Customized Digitalization in Mid-Sized Businesses as a Strategy
An interview with Martin Schulze, CEO BusinessCode GmbH, Bonn
Why is it particularly important to take a strategic approach to digitalization?
A corporate strategy today must be defined around digitalization. Every area of a company is transformed by digitalization, but not all areas in the same way. Sound judgment and experience are crucial here.
Only those who manage to position their company individually in the digital world will have a future. I emphasize the word “individual” deliberately, because there is not one universal strategy, but only a company-specific one.
What does a strategic approach mean in this context?
It is important to strike the right balance between continuously improving existing processes and products through digitalization and driving true innovation with radically new digital approaches. Many companies do one or the other, but both are essential.
How do you develop an appropriate digitalization strategy with your customers?
Our customers are the experts in their business environment. We support them with our technical expertise and experience, helping them classify new possibilities in their context. Specifically: How can cloud help me? Can analytics and machine learning create added value for my company or my customers? Or, more pragmatically: What do the new licensing rules for Java mean, and how should I deal with them?
What is the difference between custom solutions and standard solutions?
With a standard solution, a provider generalizes the requirements of a large group of customers and maps them into a system with standardized processes. With a custom solution, software is developed to precisely fit the specific processes, products, and requirements of one customer.
Both approaches have their justification and areas of use.
Is it true that custom solutions are automatically more expensive?
No. With a standard solution, you always pay for the full package, even if you only need a fraction of the functionality. And at the same time, you will need features that are not covered by the standard. Custom solutions, on the other hand, are no longer built from scratch today; they use a broad spectrum of components and building blocks. As a result, custom solutions are often the more cost-effective option.
Which criteria indicate that a custom solution is the better choice?
It may sound surprising at first, but for most use cases there are no true standard solutions. The key criterion is already in the name: If the use case is a standard process like ERP or accounting, a standard software solution makes sense. But if it concerns the core of your business, where you need to differentiate from your competition and offer something innovative and unique, a custom solution is likely the better choice.
Off to the cloud, right?
From our perspective, there is no alternative to the cloud. Decentralized, secure work is only possible in the long term through appropriate cloud solutions. So the question is not “whether,” but which cloud solution to use. We tell our customers exactly that. We advise them in choosing the right solution because there are significant differences, and then we support them in ongoing operations to ensure the solution keeps pace with changing needs.
Thank you!
You can also watch and listen to the interview here!
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