Students of the Bachelor’s program in Digital Business at FHWien der WKW have developed a virtual digital consultant that supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their digital transformation. The prototype was developed as part of the project “SME method case”. Its goal is to provide a holistic and industry-independent solution for SMEs to enter the digital transformation process independently and in a well-founded manner.
One-person companies (OPC) and SMEs can already work with the prototype – the Virtual Digital Consultant “Heinrich”. This takes the form of a survey, after which they receive recommendations for the next digitization steps in their business. They can also report on their experiences with “Heinrich.”
The first phases of the project, which is still ongoing, have shown that established digitalization concepts of large companies have only limited applicability to OPCs and SMEs. This has to do with the scope of the topic and the different starting situations of smaller companies. In order to be able to give them concrete recommendations for the next steps in the digital transformation process, it is therefore helpful to survey the status quo in advance. For this purpose, a framework was developed.
The project goal is a guide that shows OPCs and SMEs an individual path from the strategic positioning of an adapted business model to the development of digital roadmaps. Success stories will also find their place in the “SME method case” and show Austrian entrepreneurs the way to a digital future.
The project team with Kurt Drexler, Therese Lemmerer, Florian Mörth and Petra Hopfgartner will be supported by external experts from the Information Design Institute (idi.co.at) and Gerald Schneikart, MBA, PhD as well as FH-Prof. Dr. Walter Mayrhofer, from the Institute for Digital Transformation & Strategy at FHWien der WKW.
The project is funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG as part of the “Impact Innovation” program and implemented by the Institute for Digital Business (neuedonau.net).