SME 4.0: The Role of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Digital Transformation

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Capability-Based Implementation of Digital Service Innovation in SMEs

Part 8: Designing and Delivering Smart Services in the Digital AgeInternational audienceIn order to be successful in the market in the long term, enterprises must not only continuously optimize their operations but also constantly innovate. It is necessary to develop radically new digital services which disrupt their existing business model. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it is a major challenge to put the generated solutions into practice. They have to cope with digitalization while having limited resources. The presented paper starts by examining the challenges for SMEs in the context of digitalization. Thus, an analysis of the approaches used in practice for implementing digital services in 36 SMEs is carried out. Essential differences between start-ups and established SMEs are identified. On this basis, a capability-based, agile methodology is presented which supports enterprises in advancing newly developed, digital services from prototype status to the customer’s environment. Finally, the methodology is put into practical application within an innovation project in an SME

Approaches for the Development of Digital Products in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Digitalisation confronts small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in machinery and plant engineering with new challenges in product development. Due to the resulting new requirements such as service development and shorter product lifecycles, there is a considerable uncertainty about how to implement this paradigm shift. In this paper, we identify the most innovative enterprises from a group of 34 SMEs and analyse their applied approaches in product development. The clustering of activities results in a model of the four roles digital leader, digital native, digital accelerator and digitalized customer. These are essential for the successful implementation of the identified approaches

Digital competence revolution and human resource development in the United Kingdom and Switzerland

In today’s digitalised world, the number of routine/low-skilled jobs has been reduced with rising demand for digitally equipped graduates/employees. Technological advancements heavily impact the way people work while most recent socio-political and demographic changes (e.g. ‘Brexit’, economic instability, higher education reforms, generation attitude changes and a pandemic crisis) increase the need for critical insights on how digital competences of the workforce can improve and sustain business competitiveness. While some organisations remain reluctant to foster their workforce’s digital qualifications, many view digitalisation as an opportunity to enhance employees’ skillsets with company-specific competences for competitive advantage, further being supported by educational institutions which offer tailored human resource development (HRD) programmes (Gartner Co, Gartner identifies three megatrends that will drive digital business into the next decade, 2017). As the UK and Switzerland are non-EU members they are not in charge of implementing the European Digital Strategy; therefore, the chapter aims to describe and compare their ‘special way’ regarding HRD education provision in the era of digitalisation to inform HRD professionals and policymakers on possible future actions

Towards ecosystemic stance in Finnish public sector enterprise architecture

Governments and organizations in both public and private sector are operating in fields of ever-growing uncertainty and complexity. To study this complex environment, the concept of ecosystems has been suggested, interpreting organizations as intertwined systems among layers of evolving ecosystems. While offering possibilities, operating in an ecosystemic environment might prove to be challenging, and the change from traditional governance structures might be difficult to manage, requiring holistic yet detailed view. Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been an interest of academics and practitioners for few decades, offering one of the most prominent solutions to managing complex organizations. Recently, it has been discussed that EA should further evolve to respond to the interconnectedness of organizations’, thus extending the focus of enterprise architecting from intra-organizational to the ecosystems level. Based on data from 26 in-depth practitioner interviews in Finland, we discuss how EA should be developed to better support Finnish public sector ecosystems. Our data indicates that qualities such as organizational capabilities, holistic view, co-creation and needs-based utilization are essential features of public sector ecosystem EA.peerReviewe