At the start of the Digital Summit of the Federal Government in Ludwigshafen, Kantar TNS and the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim have today presented the 2017 Digital Economy monitoring report in the presence of Federal Economic Affairs Minister Brigitte Zypries. It contains the latest key figures on digitisation and networking in the German economy.

Federal Minister Zypries said: “I am delighted that our SMEs, which are one of the main pillars of our economy, are increasingly exploiting the opportunities of digitalisation. This will be crucial for the success of German industry in the future. The Mittelstand 4.0 Centres of Excellence, which we have set up, will support companies on their way towards becoming digitised. The Centres of Excellence provide practice-based information on the ground to help companies become familiarised with the new digital opportunities.

One in three companies is using smart services, one in five Big Data. Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy. About 60 per cent of companies are digitally linked with their business customers. To drive digitisation, 20 per cent of companies are working together with partners in their own industry, while 15 per cent are also cooperating with businesses from other industries. For this reason, only about four per cent of the companies are currently partnering with start-ups.

As commissioned by the Federal Economic Affairs Ministry, the 2017 Digital Economy monitoring report analyses annually how digitisation is advancing in German trade and industry. The current report can be downloaded here (in German).