As early as in the coalition agreement, the governing parties commit themselves to preserving and regaining technological sovereignty. The focus is on alternatives to current US providers, which often offer cloud and software solutions without sufficient transparency. Due to the fact that we will become more and more dependent on technologies in the future, the sovereignty over their administration should lie in the hands of the German entrepreneurs.

This article shows current risks in the cooperation with large US providers and explains the use of open source software as an alternative solution for creating digital sovereignty.

Risk 1: Vendor LockIn

The reason for the frequent focus on one provider is obvious: Providers such as Apple and Microsoft often optimize their own components and it is difficult to link them with solutions from other manufacturers. One speaks of a vendor lock-in:

With vendor lock-in, a customer cannot replace a used service or product with an equivalent solution from another provider without increased effort. This is mostly due to the use of proprietary technologies that are incompatible with those of competitors.

Lindner et al. (2020)

The risks of such a vendor lock-in are often high costs and license fees, as there is a strong dependency on the individual provider.

Risk 2: Data in the cloud – but how are you?

Another risk is the storage of the data, which is often in the provider’s cloud. Cloud is defined as:

The term includes the interaction of several servers over the Internet. All servers share tasks among themselves. If one server fails, another server takes over. The cloud user does not have an overview of the individual servers. His data or applications run somehow (cloudy) in the cloud.

Lindner et al. 2020

You notice that the data in the cloud is therefore often not stored transparently and therefore it cannot be 100% guaranteed that the data is adequately protected from third party access. Such storage also often violates order data processing agreements (ADV) with important key customers.

Digital sovereignty

sovereignty is defined as the ability of a natural or legal person to have exclusive self-determination. The ability to self-determination is shaped by the self-reliance and independence of the individual and is the middle way too External control and self-sufficiency.

Delimitation: Sovereignty does not mean that a company has to do everything itself ( Self-sufficiency ) but that a company is able to act and can decide for itself what it does. It is able to choose between alternatives using powerful software.

The Digital sovereignty For me, stands for independence from a provider as well as self-determination as to which components I can use to digitally support a certain activity in the company. Furthermore, I have complete transparency about my data.

In the following I would like to show an example from my current experience for companies as well as private households.

Open source as an alternative for companies

For almost every task there is free, so-called open source software, which often does not have to hide behind commercial applications. Open source software is software whose source code is freely available and can be downloaded from the Internet and used free of charge within the framework of open source license models. By publishing the source code, the user can understand that data is not used without the consent of the user (Lindner at al. 2020).

Let’s take the example of Office 365 from Microsoft, which is used in numerous companies for the following activities:

• Writing program (Word),
• Tables (Excel),
• Presentations (PowerPoint),
• Notes (OneNote),
• Videoconference (Skype),
• Email (Outlook) and
• File sharing (OneDrive).

Microsoft Office 365 combines various online services with classic desktop office software. Office 365 is available in different scope of services. The web applications can be used via a browser on computers with any operating system (Lindner at al. 2020)

There is also a secure alternative for Office 365. The various services could also be obtained on the basis of open source software. Through e.g. On premise installation (own server or free choice of data center) and a large number of administration and security features, entrepreneurs have full control over their data and are compliant with the GDPR (Lindner at al. 2020). The following figure shows the implementation by ownCloud with Collabora in the browser as an alternative to Microsoft Word and OneDrive.

Similarly, the entire functionality of Office 365 can now be recreated using individual open source variants. My advice is:

• Writing program, tables and presentations (OnlyOffice),
• Notes (Joplin),
• Videoconference (Kopano),
• User administration (Univention)
• Email (Open XChange) and
• File sharing (ownCloud).

These functions can be set up flexibly and integrated into the existing open source infrastructure. You can also exchange individual components at any time (no Verdor LockIn) and have transparent source code.

Open source as an alternative for the home

In private, too, you should pay more attention to the sovereignty of your own data. Similar to companies, providers such as Dropbox or Microsoft also give private users little transparency in the storage of their own data.

For example, I connected two hard drives (4TB) to a Raspberry PI at home. The hard drives are redundant so that data loss is not possible if one hard drive fails. The whole set will cost you around 250 euros. Since commercial clouds often cost 10 euros per month, this investment is worthwhile after 2 years. However, this was not my primary goal because I wanted to achieve sovereignty of my data.

I then installed the ownCloud software on my Raspberry PI. Because of the open source end, I could be sure that nobody would have access to my data. I also know exactly that the data is on my hard drives, which are on my desk.

Reading tip: read mine Instructions on how to set up such a cloud !

The alternative is to buy your own NAS station. For example, I still have a Synology NAS. Long established in PC circles, Synology is one of the leading manufacturers of NAS servers. The fully configured version is particularly suitable for beginners and requires very little knowledge. Components can be installed and set up with a click. They are not completely free, however, unlike Dropbox and Co., they have their own hardware. Here is my recommendation: Synology NAS DS-218 with 2 Seagate hard drives .

Conclusion

Digital sovereignty is an essential topic for companies. As more and more technology is being established in companies, the topic should also become more and more important. The main dangers are the dependency on a provider and the associated high costs as well as the lack of transparency of the data.

For almost every task there is free, so-called open source software, which often does not have to hide behind commercial applications. The use of such software can be an alternative to commercial providers and increase the digital sovereignty of companies and private households.

Tip: Read my new book: The way to the cloud at Springer Gabler or book me for a talk .

Image source: Pixabay

source

Lindner, D., Niebler, P., & Wenzel, M. (2020). The way to the cloud – a guide for entrepreneurs and decision-makers . Heidelberg: Springer Gabler.

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To this day, the middle class is Germany’s secret weapon.

During my doctorate, I made the decision to focus on small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) or medium-sized companies (owner-managed). The most important differences to large companies are the focus on often rapid growth, low budgets, short decision-making paths and the “myth” about the founder. Now, in the evening of some days, you ask yourself: where should I work? Where are people happier? In SMEs or large companies?

Reading tip: Differences between SMEs and large companies

To shed some light on this, the Stepstone 2019 (Q2) portal surveyed over 19,000 specialists and managers from all over Germany and obtained exciting results through a significance analysis, i.e. separation of the results according to large companies and SMEs. I would like to summarize the most important ones below.

Reading tip: Link to the study

Skilled workers are the backbone of companies and it is important to motivate them through job satisfaction and keep them in the company. But how satisfied are skilled workers really up to date in their jobs? In the following I present the most important results of the study from the categories:

• Security / image,
• Salary / benefits,
• Career / hierarchy,
• Internationality and
• Working atmosphere.

Security / Image

According to the study, 81 percent of the professionals surveyed have already applied to an SME. According to the study, every second stated that employment in an SME is preferred. Only every 10th respondent aspires to a career in a large company. Overall, over 80% of the skilled workers questioned who work in an SME currently feel safe and do not believe that their job is in danger.

In conclusion, according to the study, SMEs often seem to be preferred when choosing a job.

Salary / benefits

I like to lump salary and benefits together. Often, additional services such as a laptop or a smartphone can make up more than an additional monthly salary, as you do not have to buy this or the option to work from home can be better than 5000 euros additional annual salary. I would like to shed light on both in the following.

salary

If the aim is to achieve the highest possible salary, then large companies clearly score points over SMEs in the study. On average, the salary is 26% less than in large companies. According to the study, 38% of those questioned have already decided against employment in an SME because of their salary.

However, you can earn above average even in small companies. According to the study, academics in companies with a maximum of 500 employees have an average gross income of 62,200 euros. In particular, a position in the management of an SME can result in salaries in excess of 100,000. Earn particularly well too

• Sales manager (82,500 euros),
• Senior Consultants (74,500 euros),
• Tax advisor (70,000 euros) or
• Sales engineers (64,000 euros) in SMEs.

Salaries in SMEs are often 26% lower than in large companies, but in some cases you can earn above average in SMEs.

Additional services

Often large companies offer more social benefits such as company pension schemes or a daycare place due to the higher budget. While 34 percent of Group employees value these additional benefits from their employer, only 19 percent of those surveyed from medium-sized companies are of the opinion that their employer stands out with special additional benefits. Home office and flextime are particularly emphasized.

The focus at SMEs is on non-monetary additional services such as home office. Large companies often offer special additional services in the monetary area.

Career and hierarchy

38 percent of all respondents who are employed by an SME particularly value the flat hierarchies in their company. In large companies, only 22 percent are of the opinion that their employer scores with flat hierarchies.

Reading tip: Careers in SMEs

The chances of promotion and advancement in SMEs are often much easier and faster. Due to the rapid growth of many medium-sized companies in particular, vacancies are fast. About 20% indicate that above all the long-term growing business development.

Those who want a job with a high degree of individual freedom and a familiar atmosphere are often in good hands in SMEs.

internationality

Almost a third of the Group’s employees particularly value the international environment in their job. Only every fifth employee of an SME finds international projects in his or her job, as SMEs often operate either regionally or entirely internationally (e.g. world market leaders).

SMEs often act more regionally or worldwide in smaller projects. Large international projects are more likely to be part of large companies.

working climate

In the study, 23 percent of large companies speak of a good working atmosphere. In SMEs, on the other hand, 45 percent appreciate the family atmosphere and the short decision-making paths. The experts surveyed rate the following as particular advantages:

• flexible working hours,
• short decision paths,
• Team spirit,
• flat hierarchies,
• Meaningfulness and effectiveness as well
• high individual design freedom.

According to the study, the better your own work is visible on the end product, the easier it is to understand your own effectiveness and meaningfulness of the work. Often in SMEs, one’s own work on the product is more visible than in large companies.

Furthermore, specialists often want to be able to make independent decisions and do their jobs as they see fit. According to the survey, such freedom is often much more pronounced in SMEs than in larger companies.

Employees in SMEs appreciate the flexible working hours, short decision-making paths and the greater sense of purpose in their work.

Conclusion

There are almost 3.4 million small and medium-sized companies in Germany, which can convince with applicants with flat hierarchies, working atmosphere and even now and then with high salaries. A lot of room for maneuver, home office, a Macbook and a lot of change as well as compatibility with my part-time doctorate are important to me. That was the reason why I have only worked in SMEs up to now and also did my doctorate on them.

This is my opinion now and certainly corporations and large companies also have exciting tasks / work atmosphere / salaries / etc. I believe that in the end the decision has to be made by everyone and individually. Tell me in the poll: where do you work?

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My idea is that you form a team to copy the product Scrum meaningful and well developed. It receives requirements and feedback from a technology board. The product is customized for customers by special teams.

example : Think of it like a laptop. You provide the laptop with basic settings and the special teams install certain software on the laptop depending on the user and use it to adapt the laptop.

The Technology Board

The Technology Board consists of the architects and the lead developers and negotiates with those responsible for the customer which functions are necessary. It is important that the product as a central platform can be adapted by the respective special teams, which I will explain in a moment. There is also a representative from each special team on the board.

Specialization in industry and DAX companies

Now you are forming a unit for special industries such as automotive, which adapts the product to the requirements of the industry and has industry know-how. Each branch has a department head and has various small squads (2-5 developers) with key account managers for each customer, who adapt these individually to the customer. Internally, the squads exchange industry know-how.

For DAX companies, I recommend directly specialized units that adapt the product directly. In my experience, DAX companies often have such special requirements that they cannot be compared with other customers or the industry.

Reading tip: Spotify model

Conclusion: the advantages

The advantages are obvious: The stable basic product provides you with a marketing component. Then adapt the product to specific challenges in the industries. This makes sales easier for you, as customers immediately notice: “This service provider understands my problems and speaks my language”. The more know-how you build up for each branch, the easier it will be. Furthermore, you rely on tailor-made solutions for DAX companies, which offer a lot of potential in terms of sales.

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I’ve been blogging for some time now and I have regular meetings with some medium-sized companies to exchange ideas. The questions are often pretty much the same: online marketing should be digitized and online channels should offer new potential. In this article I want to share a few tips about what I have learned over the past two years.

Reading tip: Agile Marketing

Content Marketing and Blogging

Content marketing means that you passively advertise with exciting content. This can be, for example, a blog article about the GDPR in medium-sized businesses. Another example could be a blog article about designing the perfect resume. It is important that you offer exciting content that interests your target group (applicants and customers). I usually recommend writing articles on specialist topics on a company blog. I rarely experience that topics related to job applications lead to success in companies. Often, however, applicants become aware of your company through specialist articles.

Tip: I’ll be happy to help you Marketing for your company

The advantages of a blog are obvious: you present yourself as an expert. So choose a specific topic and blog many articles about it. It makes little sense to blog across the board, because then you hardly rank on Google and users love it when you can find all information on a topic in one place. It is important that you show your readers: That is my competence! I have a lot of expertise in this!

Reading tip: Corporate blog

With successful blogs, I almost always experience that the employees blog themselves and marketing helps with spelling and formulation. A busy senior consultant can at least provide key points that the marketing department can formulate for an article.

Examples :

• A software development consulting company blogs about Java, C ++ and agile methods
• A production company for automatives blogs about the latest automotive trends and Industry 4.0
• A data center service provider blogs about the use of the cloud

Social media

Social media is widespread and now every medium-sized company has at least one Facebook page. The process is very simple: you generate content and post it on the networks. You can do this by hand or with a tool.

I’ve also experimented with social media for a long time and believe that on each network, a specific target group will follow your company. I would therefore like to give you a breakdown per network. I picked out exactly 5 networks. I don’t find all the others particularly useful for companies. Companies like Follower24 support.

Examples :

• Facebook and Instagram: background information and presentation of the employer (company parties, etc.) – target group applicants
• Xing and LinkedIN: industry news and helpful articles – target group: business and customers
• Twitter: A mix of both with a focus on current industry news – target group: business

Performance marketing and lead generation

Lead generation means generating a measurable reaction from a user. For example, you have a special website that offers a 30 day trial version of a product. Alternatively, this can also be a page for generating applications, on which an applicant can upload a PDF résumé. So it’s a very simple site that has only one goal: to generate a lead (i.e. a reaction).

Usually you either advertise this particular page on social media or use Google Adwords (price per click). I’ve also seen some companies that optimize these sites for organic search SEO, but this often has little success with commercial offers.

Important : Unlike a blog, these sites are quite expensive because you pay per click. So make sure you have a clear, measurable goal, which is the number of clicks, and optimize the page from time to time.

Examples :

• A special page with upload function for resume (recruitment of skilled workers)
• A special page for a software test version (customer acquisition)
• a special page on a specific topic (e.g. data protection) with a chat window or button: contact us (customer acquisition)

Conclusion

In this article I have briefly summarized the impressions of the last few years and have dealt with three marketing methods. I think all three make sense and are worth a try for you too. Especially at the beginning, you can try it out yourself first and don’t have to go to an expensive service provider. It took me almost a year for my blog to have its first visitors and social media reach. So it means: persevere and don’t give up right away. At the end I will summarize the most important goals of the three methods for you again:

• Content Marketing: Show Expertise (Image)
• Social media: expertise or employer brand (image)
• Performance Marketing: Generate customer contacts (leads)

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Search topic

First of all, it is important that the blog has a clear topic. The blog serves to present the company as an expert. So there should be few topics that are dealt with deeply and extensively. For example, I have chosen digital leadership, work 4.0 and agile organization as topics and have now produced 40 articles for each area. This has the advantage that a reader will find a lot of information in one place and you will also rank with the major keywords. For example, job 4.0 is searched over 25,000 times per month. It wasn’t until I had written around 30 articles about it that I was found on page 1.
In the following I give some examples of what topics could be for a blog. For the sake of simplicity, I recommend first taking the business areas your company has. For example, an IT consulting company can write about software development, agile methods and automation, or management consulting about organizational development, process digitization and leadership.

to write an article

Now all you have to do is write articles. It is important that these offer added value for the reader and convey technical expertise. I often find that agency articles lack the necessary practical experience. A silver bullet is for your experienced employees to write articles and formulate them in bullet points so that an agency can formulate them and bring the necessary journalistic flavor to the articles.
Reading tip: Write blog articles

SEO and traffic

Now you need to optimize your article SEO. Here you will find numerous guidelines on the Internet or you can have it done by an agency. It is important that every article has a special keyword. To do this, you do an analysis of keywords. It usually makes sense to choose a large keyword for the category (e.g. agile methods or digital leadership – from 10,000 search queries per month) and lots of smaller keywords (100 search queries per month) for the articles.
Reading tip: SEO tips
As an example, we take my category Digital Leadership, which has keywords such as e-leadership, leadership 4.0, generation management and many more, which more or less belong to the topic of digital leadership. Use the Google Keyword Planner for such research.
Reading tip: Find keywords
Now it’s time to stay tuned. Fill in their categories and you will rank up on a major keyword in some day. Once you have done that, you will be seen as an expert in relation to this term on the one hand, and you will have a large number of visitors on your site on the other. However, this can take up to a year and you should already have at least 100 articles on your blog.

Call to Action

Of course, a company should also benefit from a blog. For this to be the case, you should define a clear call to action for your blog. This could be, for example, that a customer contacts you. I’ll show you this using the structure of an article on SSL certificates.
In the first step you define SSL and show the different types of certificates. So they offer added value and underpin this with examples of application. Now you could end up saying: Do you need help with your SSL strategy? Then contact our expert XY in Munich.
This gives you a clear and measurable call to action. So from now on your blog will generate leads for you. You can do the other way around with recruiting by asking the applicant to send a message. It is important that the call to action is also demanding and not too soft. At the end you are welcome to advertise something. Remember, when someone finishes reading an article, most of the time they have found it valuable and you have won the reader’s trust.
Tip: I’ll be happy to help you Marketing for your company

Conclusion

In this article I have summarized my experiences with blogging and mixed it with my observations at medium-sized companies. I think that this guideline can be a first point of reference for setting up a company blog. In short, the tips are as follows: You look for a topic that you cover in detail, write articles, optimize SEO and incorporate a clear call to action.
Reading tip: Online marketing in medium-sized businesses
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what is influencer marketing?

In influencer marketing, bloggers or youtubers, i.e. high-reach opinion makers, are used to strengthen a company or product through an article or targeted contribution. So it is primarily about using the trust of the influencer to send a brand message. Usually, companies pay a sum of money for this or the influencer receives the company’s products for free.
An influencer can be someone who runs a blog, Instagram or Youtube channel. Not every influencer makes sense for your company. For example, a Youtuber for cosmetics is probably not the first choice for an IT company or sporting goods manufacturer. Especially in B2B, influencers can also be book authors or keynote speakers. Companies also ask me regularly. For example, I often receive copies of books or requests for guest articles.
My tip: you can too turn your own employees into influencers

Examples of influencer marketing

Many companies now use so-called influencers. For example, Neckermann relies on BibisBeautyPalace, which has more than 4 million followers on YouTube. The influencer debated Neckermann’s offers in her videos and achieved more than 155,000 likes on Facebook for the company.
Levis also regularly uses influencers on Instagram and Snapchat. These post against free products, photos with the products (jeans, shirts, …) of the brand. After fans then ask: Where did the influencer get these great jeans from, the link is posted. In this way, the brand avoids negative criticism due to too much advertising or the abuse of the influencer. Adidas itself often makes use of celebrities or sports stars who visibly wear the Adidas brand.
Tip: I’ll be happy to help you Marketing for your company

Conclusion: influencer marketing for IT and medium-sized companies

The question now remains whether this type of marketing can also be worthwhile for an IT service provider or medium-sized company in the B2B area. To the extent that it is currently being done in the examples, I don’t think that’s particularly useful. However, I noticed something:
In fact, medium-sized companies have been doing influencer marketing for a long time. For example, companies report in large newspapers about guest articles from successful projects or have well-known book authors write about practical examples in their companies. The fact is that customers of B2B companies usually read books and newspapers and attend conferences. So it could target the following influencer marketing:

• Guest articles in newspapers
• Practical examples in books
• Mention of keynote speakers

Last but not least, the tip is to approach this type of marketing very carefully, as it is always a battle for credibility. Under no circumstances should it be too flashy, populist or even too utopian. Otherwise, as in many examples, it can have the opposite effect. Nevertheless, the use of such influencers can be a good building block in a company’s marketing mix. You can also read other articles that can also help you with your marketing.
Reading tip:

• Company blog in medium-sized businesses
• Social media for medium-sized companies

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Characteristics of SMEs

The entire German corporate landscape is predominantly dominated by small and medium-sized companies (99.3% of all companies are SMEs in Germany), which are an important pillar of the German economy due to their innovative ability and experience. According to the definition of the EU (IfM Bonn 2018), SMEs are divided into three categories:

• Small business (up to 9 employees and 2 million euros in sales)
• Small companies (up to 49 employees and 10 million euros in sales)
• Medium-sized companies (up to 249 or 499 employees and 50 million sales)

There are two definitions. My experience has shown that many companies up to 499 employees still count themselves as SMEs. Overall, the term SME and medium-sized enterprise is initially the same. Furthermore, most of the small businesses are more traditional businesses with a focus on handicrafts such as carpenters etc. are. Small and medium-sized companies are also predominantly manufacturing companies and are thinking about the vision of Industry 4.0. A small number are software houses and consulting companies that offer knowledge-intensive services. This distribution can be deceptive. Most of the companies are very small, but the picture is very different when it comes to the employment rate.

Special features of SMEs and large companies

But what exactly is the difference between SMEs and large companies? On the one hand, I like to distinguish these from the fact that they have a low budget as a large company and often pursue long-term planning and sustainable strategies. Furthermore, these are often represented in a niche and have a high level of expertise, which is based on long-term employees. These are usually more flexible due to shorter decision-making paths and find themselves in a field of tension between tradition and change. Has another distinction Dr. Winfried Felser made in an article. So he contrasts large companies and SMEs. I have taken over parts of his table and will explain them briefly.
Limitation: Some points in the table sound a bit harsh or could be interpreted negatively. However, that is not the case. For example: “away from the customer”. In large companies there are many internal issues that are necessary from a certain point on. Longer coordination with many stakeholders and employees is also simply necessary. In any case, I would like to limit the fact that this is not to be interpreted negatively.

This shows that large companies often have more budget and that change support is often provided by a special focus team. In SMEs, on the other hand, money is often tight and the employees have to manage the change work alongside day-to-day business. Large companies also have the opportunity to purchase consulting services that are of little use in SMEs due to the low budget. In SMEs, there is often a much higher orientation towards day-to-day business, as this brings in sales and profit.  This also means that there are few internal topics. (Example: Large companies have a data protection department – SMEs often only have data protection officers who carry out this activity in addition to day-to-day business).
Also in SMEs, all employees are close to the customer (day-to-day business) and often even on-site with the customer. Due to the often short line to the managing director (especially in owner-managed companies), decisions are often made and implemented quickly. The focus is often on a sustainable strategy and maintaining sales. In large companies, on the other hand, there is more of a strategy depending on the current board of directors, which has to coordinate with many committees.

Digitization and agility in SMEs

In my doctorate, I checked SMEs for the difference in agility and digitization. There are numerous case studies on digitization, such as by  by Arbussa et al. (2017) as well as studies on the potential of digital change such as  Data analysis tools (O’Connor and Kelly 2017). As already stated by Lindner and Leyh (2018), it is  on the lower budget and the fact that SMEs are often less digitized than large companies. Therefore, according to the two authors, there is often a centralized and rather inflexible IT in SMEs, which, however, is often built up gradually and slowly due to the lower budget (Essers and Vaneker 2016).
There are also numerous articles on the subject of agility. Lindner and Leyh (2018) state the following: It is clear that SMEs are often seen as more agile and flexible due to their small size and often shorter decision-making paths (Arbussa et al. 2017). However, one thing applies to SMEs: rapid growth, which  can reduce this flexibility and agility. This is how agility is examined in the context of growth. Authors like  Branicki et al. (2017) speak of maintaining the so-called “entrepreneurial spirit” or authors such as Ng and Kee speak of post-agility in grown SMEs.
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Conclusion

There are numerous SMEs in Germany and they dominate the German corporate landscape. They are characterized by low budgets, short decision-making paths and a just do it mentality. They are also often players in a niche and have a long-term thinking and sustainable strategy that is based on long-term employees. SMEs are fundamentally more agile than large companies and, from the point of view of digitization, more retrograde, which is often due to the low budget.
I find the study of SMEs very exciting and I believe that SMEs in particular will become even more important. Since I have been working in SMEs myself since the beginning of my career (3 years), I can also say from my own experience that it is really worth recommending to look at SMEs in addition to large companies.
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What is Industry 4.0

There are numerous definitions of Industry 4.0 and I also ask myself: What is Industry 4.0? So says, for example BDI : Industry 4.0 stands for the fourth industrial revolution. After mechanization (Industry 1.0), mass production (Industry 2.0) and automation (Industry 3.0), the Internet of Things and Services is now finding its way into production. Industry 4.0 technologies enable outstanding growth opportunities and competitive advantages for Germany as a business location. Forecasts assume that companies can use Industry 4.0 to increase their productivity by around 30 percent.
The Gabler Business Lexicon sees it more as a marketing term: “Industry 4.0” is a marketing term that is also used in science communication and stands for a “future project” by the German federal government. The so-called fourth industrial revolution is characterized by the individualization or hybridization of products and the integration of customers and business partners into business processes.
That too Magazine viernull describes the development of Industry 4.0 with a historical development: “Industry 4.0” stands for the “fourth industrial revolution”. Before that, there must have been three other revolutions – at least this is what the creators of the term suggest: “Industry 1.0” means the era of mechanics that began in the 18th century, “Industry 2.0” refers to the era of electronics (20th century). Century) and “Industry 3.0” according to this logic stands for the increasing automation of industry through the use of office IT since the 1970s.
So it seems that this is the fourth industrial revolution and there have been three more. I have summarized examples and metaphors for this in the following illustration.

Components of Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is also a kind of collective term for many services and products. On the side of the BDI I have summarized these in the following figure. Certainly these are not 100% complete, but mostly the core aspects. Since it is primarily a term from the government, I mainly used the government pages and the BDI as sources.

With Social machines says the BDI: As in social networks on the Internet, intelligent machines exchange information with one another. You can organize yourself independently and coordinate processes and appointments together.
Global Facilities says according to the BDI: Machines do not only exchange data within a production facility. A company’s machines are also networked with systems from suppliers and customers. If a supplier fails, alternative suppliers are analyzed in real time with regard to their capacity utilization or costs and automatically commissioned.
Of the Augmented operator means people as “watchdogs”. So says the BDI: In the smart factory, people remain a central part of production. As an “augmented operator”, he controls and monitors the production processes in the production network.
Smart Products means that every produced part has a chip with it, which contains or sends information about it. V irtual production thinks that there will be abstract and virtual images of factories. Unfortunately, there is hardly a clear example on the subject and I am currently not in a position to describe it better. If you have anything about it, feel free to write it in the comments.
Smart Services thinks that in the future billions of intelligent products will be connected to the Internet during their service life and huge amounts of data ( Big data ) about your own operating and product status in a data cloud.
Industry 4.0 largely stands for networking and the intelligence of machines. It is hardly an argument that this fact leads to a lot of data and that the term big data is therefore closely linked to Industry 4.0 as well as topics relating to data protection. Read more on the Page of the BDI and definitely take a look at my book suggestions Digitization in medium-sized companies .

Examples of Industry 4.0

But what exactly is Industry 4.0 and what is not? In the following I have looked for examples and show some fictional examples as well as real scenarios from Bremen.

That’s what he says Industry signpost : An example of Industry 4.0 is when “The parts know who they are”. This “intelligent factory” is called “Open Integrated Factory Showcase. It shows the networking of production and IT. The special thing about the factory is that the workpieces inform the machine how they are to be processed.

As an example of this scenario, you also state that a machine can produce 16 different variants of the product. The workpieces contain information about the production process. The parts know who they are and can talk to the system. The parts always go to the correct station and tell it: “I am this part, in this version and now please process me correctly”. So you can use Industry 4.0 to produce a wide variety of product variants on one production line.

Now I have to go to the information page Digitization in Bremen Found eight specific examples, some of which I would like to present to illustrate Industry 4.0. All examples are from the same page and partially copied.
Example 1: Ancillary cost bills are time-consuming for Bremen Airport – for the more than 100 individual transactions, meter readings for water and gas must be read and billed. With digital meter reading and intelligent document management, the airport was able to save an enormous amount of time.
Example 2: Robots are becoming more complex and more powerful. A Bremen logistics company made use of technical progress to transport returns of online orders fully automatically through a warehouse. This saves time and money and takes the strain off employees.
Example 3: An industrial service provider in Bremen uses the cloud in a targeted manner to allow distributed teams to work with workflows. All work processes relating to HR and personnel are completely relocated online. The employees of the personal office are located all over Germany and there is little need for coordination.
Example 4: Monitoring heavy transports from several thousand kilometers away for progress, transport damage or improper handling – a Bremen logistics service agency dreamed of this for a long time. With an Industry 4.0 project, logistics monitoring was introduced, which made it possible to monitor the load.
All examples are detailed on the page The Digitization of Bremen listed. In conclusion, I will go into the examples again.

Conclusion

The article deals with the question: What is Industry 4.0? Industry 4.0 is a term that is primarily a project of the federal government and is not actually used abroad. This is the fourth industrial revolution, which deals with the networking and intelligence of machines. There are already numerous examples such as chips and monitoring systems for freight as well as machines that can automatically maintain. People should increasingly take on the role of watchdogs. With Industry 4.0, problems such as big data and data protection are becoming more relevant than before for German companies.
Reading tip: Article on agile production
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What is big data

If you enter the search term on Google, you will find the following definition of ReserachEnterpriseSoftware : Big data is a general term used to describe the large amounts of unstructured and semi-structured data that companies produce on a daily basis. This data takes a lot of time and money to load into a relational database for analysis.
That too Gabler Business Lexicon provides a definition: “Big Data” refers to large amounts of data from areas such as the Internet and mobile communications, the financial industry, energy industry, health care and transport and from sources such as intelligent agents, social media, credit and customer cards, and smart metering -Systems, assistance devices, surveillance cameras as well as aircraft and vehicles originate and which are stored, processed and evaluated with special solutions.
A great explanation can also be found at chip :

• A large amount of data is referred to as big data if the volume is too large or too complex is to process them by hand. This is especially true for data that is constantly changing.
• Big data can be harmless data from climate research. However, data about people are also collected: communication behavior, consumer behavior or surfing behavior of Internet users. You can see the effects of big data analysis every day on the Internet . A typical example is personalized advertising.

In conclusion, one can say that big data is initially large amounts of data that are unstructured and cannot be evaluated by hand.

Big data – pros and cons

Large amounts of data offer our society a number of new possibilities, at least if we are able to evaluate them. So I have at dice found some great examples which I would like to show.
Crimes can also be fought better on the one hand. As Dice says, it may not be quite like the movie Minority Report, which shows a society where police officers successfully arrest individuals for crimes they did not commit. But in fact, massive amounts of data are already helping regional and local authorities identify difficulties before they can become a major problem.
Furthermore, diseases can be predicted. As dice says: Predicting events based on existing data could offer individual medical care for each patient. By analyzing digitally recorded medical data and similar disease courses from patients, personal disease risk profiles can be created. Doctors could then prescribe preventative treatments or review related symptoms.
Another great example is Netflix. At dice, for example, the following can be found: For Netflix, the visualization of data is of the utmost importance in order to be able to continue its success story. Netflix can use data calculations to determine what viewers want to see and how they would like the content to be presented.
So there are numerous great examples. For more you can just click dice Continue reading. In the following, however, big data may not always be a success factor, which is why I would also like to present the downsides.
So says the magazine CIO, the criticism of big data “is probably due to the “algorithm weakness” widespread among machines, i.e. the inability to draw the right conclusions from a lot of collected information. That being said, there are two main reasons why companies do not benefit, or not enough, from big data. The first: With the help of data analysis, you will come to results that you could have had with less big data. “
The second: Big Data produces results and ideas that, for whatever reason, cannot be implemented in practice. A large US retailer had found in a model test that sales increase if you put a special offer product on the shelves a while before it is cheaper and leave it there when the offer price is no longer valid ( CIO ).
In this paragraph we have now seen some good examples of big data, but also some that may not be quite as meaningful. So, as always, it is up to us that we use big data correctly and not just do it because it is just hype.

AI, deep learning and machine learning

One potential that the mastery of large amounts of data brings with it is the ability to give machines an intelligence, i.e. artificial intelligence. A machine could evaluate the controlling report itself and initiate measures, right?
On the one hand, you can find the term artificial intelligence. So says t3n : All technologies used in connection with the provision of intelligence services that were previously reserved for humans can be found under the generic term AI.
There is also the possibility of machine learning: machine learning describes mathematical techniques that enable a system, i.e. a machine, to independently generate knowledge from experience ( t3n ). However, deep learning goes one step further: “Deep Learning” with artificial neural networks is a particularly efficient method of permanent machine learning based on statistical analysis of large amounts of data (big data) and the most important future technology within AI ( t3n ).

Conclusion: what is big data?

Big data is a lot of unstructured data that we cannot evaluate by hand. Mastering such amounts of data can lead to great potential, but it can also “backfire”. The potential of this data mastery are new methods such as artificial intelligence, which can offer an enormous market advantage. I hope to have given an insight into the topic with this article and I am looking forward to my first article on this topic myself.

LEARN MORE ABOUT: What is Big Data

If you would like to find out more about the question: What is Big Data, please contact the Round tables participate and discuss relevant topics with myself and other experts. Or write in the comments how you are dealing with this trend. Also read my article to big data.
Tip: Book suggestions too Big data
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What is Industry 4.0

There are numerous definitions of Industry 4.0 and I also ask myself: What is Industry 4.0? So says, for example BDI : Industry 4.0 stands for the fourth industrial revolution. After mechanization (Industry 1.0), mass production (Industry 2.0) and automation (Industry 3.0), the Internet of Things and Services is now finding its way into production. Industry 4.0 technologies enable outstanding growth opportunities and competitive advantages for Germany as a business location. Forecasts assume that companies can use Industry 4.0 to increase their productivity by around 30 percent.
The Gabler Business Lexicon sees it more as a marketing term: “Industry 4.0” is a marketing term that is also used in science communication and stands for a “future project” by the German federal government. The so-called fourth industrial revolution is characterized by the individualization or hybridization of products and the integration of customers and business partners into business processes.
That too Magazine viernull describes the development of Industry 4.0 with a historical development: “Industry 4.0” stands for the “fourth industrial revolution”. Before that, there must have been three other revolutions – at least this is what the creators of the term suggest: “Industry 1.0” means the era of mechanics that began in the 18th century, “Industry 2.0” refers to the era of electronics (20th century). Century) and “Industry 3.0” according to this logic stands for the increasing automation of industry through the use of office IT since the 1970s.
So it seems that this is the fourth industrial revolution and there have been three more. I have summarized examples and metaphors for this in the following illustration.

Components of Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is also a kind of collective term for many services and products. On the side of the BDI I have summarized these in the following figure. Certainly these are not 100% complete, but mostly the core aspects. Since it is primarily a term from the government, I mainly used the government pages and the BDI as sources.

With Social machines says the BDI: As in social networks on the Internet, intelligent machines exchange information with one another. You can organize yourself independently and coordinate processes and appointments together.
Global Facilities says according to the BDI: Machines do not only exchange data within a production facility. A company’s machines are also networked with systems from suppliers and customers. If a supplier fails, alternative suppliers are analyzed in real time with regard to their capacity utilization or costs and automatically commissioned.
Of the Augmented operator means people as “watchdogs”. So says the BDI: In the smart factory, people remain a central part of production. As an “augmented operator”, he controls and monitors the production processes in the production network.
Smart Products means that every produced part has a chip with it, which contains or sends information about it. V irtual production thinks that there will be abstract and virtual images of factories. Unfortunately, there is hardly a clear example on the subject and I am currently not in a position to describe it better. If you have anything about it, feel free to write it in the comments.
Smart Services thinks that in the future billions of intelligent products will be connected to the Internet during their service life and huge amounts of data ( Big data ) about your own operating and product status in a data cloud.
Industry 4.0 largely stands for networking and the intelligence of machines. It is hardly an argument that this fact leads to a lot of data and that the term big data is therefore closely linked to Industry 4.0 as well as topics relating to data protection. Read more on the Page of the BDI and definitely take a look at my book suggestions Digitization in medium-sized companies .

Examples of Industry 4.0

But what exactly is Industry 4.0 and what is not? In the following I have looked for examples and show some fictional examples as well as real scenarios from Bremen.

That’s what he says Industry signpost : An example of Industry 4.0 is when “The parts know who they are”. This “intelligent factory” is called “Open Integrated Factory Showcase. It shows the networking of production and IT. The special thing about the factory is that the workpieces inform the machine how they are to be processed.

As an example of this scenario, you also state that a machine can produce 16 different variants of the product. The workpieces contain information about the production process. The parts know who they are and can talk to the system. The parts always go to the correct station and tell it: “I am this part, in this version and now please process me correctly”. So you can use Industry 4.0 to produce a wide variety of product variants on one production line.

Now I have to go to the information page Digitization in Bremen Found eight specific examples, some of which I would like to present to illustrate Industry 4.0. All examples are from the same page and partially copied.
Example 1: Ancillary cost bills are time-consuming for Bremen Airport – for the more than 100 individual transactions, meter readings for water and gas must be read and billed. With digital meter reading and intelligent document management, the airport was able to save an enormous amount of time.
Example 2: Robots are becoming more complex and more powerful. A Bremen logistics company made use of technical progress to transport returns of online orders fully automatically through a warehouse. This saves time and money and takes the strain off employees.
Example 3: An industrial service provider in Bremen uses the cloud in a targeted manner to allow distributed teams to work with workflows. All work processes relating to HR and personnel are completely relocated online. The employees of the personal office are located all over Germany and there is little need for coordination.
Example 4: Monitoring heavy transports from several thousand kilometers away for progress, transport damage or improper handling – a Bremen logistics service agency dreamed of this for a long time. With an Industry 4.0 project, logistics monitoring was introduced, which made it possible to monitor the load.
All examples are detailed on the page The Digitization of Bremen listed. In conclusion, I will go into the examples again.

Conclusion

The article deals with the question: What is Industry 4.0? Industry 4.0 is a term that is primarily a project of the federal government and is not actually used abroad. This is the fourth industrial revolution, which deals with the networking and intelligence of machines. There are already numerous examples such as chips and monitoring systems for freight as well as machines that can automatically maintain. People should increasingly take on the role of watchdogs. With Industry 4.0, problems such as big data and data protection are becoming more relevant than before for German companies.
Reading tip: Article on agile production
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Der Beitrag What is Industry 4.0 – definition erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.