The C&SI vendor landscape for digital factory use cases in Germany: a heterogeneous picture ranging from generalists to specialists
Our Digital Factory - C&SI Vendor Landscape in Germany graph illustrates our digital factory landscape, from C&SI providers that address only very few use cases (shown at the very bottom of the graph) to C&SI providers that address all use cases (shown at the very top of the graph). The number of use cases addressed by a C&SI provider increases from the bottom to the top.
Relevant C&SI players range from global to local C&SI players
We have identified 3 C&SI providers that are capable of addressing all 36 of our predefined use cases* – Accenture, MHP, and Reply. This is a very interesting picture because it contains a representative of the global and multinational C&SI providers (Accenture), the EMEA-focused C&SI providers (Reply), and also a player who does its largest share of business with manufacturers in Germany (MHP).
We had of course expected global players such as Accenture to be capable of addressing all of our digital factory use cases, leveraging new technologies such as IoT, AI, and AR & VR. What was surprising, however, was that we also had Reply at the top of our list, representing the more EMEA-focused C&SI providers. MHP, a local C&SI provider with a strong focus on the automotive industry, which is increasingly also addressing the discrete manufacturing industries, is also among our top C&SI providers for digital factory use cases in Germany, covering all of them.
Players with a strong background in management consulting also play a significant role in the digital factory
With regard to C&SI providers that focus on, and do the largest share of their business with, German manufacturers, it is worth pointing out that in the middle range, we mainly see providers with a high level of management consulting capabilities (ROI Management Consulting and Unity). This illustrates well how important management consulting is for manufacturing companies on their way to digital transformation and in their efforts to get ready for the future, which clearly also includes the digital transformation of shop-floor operations.
Specialist C&SI providers play a key role in helping manufacturers to implement digital factory use cases
An outstanding role is played by those national C&SI providers that cover only a limited number of digital factory use cases but can support manufacturing companies with specific topics such as MES or SCM (e.g. Abat, Trebing + Himstedt, Salt Solutions, and Software Factory), and/or are very well positioned in the German SME market (e.g. ComputerKomplett) or score particularly high with specialist industry know-how (Sulzer in automotive).
Among manufacturers in Germany in particular, SAP plays a major role on an enterprise application level. Therefore, C&SI providers that have a strong SAP-based solutions background are also very relevant players for topics related to the digital factory (e.g. itelligence (NTT DATA), Trebing + Himstedt, IGZ, Salt Solutions, and top flow.)
Read part 1 “Digital Factory – C&SI Vendor Landscape in Germany 2020: key enablers, maturity, and adoption”
For more details please refer to our SITSI® InSight Analysis “Digital Factory: C&SI Providers in Germany” (subscription required)
*For a detailed overview, segmentation, and definition of the 36 digital factory use cases please refer to our SITSI® InBrief Analysis report “Digital Factory: Use Cases and Maturity” (subscription required)