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The ever increasing volatility in market conditions push the requirements of industrial companies for operational intelligence far beyond the capabilities of common business intelligence solutions. An integrated and comprehensive software solution was missing. Enterprise Operational Intelligence (EOI) closes the gap. EOI focuses Big Data on company strategies and (strategy-)compliant value chains. This incorporates a structured approach for all data to deliver value, including manufacturing-related data, Internet of Things and real-time processing, somewhat analogous to computer tomography. EOI allows leaders and managers to continuously adjust business processes to keep them in line with business strategies. Operations can be adjusted to new realities rapidly and the consequences of interventions can be understood quickly and comprehensively.

An investigation of Industry 4.0 project examples of selected companies with a focus on possible resulting business model innovations shows that these innovations can certainly be triggered by Industry 4.0 projects. How-ever, the results of our investigation also show that the share of business model innovations with 22% out of the 158 selected companies is, however, at a rather low range. Disruptive business model innovations are mainly found in companies of the manufacturing industry. Their focus is no longer only on the production or processing of products, but also on a clear added value for the customer. In this article, these aspects are further elaborated and selected study results are presented.

Technological changes related to Industry 4.0 generate new potentials. Hence, it is important to understand which dimensions of a business model to adapt. Industry 4.0 technologies enable a company to offer new products, new services or to achieve efficiency improvements. The Industry 4.0 business model decomposition allows visualising which goal the initiative has, what the value offering is and which processes, technologies and capabilities are needed. As connectivity is a key dimension of Industry 4.0, technologies and systems are needed to connect internal and external processes.

Recently, a great number of articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, and essays have been published, concerning the fourth industrial revolution or the internet of things. Unfortunately, extent and meaning of these terms become more and more unclear. Thus, a thorough understanding is necessary. Although a lot of studies are carried out to analyze potentials and threats of implementing respective elements into business, it is essential to compare expert’s perception with existing notions. In this work, both a quantitative analysis and a qualitative analysis were undertaken to identify several factors inhibiting or stimulating a further usage, by using a TOE framework. The results of both the survey and the interviews with several experts are explained in detail, and summed up into a statement of future prospects.

One ear on the phone while checking e-mails and revising a text at the same time - that’s life today in many offices all over the world. Constant digital change makes great demands of companies and their staff. People are expected to be available 24/7 while multi-tasking and coping with high noise levels in open-plan offices as well as dealing with constant disruptions in the work process. Together with working on-call or on-demand, these are just some of the challenges and tasks that have to be managed. How can staff continue to be efficient and productive despite all these and more changes to the working world? Are companies prepared for the demands of the digital age? Which adjustments will they have to make to protect staff from excessive demands on the one hand, while boosting efficiency and productivity on the other?

Digital transformation leaves only a few aspects of the relationship between customers and companies unaffected. This also applies to payment flows that stream between parties. Goods and services, which are fundamentally changing under the influence of the new technical possibilities, are also sold and bought differently. For the systematic search of new possibilities to monetarise own offers, the so-called Objects of Revenue are suitable. These are objects within the company, which are directly linked with or are able to be linked to payment flows.

The flexible licensing of machine features is a major enabler of new business models. New finance and leasing models can be generated by disruptive machine-as-a-service models with pay-per-use functionality. The more flexible the licensing becomes, the more essential is the business process automation of the licensing management system. To choose build or buy in such environments is not a question anymore. Vendors of professional license management platform are the right eco system partners for machine builders.

There is a variety of empirically validated methods for implementing pull-systems in the manufacturing industry, but pull-based replenishment for the process industry remains a research gap. This article describes the development of a model for implementing a pull-system for an intracompany production network in the process industry and its validation in a case company.

Companies have to be thoroughly agile. Agility means that companies must be able to consider two things at the same time: On the one hand, companies have to maintain the quality of their own products and services at all times. Continuous innovations could help with this. On the other hand, companies have to be able to adapt themselves to these permanent changes due to these innovations, whereby the adaptation speed must be as high as possible. The question arises as to what extent the cultural identity of nations play a role in terms of their mutability, flexibility and vitality.

Success factors that had long driven China’s economic boom have lost their legitimacy gradually. The emergence of the competitive indigenous technology houses in IT, telecommunications and software industries in the past two decades has made China’s industrial digitalisation feasible, which the nation would urgently need to base its further growth more on technology and innovation. Consequently, China’s economic performance would become more solid and sustainable. Internet+ predicts the general direction of digitalisation in China’s industries and represents the concept that is currently enthusiastically debated by the economists, politicians and in the media. The integration of information technology with other manufacturing industries is particularly emphasised in this context. The article examines the background and the terminology, takes a look at the market model and some technical issues of Internet+. A case study accompanies the “excursion” to China, in order to give ...