predictability of maintenance and the optimization of processes in production. Overall, the benefits currently seem to be minor. The illustration shows other advantages.

According to the study, the current implementation of Industry 4.0 requires further investments and the hiring of skilled workers. Most companies currently invest around 5% of their sales in technologies that are associated with Industry 4.0. In addition, 50% of the companies each believe that new IT and production specialists will have to be found because of these projects. According to the study, more than two thirds of the skilled workers sought have an academic background and could displace skilled workers with a training background. In addition to the numerous opportunities shown in the following figure, there are also risks that companies currently see as obstacles to projects in the context of Industry 4.0. Above all, there are high investment costs, aspects of data protection and security as well as the lack of skilled workers. Further results are shown in the following figure.

Study 2: Saarbrücken Competence Center

The second selected study was carried out in 2017 by the Saarbrücken Competence Center. With the help of almost 340 interviews with IT managers from production companies, aspects related to Industry 4.0 were examined. The main results of the study are that almost 80% of the participants are currently carrying out projects related to Industry 4.0. Especially with individual measures, the participants noticed the first successes after three months (small efficiency gains). In the case of larger projects, over two thirds of the participants assume that the first potential, specifically increases in sales and competitive advantages, will only become apparent after three years.

But how does this study differ from Bitkom? the difference is found in the potentials. These are as follows:

• Competitive advantage (44%),
• Saving of costs (40.7%) and
• Speed of processes (38%).

Furthermore, possible obstacles to Industry 4.0 were examined in the study, whereby the information also differs slightly from the first study. For example, the shortage of skilled workers does not play a role here. According to the study, the main obstacles are:

• Hacker attacks (47%),
• Industrial espionage (29.7%),
• Production losses (29.5%) and
• Legal problems (26.3%).

The central point in both studies is almost always the high costs of Industry 4.0 projects. The highest costs are license, training and hardware costs.

Conclusion

Industry 4.0 is used more and more in Germany and is also to be expanded slowly. However, there are obstacles that prevent companies from increasing projects significantly. According to the companies, the high costs in particular are a high risk.

swell

Bitkom. (2019). Industry 4.0 study. Retrieved May 19, 2020, from https://www.bitkom.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/bitkom-pressekonferenz_industrie_4.0_01_04_2019_prasentation_0.pdf

Competence Center Saarbrücken. (2017). IDG study Industry 4.0. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://kompetenzzentrum-saarbruecken.digital/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/IDG-Studie2017-Industrie4.0.pdf

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