SmartBusiness: Data mining and business intelligence for strategic corporate management in medium-sized companies

Background: Taking digitization further

Digitization projects in Germany often focus on the digital transformation of business processes - the primary goal being improved process efficiency. If the focus remains on this, the desired goals may be achieved, but other potentials of digitization will not be tapped into. This includes, in particular, the strategic management of companies on the basis of data-driven decisions, also known as business intelligence (BI).

Project description: Supporting SMEs in the introduction and implementation of business intelligence solutions

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often have a large amount of data at their disposal. However, the mere availability of data does not yet represent added value. Only the targeted use, linking, and analysis of data can provide companies with an insight into their own corporate world and strategic advantages over competitors. Up to now, many SMEs have failed in the development and integration of so-called business intelligence solutions. There is a lack of awareness and a need for targeted training of staff, knowledge of suitable software tools for data collection and analysis, but also application scenarios (use cases) that illustrate the benefits. The SmartBusiness project develops low-threshold support services for SMEs to further develop their companies step by step through data-driven decisions in a way that is comprehensible to all stakeholders.

Client

Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Project partner

Harz University of Applied Sciences

Project duration

September 16, 2021 – March 15, 2025