Mr. Wunderlich, does our future consist solely of bits and bytes?

Some have been dreaming for 30 years of complete digitalization of all areas of life. We are still quite far from it. Presumably, there will always be remnants of analog processes – where they offer added value, even in business life.

It is indisputable, however, that the possibilities of the digital world offer great advantages to practically all companies. And with the new federal government, digitalization in Germany will receive a new boost, regardless of the election outcome. Because: All parties have given it political priority, if only to achieve central resilience goals.

If my company has a website, is that already enough?

Data economy, e-government, IT security/data protection: These terms should be familiar to every entrepreneur if they are not already. And then, of course, the platform economy: Business processes will only rarely create value without platforms. For users, they are simply the safest, most transparent, and easiest way to a product or service.

And the ecosystem idea should also be natural in medium-sized businesses: Where do I stand in my market segment, and how do partners, customers, and administrations relate to me? Those who can and want to think systemically are at an advantage.

Companies need to optimize their adaptability and actively shape changes. Who sleeps, will disappear. This also applies to working with digital platform and network systems such as the emerging European cloud "Gaia-X."

Sounds a bit complicated?

Sure, various fields are currently changing quite significantly, and simultaneously. But: None of it is rocket science. And delegation is possible: IT security and compliance, for example, to the platform. As an individual, one can hardly protect against a targeted hacker attack anymore. It is good that especially economic data qualities are stored in a secure place with high availability.

The chamber organizations can become real winners in this mediation. The umbrella organization processes a topic in an understandable and practical way, and the local chambers communicate it to medium-sized businesses – as a kind of translation service. This will especially advance smaller and medium-sized companies that cannot afford their own IT department or external consultants.

So "everything is easy," or do you also see – virtual – stumbling blocks?

We need to talk about how we deal with the dominance of individual goods platform providers, especially in the B2B sector. Is this monopolization still healthy – or do we risk problematic dependencies with losses of sovereignty? For medium-sized businesses, regional platforms could be a perspective alternative that already work well in some places but are not yet competitive overall.

And then there is the digital administration. At the latest when applying for and paying out corona bridging aids, but even before that – for example, at the health offices – massive administrative deficiencies became transparent. The Normenkontrollrat has just published an interesting impulse on this. Germany is lagging behind, ranking only in the lower midfield in European comparison. For the new federal government, it should be an incentive and goal to reach the top 5 in the next five years...

As a committee, we want to be idea generators and drivers here. A concrete example: Every company needs its own ID, a digital corporate identity, under which information and power of attorney can be retrieved in real time. Direct access to public administration must also be possible, quickly and easily. That should be implementable, don't you think?