At the moment the 4-day week study from Iceland the round in the media:

• Die Zeit: "The four-day week could also work in Germany".
• Der Spiegel: "Field experiment on the four-day week - Iceland cuts working hours, productivity rises".
• t3n: "4-day week in Iceland: 5 facts critics must come to terms with".
• Focus: "Soon the four-day week? Iceland drastically reduces working hours - experiment shows resounding success".
• WiWo: "4-day week makes employees more productive and happier".
• SRF: "Iceland switches to the four-day week".

The unanimous verdict: a four-day workweek is better, for people and the economy. The online newspaper Perspective Daily asks in its article (https://perspective-daily.de/article/1762/TsKtvxjo) on the topic: Would the 4-day week be a good solution for you? There are three answers to choose from - Yes, No, I already work four days. The first option currently gets seventy-four, the second six, and the third eighteen percent of the votes cast. I belong to the absolute minority who voted "No." This is because I consider the experiment that has been carried out to be a fraud against the workers.

The big 4 days a week scam

Many of the digitizers in the business world make this, quite crude, announcement to their customers at the beginning of the project: "One thing must be clear to them, if they have a crappy process today and they digitize it, they simply have a crappy digital process." I feel the same way about the glorification of a reduced work week. After all, if we glorify the shortening of poor working conditions, nothing has changed in the circumstances. As the study from Iceland points out, this is true. Because in essence, the reduction in working hours achieved above all that people can better endure their unsatisfactory work. This is achieved by giving them more time to compensate for their frustration.

The author of the study, Jack Kellam, says in an interview with Time: "The subjects were able to decide for themselves the amount of time they now had to work less. It doesn't matter if someone sits in front of the computer and gambles or goes for a walk in the woods during that time." What makes people happy, according to Kellam, is self-determination. He underscores this by saying, "What's most important is that participants had a high degree of autonomy in how they managed their work time."

What it is really about

The study offers a reduction in the working week as a solution. But a closer look reveals something else. People lack self-efficacy in their work. We want to have an influence. We want to help shape things. We want to let thirteen be even. The way most companies are organized today prevents the vast majority of employees from doing just that. And in a systematized way. That's why it takes more than just improving the existing structures. We are ready for a system change. We need an adaptive organizational design that professionalizes independent design by employees. Conventional organizational structures are hardly adapted to these requirements. Formal command-and-control structures thwart the ability of people to self-manage and adapt to changing economic, technological and market conditions.

If one's own organization is to become adaptive, this therefore challenges traditional management habits above all. For success, it is necessary to leave the silos. And more. No one can continue to rely on predefined plans. Because by the time they come to fruition, a different solution has long been needed. In this mixed situation, the key is to allow autonomy. But only that which ultimately acts in the interests of the organization. This is achieved through three central mechanisms of action:

1. Distributing leadership tasks/responsibilities throughout the company instead of limiting them to formal roles.
2. Transition from management to self-management
3. Transfer to cross-functional autonomous teams

It's not about how long someone works

In companies that consistently follow this path, it turns out that for many, the 4-day week or even shorter working hours with full wage compensation are not an issue. It's not at all about how long someone works. What matters is what effect he/she achieves with his/her work. Incidentally, this applies just as much to entrepreneurs as it does to their employees. For example, the owners of Teledata IT-Lösungen GmbH, Peter Wassmuth and Robin Aigner, who successfully follow this path with their company, regularly emphasize: "One of our greatest successes is that we no longer have a fifty or sixty-hour week, but can manage wonderfully with thirty to forty." On kununu, one employee's reaction to the adaptive working conditions at Teledata reads like this: "Just nice to have Sundays to look forward to Mondays" (https://www.kununu.com/de/teledata-it-loesungen/bewertung/2a55268d-9e4f-44cf-8359-0c1268b96bbd).

And so I ask. "Should we really continue to cheat ourselves with four-day weeks as a promise of salvation when it is within our creative power to work together in a meaningful way?" I know: "We can do better!"

To the author:
Gebhard Borck is the transformation catalyst. With his tried-and-tested thinking tools, he solves concrete, urgent problems. And Borck is more than a consultant: Instead of building castles in the air, he uncovers and speaks plainly. He is a speaker, best-selling author, sparring partner and is regarded as the inventor of genuine fairness in business. https://www.gebhardborck.de

Book tip: Gebhard Bock: The Self-Efficacious Organization. The playbook for intelligent collaboration. 1st edition BusinessVillage 2020, 296 pages, ISBN 978-3-86980-486-6.

In the age of the digital revolution, companies are equipping their organizations for future success against the clock. Strategy decisions today are largely influenced by buzzwords such as digital transformation, risk management, process and enterprise architecture. According to the motto "mastering digital transformation together", BOC Switzerland - part of the BOC Group - , the Swiss Impact Day 2021, an event for Swiss digital business leaders. The event will take place live on September 16, 2021 at the Sheraton Zurich Hotel or virtually.

At the Swiss Impact Day, experts from Swiss companies exchange views on topics relating to business process and IT architecture management as well as governance, risk & compliance. What will successful business architectures of the future look like? Which trends and changes will determine business management in the future? How are other Swiss companies tackling the challenges of the future? Participants together with the speakers will address these questions. The BOC brings an ensemble such as, Tim Lehrig from Emmi Schweiz AG, Felix Bindschedler from On AG, Elias Schneuwly from Ringier AG as well as Andreas Christen and Daniel Plüss from Basler Kantonalbank on stage.

"The event brings together a community of like-minded digital business enthusiasts and is a source of inspiration for strategy, organization and innovation," says BOC Switzerland marketing and communications manager Sandro Gerussi. The event is the Swiss edition and part of the Global Business Impact Summit's 2021, which will take place from September 7 to 21. Participation in the Swiss Impact Day is free of charge. The event can be attended live, online or on-demand.

You can register here: Swiss Impact Day 2021 - www.boc-group.com

In the annual "Clarity on Performance of Swiss Private Banks" study, KPMG and the University of St. Gallen (HSG) examined a total of 83 private banks operating in Switzerland and assessed the performance of these institutions as well as key industry trends. In addition, 250 statements on the situation of the banks during the pandemic were scrutinized and 27 executives - mainly CEOs - from the private banking sector were interviewed.

Challenging environment

The environment for the private banking sector remains challenging, even though many institutions initially came through the corona crisis well, concludes the private banking study by KPMG and the HSG. According to the study, small private banks with assets under management of less than CHF 5 billion are particularly affected. Their turnover slumped by around 13 percent in 2020. Low interest rates are the main factor depressing earnings. At the same time, small private banks are increasingly reaching their limits in terms of digitalization and due to the increasing density of regulation. As a result, and driven by high margin pressure and the need for economies of scale, consolidation is continuing.

Private banking sector continues to shrink

This is reflected not least in the sharp increase in M&A activity since the first lockdown: eight consolidation deals were announced between July 2020 and July 2021. At the same time, the number of private banks operating in Switzerland has decreased from 101 to 99 in 2020. Currently, there are still 96 private banks in Switzerland - and after the completion of the transactions already announced, there will likely be 93. "In our view, there is still a great need for consolidation, especially among smaller and medium-sized private banks," said Christian Hintermann, banking expert and partner at KPMG Switzerland. "We therefore expect transaction activity to remain high over the next twelve months. In addition, we expect the number of private banks in the Swiss market to decrease by another quarter in the medium term." Over the past ten years, the number of institutions in Switzerland has already declined by 40 percent (158 private banks in 2011).

Gap between large and small private banks widens further

What is striking in the private banking sector is that the gap between large and small banks widened even further last year: Large institutions performed better than medium and small banks in 2020 and proved more resilient to the challenges of the pandemic. In fact, they were even able to slightly increase their 2020 sales (+0.8%) despite difficult circumstances, while medium-sized private banks suffered a sales decline of 7.2% and small institutions even suffered a sales slump of 12.8%.

A look at the cost/income ratio also clearly shows the differences: while the large private banks were even able to improve it slightly (74%), the cost/income ratio at the small private banks rose by 10 percentage points to 95%, the highest value in the last five years. For medium-sized private banks, the cost/income ratio is 84%, around two percentage points higher than in the previous year. Across all private banks operating in Switzerland, the 2020 cost/income ratio (median) rose 6 percentage points to a record high of 85.9%. To be sure, institutions were able to cut costs in travel and marketing. However, the lower operating expenses were unable to offset the decline in income.

"The solid performance of the strong banks in the midst of difficult market and pandemic challenges is a testament to the investments they have made in recent years to strengthen their resilience. They have achieved this by consistently investing in customer acquisition and efficiency," explains Philipp Rickert, Head of Financial Services at KPMG Switzerland. This is also reflected in the institutions' return on equity: While large private banks have a median return on equity of 6.2%, the median for small banks is 1.1%. Overall, the average return on equity (median) was 4.1%, which represents a slight deterioration compared with the previous year (4.2%).

Assets under management and net new money increase

Assets under management increased by 3% to just under CHF 2,943 billion across the private banking sector in 2020. This was mainly due to strong growth in net new money of CHF 94.5 billion (+3.3%) last year, with large private banks in particular attracting a lot of new money. For example, around 95% of net new money was generated by seven of the largest private banks. Overall, 48 banks reported positive net new money and 35 banks reported negative net new money. "The considerable inflow of new money over the past two years is an extremely encouraging sign for the industry and for Switzerland as a leading financial center in private banking," Rickert said. Mergers and acquisitions, on the other hand, did not have a significant impact on private banks' assets under management last year, as some of the announced transactions have not been or will not be completed until 2021.

Only minor cost savings for office space

The 27 executives surveyed last year - mainly CEOs - expected at the time that home offices would benefit banks in terms of office costs and other efficiencies. But as things stand, only limited reductions in office space expenses are evident. Cost savings in the 2020 pandemic year were modest at 0.9%. In contrast, the decrease in travel and marketing expenses led to larger cost savings at most banks, reducing general and administrative expenses by 9% (CHF 388 million).

Executives last year assumed that loan defaults would result in only minor credit losses in 2020. It is true that the industry's credit losses (includes lombard, mortgage and other credit losses) increased more than fourfold year-on-year (from CHF 126 million to CHF 597 million). However, a large part of this is attributable to one bank. Overall, the number of private banks reporting an increase in credit losses in 2020 remained relatively stable at 31. In the previous year, there were still 28 private banks reporting increased credit losses.

Digitization and ESG gain in importance

As the private bank study also shows, private banks want to devote more attention to topics other than the Corona crisis. This includes the entire ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) area, which is becoming increasingly relevant. Thus, private banks are evolving in the ESG area and adapting their offerings. However, there are big differences between banks. While a majority of 60% of the institutions have ESG listed on their website. Only about 20 financial institutions had it evident in their annual reports or on their websites that ESG is a key strategic priority. "Banks should leverage Switzerland's strong track record of ESG pioneering and investing to attract new generations of clients for whom ESG is a key concern," Rickert said.

The topic of digitization continues to gain in importance. For example, an increase of 327% in keywords relating to digitization has been observed in banks' annual reports over the past ten years. Despite this, private banks made lower IT investments in 2020 and recorded lower IT-related costs than in the previous year. "The lower IT spending is mainly due to banks' reluctance to invest in the crisis year. We expect investments in IT to pick up again, as digital transformation will remain a key issue," explains Hintermann.

Methodology

At Selfrag, one of the principles is: "We only have one planet, we are committed to contributing to its preservation." Under this motto, the company has become a leader in the industrialization of systems for the recovery of solids by means of electrodynamic fragmentation. In this process, mixed materials such as electronic scrap, slag or rock are separated into their individual components by high-voltage pulses. This environmentally friendly method is used, for example, in the cement industry, in mining, and in the processing and recycling of residues from refuse incineration. With its patented technology, the company is able to reduce the volume of municipal solid waste slag by half and return valuable materials such as metals and minerals to the economic cycle. The process makes a substantial contribution to reducing CO2 emissions and helps close the gap to a functioning circular economy.

Further develop potentials

Now Selfrag will further develop the potential of this method in the future as part of a service and research collaboration with the Institute for Biomass and Resource Efficiency at the FHNW University of Applied Sciences. This institute conducts research and development in the fields of alternative fuels, combustion and resource efficiency. It is part of the national competence center for energy research "SCCER Biosweet" and is jointly supported by the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). Joint research projects on the material recycling of mineral and metallic waste are planned, according to the statement.

Strengthening the circular economy with research collaboration

"With our technology, valuable raw materials are extracted from waste slag for recycling. In cooperation with the School of Engineering of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW, we want to further develop this environmentally friendly waste recycling and thus strengthen the circular economy," explains Anton Affentranger, President of the Board of Selfrag. "We accompany companies with our competences in the field of circular economy in the development of a technical innovation until it is ready for the market", explains Petar Mandaliev from the Institute for Biomass and Resource Efficiency FHNW. "Selfrag's sustainable goals coincide with the values of our university."

Sources and further information: Selfrag AG, FHNW

Not only large corporations are affected by increasing cyber attacks. This is shown, for example, by the cases of Stadler Rail and Comparis, which recently became public. A study by the ZHAW also reveals this: About one-third of Swiss SMEs have already fallen victim to cyberattacks, and about 4 % of them have also been blackmailed. This means that almost 200,000 SMEs have already fallen victim to a cyber attack. ICT Switzerland also warns in a study: "The risk of falling victim to a cyber attack is overestimated. Only 10 % and 4 % of respondents, respectively, perceive being put out of action for a day or even having their livelihood threatened as a great or very great danger." At the same time, however, only 60 % of respondents confirm having fully implemented basic protection measures such as malware protection, firewall, patch management and backup. Cyber incident detection systems have been fully implemented by only one in five companies, he said. Only 18 % of the companies surveyed still report processes for handling cyber incidents, and only 15 % report employee training on the secure use of IT.

When it happens, good advice is needed

When a cyberattack occurs at a company, good advice is needed. A ransomware attack, for example, is quickly followed by the demand for a ransom, usually in cryptocurrencies, to cover up traces. For victims, it often remains uncertain whether access to the data encrypted by the attacker will actually be fully restored after payment has been made. What is left behind are legal cases, reputational damage, financial losses and uncertainty. Prevention, intervention and aftercare are needed along with good advice.

Cyber Incident Hub for companies and insurers

Against this background, the three consulting firms MLL MeyerLustenberger Lachenal Froriep (MLL), Farner Consulting, Oneconsult and the startup CYBERA have jointly launched the interdisciplinary "Cyber Incident Response Hub", which is available with support services around the clock. Covered are cyber specialized legal advice (MLL), incident response and digital forensics (Oneconsult), crisis communication and reputation management (Farner), and international response to fraudulently stolen funds (CYBERA). According to the company, this unique offering in Switzerland addresses a rapidly increasing threat to companies from cyberattacks, data corruption, fraud and extortion in times of digital transformation. Target customers are not only (cyber) insurers but also exposed companies of all kinds. Nicola Staub, Founder and CEO CYBERA says about the new service offering: "To block and secure fraudulently stolen funds worldwide with criminally relevant information before they are laundered and irrevocably lost, new solutions are needed, which we offer."

The 360° offer

The interdisciplinary capabilities of legal, technology, forensics, and communications professionals offered by the Cyber Incident Hub are all needed to best prepare for, successfully defend against, and manage or mitigate risks. MLL Law Firm has built a network of leading and experienced partners to provide a coordinated response to cybersecurity issues of all types. Services range from the creation of a cybersecurity response plan and cyber risk readiness review to the legally correct handling of security breaches, data breaches and cyber incident investigations. Good communication in the event of the attack contributes to the rapid recovery of the reputation damage incurred. Last but not least, ensuring cyber and data security at all times is now one of the basic legal requirements for compliance and good governance, write the operators of the Cyber Incident Hub.

How can the Cyber Incident Hub be contacted? Currently acts MLL as a point of contactHowever, a landing page is currently being set up, we were told in response to our inquiry. The offer is intended less as an emergency call option than as a comprehensive service that can be used, for example, as part of insurance packages against cyber risks.

Founded in January 2011, CCR says it has more than 25 years of experience in Genesys partner and call center technologies to offer its customers the latest solutions. Now, new professional services packages have been developed to support those companies deploying Genesys-based solutions, the company says. The unified communications consulting services help replace legacy systems with the latest generation contact center technologies and increase business productivity, it adds. As a result, the company says it can better ensure personable and professional customer contact by contact center agents. Agents are empowered and can connect with customers through any channel, revenue is increased, and business costs are reduced with an omni-channel solution, according to other benefits cited by CCR. In addition, MS Teams management services are also part of the DMS, he said. The seamless MS Teams migration and management by CCR would form the technical basis for this.

With the following DMS Packages: Health Check, Standard Package and Full Coverage Package, companies can further develop and digitize their contact center. CCR is present in the banking, insurance, telecommunications, energy, manufacturing, healthcare, retail and e-commerce sectors with its solutions. Some of CCR's reference customers in Switzerland are Sunrise, Medela, Medgate, WIR Bank, Vifor Pharma, Constellium, Brother (Schweiz) AG, etc.

Source and further information: www.ccr.group

We have known about the phenomenon of "influencers" not just since social media. Influential leaders have always had a sizable number of "followers." But this is about something very simple that is relevant to anyone who wants to influence others in any way: it's about influencing others so that they are happy to follow you of their own free will. If you can do that, you can move the proverbial mountains.

By the way, this has absolutely nothing to do with "blind allegiance". On the contrary: The more your people critically question and challenge you, the greater your influence - provided you are willing to accept the challenges and deal with the criticism.

Leaders come to me all the time with questions about why people don't follow them enough: "Why aren't you doing what we agreed? Why aren't you implementing things the way I told you to?" Here are the top three reasons from my experience why people don't follow you:

1. They spread uncertainty. I had already dealt with this in detail elsewhere. Many leaders spread insecurity to others through their lack of clarity. Clarity in communication is often drastically overestimated. What appears to be clear to you may be completely unclear to others. No one wants to follow someone they don't understand.
2. The trust is too low. Of course, you know this: if you are to follow someone, you must trust the person to some degree. The more trust, the easier the leadership. But what is often ignored: In order to trust yourself fully, you should know yourself as well as possible and be able to assess yourself. This requires actions that are outside the normal work processes.
3. There is no need. This may come as a bit of a surprise, but if you don't see a good reason to follow another person, you won't do it. So if others don't understand the need for your leadership, it will be difficult for you. The good news is that you can consciously create that need.

If you reverse these three points, you have a very good chance that other people will be very happy to follow you, which will then increase your influence.

Bonus insight: The three levers mentioned above apply just as much in sales if you want to turn as many customers as possible into your fans.

To the author:
Volkmar Völzke is a success maximizer. Book author. Consultant. Coach. Speaker. www.volkmarvoelzke.ch

According to the latest quarterly survey of member companies of the industry association Swissmechanic, the MEM sector is at the start of a post-crisis boom. With the vast majority (75 percent) of respondents now assessing the situation as positive or rather or very favorable, it can be said that after two years in the red, the Swissmechanic Business Climate Index turned clearly into the green in July 2021. Still in April this year less than half (46%) saw the future as rosy, even though greater optimism was already emerging at that time.

SME-MEM on course for expansion

The fact that the recovery in the MEM sector continued to gain momentum in the second quarter of 2021 can be seen from the following indicators: new orders and sales rose sharply compared with the same quarter of the previous year (2020 Q2), partly due to the sharp slump a year earlier. The same applies to MEM exports; here Swissmechanic is talking about a record-breaking increase. A new trend reversal is also emerging in margins and personnel in the second quarter, this as a further finding of the survey. Capacity utilization rose to 92 percent in July 2021 and is thus higher than before the start of the pandemic.

MEM sector continues to face supply chain problems

Supply chain problems and labor shortages are currently ahead of order shortages on the list of concerns. According to the member companies surveyed, by far the biggest supply chain issues are availability, delivery times and prices of raw materials (e.g. metals) and intermediates (e.g. microchips). The shortage of intermediate products should primarily be seen as a symptom of the (global) race to catch up and the shift in consumption and production patterns, Swissmechanic writes in this regard. For example, the digitalization push caused by the pandemic has played a significant role in the microchip shortage.

Long-running issue: overregulation and a flood of regulations

Despite the problems in the supply chain area, the still young boom in the MEM sector is expected to continue this year and next. In order for the MEM SMEs to achieve a higher (structural) growth path in the long term, their framework conditions must be improved, the MEM SME industry association further states, and promises to continue to lobby for this cause in Federal Berne. The numerous regulations and the ever-increasing flood of paragraphs would increasingly restrict individual initiative and entrepreneurship and slow down the productivity and competitiveness of companies. This has a negative impact on innovation and jobs, Swissmechanic added. "Switzerland is permanently losing its attractiveness as a business location. This must not be allowed to happen. Therefore, Swissmechanic supports the introduction of a regulatory brake as well as all measures that contribute to relieving companies of regulatory costs. This benefits the Swiss workplace and thus society as a whole," reads the corresponding media release.

Source: Swissmechanic

If you want to earn a lot, you're in good hands in the ICT industry. That's because wages there have been consistently higher than in other industries for years. If you take inflation into account and compare the figures with the Previous year salaries have even increased slightly. According to the swissICT Salary Study 2021, the median salaries in 2021 for the "Junior", "Professional" and "Senior" skill levels are CHF 79,000, CHF 104,000 and CHF 127,000 respectively. despite Corona issues, only a few changes occurred in the IT job market. Overall, salaries are stable with slight deviations up and down. Nevertheless, the overall median is 1.1 percent higher this year than in 2020, which can be interpreted as an indication of the increasing shortage of skilled workers.

Occupational profiles are also becoming more differentiated. For example, the number of agile job profiles is increasing. The SAFe framework, for example, is increasingly being used in this topic, the study notes. Product owner, for example, received a further 23 percent more mentions than in the previous year. At a lower level, but with 98 percent growth, the Scrum Master is on the advance and gaining relevance.

More ICT service providers

272 companies participated in the salary survey. They reported 36,950 salaries. "This is an extremely pleasing increase," says Christian Hunziker, Managing Director of swissICT. "This shows, as in 2020, that the annual ICT salary survey continues to gain relevance. This is a nice sign and allows the evaluators to get a broader benchmark."

If we look at the sector distribution of the participating companies, we can see changes. For example, there was an increase in the number of participating service companies as well as in industry and commerce. Despite having the largest number of participating companies, ICT providers still account for 23 percent of all salary entries, or just under a quarter of all entries.

The cut-off date for the data collection was May 1, 2021. The salaries were evaluated on the basis of "ICT professions," which covers salaries for a total of 50 professions. This year, no new occupational profiles were added, which leads to more stability.

Differences in top specialists

A look at the standard evaluation of the swissICT Salary Survey 2021 shows the spread of salaries of comparable functions. In Switzerland, a "senior" application developer earns roughly between CHF 120,000 (lower quartile, 25 percent threshold) and CHF 135,000 (upper quartile, 75 percent threshold). This means that for one quarter of the mentions in each case, the salary is lower than CHF 120,000 and higher than CHF 135,000, respectively. With 2137 mentions, this occupational profile is among the most frequently mentioned.

The spreads for Junior (S1) to Expert (S4) are comparable and show a certain stability. In the case of the "Senior Expert S5", this increases by leaps and bounds and sometimes already exceeds 50,000 Swiss francs (25 percent to 75 percent quartiles). However, "If you come for the money, you leave for the money," says Nicole Kaeser Mirata, who has been involved in the "ICT Salaries" working group for many years. Her employer, Mobiliar, has participated in the salary study from the very beginning.

Source: swissICT

Data worlds from the cloud are constantly expanding. Technology stacks in the supply chains are increasingly interconnected. For this reason, the software applications in companies - first and foremost the ERP system as the digital image of the process organization and control instrument of the entrepreneurial value creation - have the complex task of taking over the integration of these data worlds into the business management heart of the company and making them usable in the sense of the company's goals. Trends such as big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), mobility, microservices, and the merging of production and IT are also fueling the digital transformation and facilitating the establishment of new, increasingly digitally supported business models. All this is the subject of SoftSelect's study on ERP software trends 2021.

Easing of investment brakes

After the Covid-19 restrictions on the entire social life over the past 12-18 months, many companies are now looking forward again and in many places the course has already been set for growth again, according to a finding of the study. It is also apparent that the reluctance to invest in digital infrastructure that is still often observed is increasingly giving way to a willingness to implement IT projects quickly. In many places, the aim is to eliminate any digitalization deficits.

The ERP system in particular, as the central process and data hub in the company, comes into focus when processes and entire business models are put to the test. By being able to link transactional, behavioral or, for example, technical IoT data with the commercial and master data from the ERP, companies not only achieve an improvement in data quality in the information network, but also create an important foundation for the control and automation of workflows beyond the ERP core.

ERP Software Trends 2021: Diversity of Offerings Grows

A few more concrete findings from the ERP Software Trends 2021 study: On the ERP vendor side, the service offering is not only showing growth in breadth (e.g., new cloud offerings, apps, business analytics, platform connectors, etc.), but also in depth. The most common core areas of ERP solutions include CRM (88 percent coverage), inventory and materials management (87 percent coverage) and document management (80 percent). While around three quarters of ERP solutions provide modules for financial accounting (78 percent), analytics components such as business intelligence, data warehousing or data mining (76 percent), supply chain management (74 percent) or project management (73 percent), around two out of three providers cover the areas of human resources/personnel management (69 percent), production planning/control (PPC for short, 68 percent), e-commerce (68 percent) or customer service (68 percent). The areas of payroll accounting (55 percent) and machine data acquisition (48 percent) are still covered by every second solution.

Many ERP solutions are also focused on specific industry segments such as industry (75 percent), retail (67 percent) or services (63 percent). In the industrial application environment, a wide range of manufacturing types are supported - from make-to-order production (98 percent coverage), small batch production (94 percent) and variant production (90 percent) to lot-size production (90 percent) and repetitive manufacturing (87 percent) to flow production (68 percent), kanban production (64 percent) and process manufacturing (60 percent). According to vendor data, 70 percent of ERP systems can be used regardless of industry. However, the range of ERP solutions thins out considerably for specific industry sectors such as transport and logistics (43 percent), skilled trades (42 percent), construction (34 percent) or the public sector (27 percent).

Java environments continue to gain ground

Not only is the range of ERP solutions more diverse than ever before due to new cloud, mobile and industry solutions, but the question of the optimal technology and the individually suitable deployment model also preoccupies user companies facing investment decisions today. 90 percent of the ERP systems examined in the study are classically offered as in-house variants. In contrast, 72 percent of the solution offerings are provided via the cloud. The offering is still dominated by client-server (88 percent), multi-tier (72 percent) and partially web-based architectures (67 percent). However, purely web-based applications are still the exception (12 percent), at least in the ERP area. The majority of ERP systems use .NET as their technological platform (60 percent), while Java accounts for a share of around 54 percent - an increase of 12 percentage points compared with 2020. The principles of service-oriented architectures (SOA) are implemented by around 49 percent of ERP solutions.

Multi-cloud sourcing

The approach of a hybrid IT landscape, in which certain core processes are operated "on-premise" or in the company's own cloud and are extended as required by applications from the public cloud, is becoming increasingly popular. Although private clouds are used for privacy-critical processes and sensitive data (e.g., customer or HR master data), public clouds are often used for non-critical data, e.g., from test or IoT environments. By storing part of the content locally and another part in the cloud and synchronizing it, companies want to retain control over critical data (keyword: data sovereignty), but at the same time offer users and partners more flexibility in access. The choice of the future data deployment model is now a central question that has a major influence on the future IT strategy and the choice of ERP service provider. After all, no company today wants to close itself off to future developments for years (with ever shorter innovation cycles) by locking into a particular technology or provider. Today, HR functions, CRM services, collaboration tools and databases are increasingly being provided from the cloud. In addition to public cloud and private cloud operation, the integration of several data clouds in a so-called multi-cloud is gaining in importance. In order to make data from external clouds usable for the benefit of the company's own value creation or for controlling processes, various data clouds, cloud applications, systems of collaboration partners or IoT environments are brought together in a cloud stack via a multi-cloud and managed centrally.

"The ERP system does not need to fear for its standing as the leading system within the IT landscape for years to come. Although external clouds are increasingly taking on the function of an additional data hub, the ERP system acts as an integration and control platform for all core business processes and maps the process knowledge across the entire value chain," says SoftSelect Managing Director Michael Gottwald, summarizing the study results.

Source and further information: http://www.softselect.de/erp-studien

The use of artificial intelligence is also advancing in the marketing environment. This is demonstrated, for example, by the Chatbot Study 2021 for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which was conducted by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) in cooperation with the technology company swiss moonshot AG (aiaibot) was published. As part of the study, around 1,000 people were surveyed about chatbot use, as well as their experiences with and expectations of digital assistants.

The study shows: Experience with chatbots has increased significantly. Three years ago, according to the survey, only 40 percent of respondents had interacted with a chatbot at least once. In the current study, the figure is now 63 percent. These are clear indications that artificial intelligence is finding ever broader application in marketing. In addition, 44 percent of those survey participants who have never had contact with a digital touchpoint could well imagine interacting with a chatbot in the future.

Practical chatbots 

In theory, the use of chatbots has undisputed advantages. They simplify the lives of customers and customer service representatives alike: The latter no longer have to answer recurring questions manually, and the former benefit from immediate service. But what does the practice look like? Are chatbots actually accepted by customers? The aforementioned study provides various findings in this regard. A first one: customers appreciate the speed and all-round availability of bots. They want a quick solution. The "how" plays a subordinate role, says the study. Chatbots are clearly preferred to voicebots - writing seems to be closer to them than speaking. Reachability, neutrality and fast help are the top three advantages cited by customers. Bots are usually used in the evening or at weekends from home and mostly on websites, according to another result of the survey. The respondents see numerous use cases for the use of a chatbot: Obtaining information, making appointments, checking delivery status, address changes, support in the purchasing process and many more.

Data as currency

Another finding is that customers are willing to trade data for better service. Around 60 percent of those surveyed in the study also trust that their data is secure when interacting with the bot. 75 percent are willing to authenticate themselves in dialog with a bot. More than half of the respondents are positive about the possibility of a chatbot knowing the users personally and being able to access their customer history accordingly.

In the interpretation section of the aforementioned study, the findings were also examined with the help of an in-depth analysis focusing on the intention to use. This revealed that the probability of using a chatbot repeatedly in the future is highest when the chatbot optimally combines the functional and emotional benefits. This knowledge is particularly important in the realization of a chatbot in order to consider both benefit components equally.

Artificial intelligence in marketing: not just chatbots

In addition to chatbots, another example of artificial intelligence in marketing is Google Ads. There, for example, predicting the conversion rate of an ad is standard - that's basically AI in its simplest form. And Facebook shows users more frequent messages that they are most likely to respond to. In short, marketers are already using AI applications on a regular basis without even realizing it. Automated collection of customer data, making data-driven decisions: Here, too, it is now hard to imagine marketing without artificial intelligence.

Using artificial intelligence correctly in marketing

Despite all the euphoria and optimistic study results, the use of AI must be critically monitored. The digital service provider Macaw recommends the following approaches that companies can use to successfully adopt AI-powered marketing.
1. strive for balance: Generally speaking, if companies automate all processes, the human factor is eliminated, but if they don't automate anything, the company becomes inefficient and ineffective. So it's about finding the right balance between people and technology. For example, AI can generate the content for search engine optimization or create regular marketing reports. This gives employees more time to set up innovative marketing campaigns. The example of chatbots shows that the use of AI is not a one-way street. In some cases, customers would rather talk to a real human being - that is, someone who really listens and personally tells them what to do. The motto for the use of AI-supported processes in marketing is therefore: "Digitize where possible, but human interaction where desired".
2. define purpose of use of data: For successful AI-supported collection and analysis of usage and customer data, companies need a data strategy. What insights should be drawn from the data? Do you want to find out at which point in the customer journey the customer drops out? Or is it of interest how customers arrive at the website? What data is needed to extract this information? A data strategy ensures that companies can draw meaningful conclusions from data with the aim of offering customers a personalized experience: no more generic content push, but addressing the customer with exactly the right content, at the right time and via the right channel.
3. AI and marketing - simply implement: As mentioned, marketers already use artificial intelligence on a daily basis - in many cases without being aware of it. Not to mention all the AI applications that are used - sometimes unconsciously - in the private sphere: the series and movie suggestions from Netflix or the Discover Weekly playlist from Spotify. All these offers are compiled on the basis of user behavior to refine the user profile and thus enable a personalized customer experience. Many marketing tools and applications now offer powerful AI capabilities: an ideal way to get started with AI in an easily accessible way.