Abstract
Digitalization is considered as one of the most important drivers for change in the industrial value chain. Companies are therefore intensively engaged in planning their digital transformation. However, various studies show that especially small and medium-sized companies are still having difficulties in implementing the digital transformation. One frequently cited reason is that there is only a vague idea of which digitalization solutions from the wide range of existing approaches are actually promising for the specific situation. Due to this uncertainty, companies also have difficulties in drawing up a superior plan in the form of a strategy. They need support to ensure their long-term competitiveness. This chapter addresses this challenge and presents a methodology that supports especially SMEs in planning their digital transformation. The starting point is a maturity model. It enables the assessment of the current performance and gives companies a comprehensive overview of future action alternatives. Furthermore, it is a suitable tool for the development of a digitalization strategy. The methodology has been developed in a research project together with industrial companies and has already been successfully validated in many cases.
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Pierenkemper, C., Gausemeier, J. (2021). Developing Strategies for Digital Transformation in SMEs with Maturity Models. In: Schallmo, D.R.A., Tidd, J. (eds) Digitalization. Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69380-0_7
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