Business Models

Artificial intelligence (AI) and self-learning systems have immense economic potential and are a driving force for digitalisation. Artificial Intelligence is radically changing value chains, business models, and employment in industry. Data-driven services are added to traditional products in almost all industries. Integrating Artificial Intelligence in products and services as well as using data from the production process provides opportunities for new business models in an increasing competitive international environment.

Even though the attention of the mass media has long since turned to other technologies, the significance of blockchain technology is crystallizing more and more clearly. This article briefly describes the technology and uses an application example to show how the use of blockchain technology in the telecommunications industry could be linked to the benefit of all. The fact that our Internet is becoming slower and slower in its existing structure due to the increasing number of accesses via mobile devices can be observed in streaming services, among other things. Progressive digitalisation is producing digital data on an unprecedented scale. The challenge is to secure this data in stable networks at high transmission speeds. Widely diversified networks, which are connected to each other in a decentralized manner, promise a remedy. These structures are very familiar with blockchain technology and it can be assumed whether this technology has the potential to fundamentally change ...

Blockchain technology attracted a great deal of attention with its first application Bitcoin. In addition to the multitude of practical solutions, initiatives and research efforts of the industry, the number of scientific publications on the topic of blockchain is comparatively low. Right now, there is a lack of universal standards and uniform terminology. One way of documenting blockchain technology could be a morphological box. In addition to the advantage of clarity, this type of information structuring offers further advantages that can be considered helpful in creating a comprehensive overview. In order to create such a morphological box, various features of the blockchain technology must be identified and described in detail. One of these features is the “business model”, for which the 4 different characteristics “infrastructure provider”, “platform provider”, “system integrator” and “application provider” have been identified.

The digital transformation continues to progress. In the course of this digital change, new technologies are constantly being developed and topics such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics or blockchain are moving into the focus of companies and the general public. Blockchain technology attracted a great deal of attention with its first application Bitcoin.

In many industries, the transformation of value creation is accelerating as a result of the fundamental change from pipelines business to platform business. For taking part in the new platform business companies need to develop innovative business models. The framework developed for designing digital platforms includes the type of value contribution (what?), the actors involved (who?), the reason for the value contribution (why?) and the way of value creation (how?). The design hints derived from the framework are subsequently used to develop B2B platforms to illustrate their relevance and impact.

Digitalization changes industrial value-added processes as well as the expectations and requirements of customers, staff, suppliers and partners. For industrial companies, these changes bring risks and opportunities. They need to react and adapt their products and services to remain competitive and survive in the digital age. With service design and design thinking, companies can identify future-proof business areas to develop products and services that bring users added value. We will introduce you to the nature and effects of such design processes and outline the benefits for your company.

Blockchain technology - a distributed ledger in which transactions of all kinds of values can be carried out securely, transparently and consensually without trust in a central authority - is a socio-technical innovation that has the potential to enable new business models and make existing business models obsolete. While most applications today exist in the financial sector (e.g., payment processing), the technology is suitable for various industrial applications, especially in the area of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. This article uses three propositions and various concrete examples to shed light on the possible applications of blockchain technology for new IoT business models.

Digitization creates fascinating opportunities. However, we have to recognize that Germany needs more than the technology leadership in order to succeed in the long term. We must be able to transform the technology leadership we take in the field of industry 4.0 for example into added value, entrepreneurial success and employment. Essential levers to success are data based services, business models, positioning in platform economy, foundation culture, shaping the digitized working environment and, last but not least, Systems Engineering. In any case, our success will be a matter of strategic operation and systemic thinking and acting.