Problem definition

While digitalization of process industry is offering many opportunities it also presents significant threats to business in the Interreg Nord region:

• Despite being innovative, SMEs are increasingly being challenged to sell services to the process industry as procurement is centralized and firms wish to reduce the number of suppliers.

• Process firms are challenged to digitalize fast to remain competitive on a global scale. They fear that SMEs are not able to scale up their solutions to digitalize their whole operations.

• On the other hand process firms are critically reliant of having a strong network of local SMEs to provide services for them (i.e. fast and flexible).

• There are many digitalization challenges, e.g.: ownership of data, data integration among suppliers, SME roles in larger firms business, and finding appropriate partners

Problem definition

• Digitalization can be less of a threat and more an opportunity if SMEs can join forces and together provide digital services to meet process industry needs. This can be a entry to national and global markets through the large process firm’s networks. As all competences needed may not be available within an SMEcollaborating with other SMEs can provide what is missing.

• Digitalization can also enable circular economy and support smart specialization strategies of Norrbotten and Finnish Lappland.

• Often SMEs can be more agile compared to bigger global service providers to meet the needs of a customer, especially when developing and applying new digital solutions. This gives competitive edge for SMEs towards global big players.

• SMEs lack knowledge and arenas to extend their ecosystems and need support to innovate their business models for digitalization and increased ecosystem collaboration.

Project goals

• Project overall objective is to support digitalization and the development of digital service eco-systems among SMEs serving process industry.

• Important sub-goals include:

• To identify digitalization development plans, needs and opportunities in the process industry (15 companies)

• To identify digitalization potential and consult SMEs serving the industry: state-of-the-art; maturity; plans (support 50 companies)

• To identify digitalization cases with potential with the help of intercompany cooperation incl. cross -sector and crossborder opportunities

• To initiate cooperation and new ecosystem business models in digitalization ecosystems around specific needs and opportunities

• To pilot and demonstrate digitalization cases with SMEs, industry and possibly large suppliers

• To help company groups to search for funding in digitalization cases where development is needed

• To prepare European projects (RIA, IA) when digitalization research is needed to support the development

• To evaluate and analyse the work throughout the conduction of the project

• To build a ecosystem digitalization method and piloting tool kit for further use

• To build digitalization education and training material within digital technologies which will be used both by companies and in education