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DIGITRANS - FIRST DIGITRANS REGIONAL POLICY WORKSHOP IN STUTTGART
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Mid of February the first DIGITRANS regional policy workshop was held in Stuttgart by the German partners MFG Baden-Württemberg and Böblingen district. Participants from SMEs, associations, universities, business support organisations and public administration where invited to develop a sustainability strategy. The aim of the regional policy workshops is to ensure that SMEs can benefit from the DIGITRANS methods and concepts after the project ends in June 2019.
The participating representatives from SMEs had already completed a DIGITRANS workshop and indicated their experiences. Sven Meinl, BUDAY GmbH, referred that ‘participation in the DIGITRANS workshop has established a new holistic mind set in the company. New ideas and strategies are developed now consequently with a customer-centered point of view.’
Marcel Seyther, Seyther communication, added: “We experience service oriented professions in general under high pressure related to digitalisation. That’s why we gladly took the chance to participate in the DIGITRANS workshops. During our individual workshop the direct feedback from our attending customer helped us to develop a future-oriented digital business model.“
In a practical phase the workshop participants worked in groups on the basis of four central questions, to develop how DIGITRANS can be integrated in regional strategies and networks. Everyone was very motivated and interested that the DIGITRANS results and methods persist after the end of the project and a lot of ideas were created about how to provide the sustainability of the DIGITRANS outcomes. The project partners will start now to implement those until the DIGITRANS project ends, for instance by holding train-the-trainer-workshops to pass on the DIGITRANS method, by providing new material for trainers on the method and the setup of new incubators in the region, establishing close networks with existing digital hubs and increasing public relations about the benefits of the DIGITRANS results and methods for regional SMEs.
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REGIONAL POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS DEVELOPED IN MEĐIMURJE COUNTY
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Entrepreneurs, local and county authorities representatives, academia and business support organizations joined forces and developed four categories of recommendations on including digital transformation and DIGITRANS project results in regional strategic development. The workshop took place in Technology Innovation Centre Medjimurje ltd. (TICM) on 11th March 2019.
In the first part of the workshop participants were introduced to DIGITRANS project and its results and were given an overview of the existing development strategies on EU, national and regional level that are in any way connected to digital transformation. In the second part of the workshop, participants were divided in four groups with the goal of answering four questions about including digital transformation and DIGITRANS results in strategic planning on regional level.
Mr. Ivan Plačko, TICM's managing director, presented the project, its results and existing strategies connected to digital transformation on EU, national and regional level to the participants. Mr Vjeran Strahonja talked about what digital transformation is and how important it is to include it in economic development. He also mentioned some of the digital transformation politics and initiatives on EU level. Mr. Boris Kikelj, sector coordinator at Central State Office for Digital Society Development, talked about their work and the role they have in implementing the digital society development strategy.
The workshop was very productive, the participants in all four groups were active in sharing their opinion and giving a great number of good suggestions that will be used to form final recommendations. Some of the most imortant conclusions of the workshop are that it is neccessary to work on awareness raising about digital transformation and how important it is and this is to be achieved through active education on all levels. Also, it is of crucial importance to define concrete strategies for implementing digital transformation in business and society so that all the activity and initiatives from this area are based on the appropriate strategy. All the strategies should have achievable and measurable goals and objectives, and should regularly be updated so they are aligned with the real situation and needs. Further on, it would be good if end users – entrepreneurs,would initiate digital transformation strategy development, because they are on track with the latest business and market trends and are best aware of the needs they have.
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DIGITALIZED DECISION-MAKING
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In Hungary, Digitrans holds its trainings in the incubation space in Debrecen. It awaits interested entrepreneurs and SMEs on a weekly basis at its business model workshops while during its online consultations, it focuses on individual development and problem solving of entrepreneurs. The workshops take place within the scope of the DIGITRANS project, which is funded by the European Union, in the framework of the International Interreg Danube 2014-2020 project, which supports SMEs in the development of digital business models.
Within the scope of the programme, we had the opportunity to come across various company profiles and even more interesting company stories. Almost all of the managers who appeared at our workshops agreed that digital development is necessary and inevitable, but for many it only means the digitalization of production trends. In most cases, managers experience that digital transformation actually needs support from the very beginning, and it is not enough to apply a certain method or tool instantly, it is necessary to change the attitude as well. For that, digitalised technologies should also be used in digitally supported data-based decision-making, including management processes as well. Knowledge of companies about new technologies and supporting digital devices and trends is incomplete, and in some cases insufficient. The smaller a company, the more help it needs in this area. While managers and employees have a wide knowledge base, they do not necessarily use their methodological potential to achieve their digitization goals in the course of the cooperation on the field of communication, planning, management and transformation. Our trainings help businesses in such issues as well, since they accompany the participants from the appearing demand of change through the creation of a strategy, digital decision support and the transformation of processes. At the end of the workshops, we always ask participants how they felt and what they liked, how could we improve the workshops and the curriculum. Almost all reports highlight complexity, good and useful methods, and the focus on individual needs. “I learned more about managing my own business in a day than during my studies of business knowledge and management theory. It was very helpful. ”/ P. Mihály /
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DIGITRANS METHODOLOGY PRESENTED AT E-BIZ 2019 - CONFERENCE ON DIGITAL BUSINESS OPERATIONS
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E-BIZ Conference on digital business operations was held in Zagreb, on March 25, 2019. Aim of the conference was to support and accelerate introduction and implementation of digital transformation in Croatia.
One of the participants in the conference session related to Digital society was Assist. Prof. Martina Tomičić Furjan, PhD from the Faculty of Organization and Informatics Varaždin, a partner institution on the Digital Transformation project in the Danube Region – Digitrans.
She presented the Digitrans project and methodology as help for SMEs digital transformation as well as the Digitrans.me platform. As a panelist, she also participated in a discussion about Digital transformation and related development goals in Croatia, along with other distinguished panelists from academic and private sector.
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| INDUSTRY 4.0: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY |
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The latest breakthrough of information technologies, such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain and big data, has stimulated the development of Industry 4.0 – the integration of digital and physical entities resulting in digitalisation of processes, smart manufacturing and intercompany connectivity [1]. Lately it is a frequently discussed topic since it creates a potential to affect the entire manufacturing industry by transforming the ways products are designed, manufactured, delivered and payed [2], thus potentially leading to social, economic and environmental furtherance.
Manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have to strive for Industry 4.0 and consider possible technological advancements as well as their suitability, implementation and impact on industrial value creation [1]. Consequently, it is also crucial that SMEs contemplate the transformation of their current business model into digitized one, which can be achieved by utilizing the method developed by the DIGITRANS project. The DIGITRANS method is designed to supports SMEs in developing and implementing their new digital business model by offering appropriate innovation methods to develop a new digital business idea and begin to deal with sustainable implementation of the new digital business model [3].
Manufacturing SMEs can benefit from the digitalization of their business models. For example, digitalization of processes enables collecting data from the production line and potentially identifying bottlenecks or current production status, thus decisions can be made faster and production can be increased. Online platforms enable customers to place orders and facilitate the communication with customers or suppliers and also within the company. On the other hand, manufacturing SMEs might have to invest a vast sum of money in infrastructure, personnel and trainings in the short-term, but gains may gradually develop [1]. For example, the production might be slightly decreased while upgrading the production lines. Data security also needs to be addressed.
It is very important that manufacturing SMEs realize that changes within the company need to be gradual. One interesting example demonstrates a Slovenian manufacturing SME Optotek that specializes in developing high quality optical and laser solutions and technologies for applications in medicine and life environmental [4]. This SME has already collaborated with many high-tech companies, such as Alcon (a Novartis division). As all the production takes place in-house, Optotek has a strong research and development. It has already patented technologies and extended the research department. Several research projects have either been co-funded by Slovenian Research Agency, the Ministry of Economy of Republic of Slovenia or by the EU [4]. Their aim is to increase the sales in the next few years.
Industrial sector presents a key factor of economic growth, responsible for 75 % of all exports and 80 % of all innovations in Europe [1]. It is therefore of utmost importance that manufacturing SMEs contemplate digital transformation since they can benefit from it in the long-term: they can increase their range of products, provide custom-tailored products and additional services. Potentially, this can guarantee new business opportunities and new sources of income.
[1] J. M. Müller, O. Buliga and K. Voigt, "Fortune favors the prepared: How SMEs approach business model innovations in Industry 4.0", in Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol- 132, pp. 2-17, 2018.
[2] E. Hofmann and M. Rüsch, "Industry 4.0 and the current status as well as future prospects on logistics," in Computers in Industry, vol. 89, pp. 23-34. 2017.
[3] DIGITRANS website. Accessed: Mar. 26, 2019. [Online]. Available: www.digitrans.me
[4] Optotek website. Accessed: Mar. 26, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.optotek-medical.com/
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