{"id":2698,"date":"2025-06-20T19:30:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T17:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/de\/?p=2698"},"modified":"2025-06-23T10:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T08:45:12","slug":"digital-offensive-in-smes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/01-25\/digital-offensive-in-smes\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital offen\u00adsive in SMEs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Digital trans\u00adfor\u00adma\u00adtion in SMEs succeeds faster when compa\u00adnies coop\u00aderate, share their expe\u00adri\u00adences, and develop solu\u00adtions together. For this reason, Henrik A. Schunk, Chairman of the Steering Committee of Plat\u00adform Industry 4.0, launched the Next Level Mittel\u00adstand initia\u00adtive in 2024. \u201cMany small and medium-sized compa\u00adnies are still strug\u00adgling with digi\u00adtal\u00adiza\u00adtion,\u201d says Henrik A. Schunk. \u201cOur aim is to create a network for these compa\u00adnies and to jointly develop prac\u00adtical solu\u00adtions, strengthen digital skills, and advance knowl\u00adedge transfer in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to expand the initia\u00adtive and its growing network in a sustain\u00adable and scal\u00adable manner, Next Level Mittel\u00adstand GmbH was founded at the begin\u00adning of April 2025. The share\u00adholders include five strong part\u00adners \u2013 SCHUNK, ebm-papst, HEITEC, Block\u00adbrain, and Schwarz Digits\/STACKIT \u2013 who bring their respec\u00adtive exper\u00adtise, infra\u00adstruc\u00adture, and process knowl\u00adedge into the new company.<\/p>\n\n\n

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On the occa\u00adsion of the newly founded Next Level Mittel\u00adstand GmbH, the share\u00adholders reaf\u00adfirm their shared goal of creating an open mid-sized busi\u00adness ecosystem that supports compa\u00adnies on their journey to becoming a \u201cDigital Cham\u00adpion.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

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The founding of Next Level Mittel\u00adstand GmbH marks a crucial step towards advancing digi\u00adtal\u00adiza\u00adtion in SMEs and strength\u00adening their compet\u00adi\u00adtive\u00adness.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Dr. Daniel Boese (ebm-papst), Dr. Eber\u00adhard Ritzhaupt-Kleissl (HEITEC), Bernd Wagner (Schwarz Digits), Henrik A. Schunk (SCHUNK) and Anto\u00adnius Gress (Block\u00adbrain) (from left to right).<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The new company is based in the new Euro\u00adpean AI hub in Heil\u00adbronn. It sees itself as an open SME ecosystem for the SMEs \u2013 a space for exchange, joint projects, and digital strate\u00adgies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partic\u00adu\u00adlarly in focus: the collab\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtion between indus\u00adtrial compa\u00adnies, IT service providers, soft\u00adware devel\u00adopers, start-ups, and investors. Henrik A. Schunk empha\u00adsizes the initiative\u2019s collab\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtive approach: \u201cWe invite all small and medium-sized enter\u00adprises to become part of this ecosystem. IT service providers, soft\u00adware devel\u00adopers, start-ups, and venture capital investors are also welcome \u2013 together we can shape digital progress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fore\u00adsight and quick wins<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The members of the Next Level Mittel\u00adstand initia\u00adtive meet regu\u00adlarly. Espe\u00adcially in this area, quick successes are possible because most compa\u00adnies already have exten\u00adsive data inven\u00adto\u00adries \u2013 ideal condi\u00adtions for AI appli\u00adca\u00adtions. A concrete example is the previ\u00adously often manual and error-prone process of creating new customers or suppliers. Next Level Mittel\u00adstand has defined a stan\u00addard that enables the rele\u00advant data to be captured and eval\u00adu\u00adated auto\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcally. With the help of AI, this data can now be effi\u00adciently analyzed and forms auto\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcally filled out \u2013 a signif\u00adi\u00adcant relief for admin\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtion and sales. Another typical appli\u00adca\u00adtion scenario is the auto\u00admatic docu\u00admen\u00adta\u00adtion of customer conver\u00adsa\u00adtions. Here, an AI analyzes verbal dialogs, struc\u00adtures the content, and auto\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcally gener\u00adates meeting minutes \u2013 a real effi\u00adciency gain in daily busi\u00adness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe want to turn the many small and medium-sized enter\u00adprises into digital cham\u00adpions by 2030.\u201d<\/p>\nHenrik A. Schunk, Initiator and Managing Director of Next Level Mittel\u00adstand<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Five years of rapid progress<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The time horizon for Next Level Mittel\u00adstand is 2030. \u201cWe want to turn the many small and medium-sized SMEs into digital cham\u00adpions by then,\u201d empha\u00adsized Henrik A. Schunk. The initia\u00adtive is also linked to Manufacturing\u2011X \u2013 a cross-industry flag\u00adship project between the worlds of busi\u00adness, acad\u00ademia, and poli\u00adtics. The aim is to create a shared, secure data space for the industry \u2013 as a foun\u00adda\u00adtion for connected value chains and inno\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive busi\u00adness models. \u201cThe full results of Manufacturing\u2011X will only take effect in a few years,\u201d says Schunk. \u201cWith Next Level Mittel\u00adstand we are already laying the foun\u00adda\u00adtions today \u2013 making the medium-sized compa\u00adnies \u2018data\u00adspace-ready\u2019.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Become a member<\/strong>!<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

New members such as medium-sized compa\u00adnies, asso\u00adci\u00ada\u00adtions, IT service providers, start-ups, venture capital investors, family offices, or univer\u00adsi\u00adties are very welcome. Please direct your interest to the following email address:
info@nextlevelmittelstand.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Learn more: <\/strong>
Digital offen\u00adsive takes the next step into the future<\/a>
Next Level Mittel\u00adstand [NLM]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The newly founded company Next Level Mittel\u00adstand GmbH brings together small and medium-sized enter\u00adprises (SMEs) in Germany to jointly advance the digi\u00adtal\u00adiza\u00adtion of industry. The goal is to prepare the SMEs for the digital future and develop them into digital cham\u00adpions by 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aktuelles","category-01-25"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2698"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3068,"href":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698\/revisions\/3068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluejournal.schunk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}