GRÜN Lab as a partner in the digitalization funding project eStep Mittelstand

eStep Mittelstand, a funding project of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), has developed solutions that support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in digitization using the plug-and-play principle. GRÜN As a technology partner, Software AG is responsible for the implementation of all tools.

KompUEterchen4KMU is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology

Aachen, October 23.01.2017nd, XNUMX. The  GRÜN Lab, the research department of GRÜN Software AG is a partner in the funding project eStep SMEsthat from Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) has been launched. The aim of the project is to create greater investment security for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to significantly reduce the implementation costs of eBusiness standards. SMEs should be enabled not only to better assess the complexity of eBusiness projects, but also to realistically assess the risks associated with the introduction of standards, such as the need for investment and the use of know-how.

Together with the partners eCl @ ssFIR at RWTH AachenGS1Germany and tapas, different solutions were developed over three years.

Entry into eBusiness

The research project resulted in a toolbox for entry into eBusiness based on recognized standards. With the help of the applications, companies are accompanied from the status quo to the implementation of standards-based, electronic processes.

Companies have been able to use a Self-assessment tool find out how strongly your own processes are actually digitized compared to the industry. In this way, your own eBusiness maturity level can be determined in 20 minutes. The company is evaluated in detail on the basis of a self-assessment and receives concrete recommendations for action for the next steps.

There are plenty of options for digitizing business processes. “An important part of the digitization of existing business models is the use of standards, the use of which in medium-sized companies has not yet been developed. With our open plug-and-play solution, we would like to release potential in medium-sized companies to automate their own processes. ”Appeals Dr. Oliver Grün, Board Member and CEO of GRÜN Software AG. The decision tree from eStep Mittelstand helps you define your own path into eBusiness. The potentially suitable standards can be selected using the free online tool. It was developed with the help of expert surveys and allows individual weighting.

eBusiness based on the plug-and-play principle

Once a strategic approach has been defined for the path to digitization, it is important to implement it. For this purpose, the partners presented the eStep Mittelstand Middleware. “The middleware is an absolute novelty for the use of eStandards. Working together with the experts from eCl @ ss and GS1 Germany, we have for the first time created an open source solution for converting data into a wide variety of standard formats. This has never happened before, ”reports Ralph Backes, head of the GRÜN Lab.

In a single step, for example, an invoice in ZUGFeRD format and an article master for catalog exchange with eCl @ ss can be generated. "In the future, companies will be able to use plugins to put together their own individual, yet standards-based converter," says Backes. The middleware is based on the international, open standard UN / CEFACT.

Conventional converters are usually based on a closed source code. In other words, anyone who changes converter provider previously had to have all interfaces reprogrammed from scratch. With the eStep Mittelstand Middleware this effort is eliminated. Companies that want to use another standard format will only need one additional plug-in for the middleware in the future. If you change provider, you don't have to change the entire middleware, just the relevant plug-in.

In the eStep Mittelstand funding project, the processes of invoices and article master data were prototypically considered during the development of the middleware. The open source solution is now available to all companies and service providers who are interested in further developing and piloting it, free to download at www.estep-mittelstand.de ready.

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