Digital immaturity

A study by the German Digital Industry Association (BVDW) surveyed the digital maturity of German companies. The companies were divided into five maturity levels - less than half of the companies are found in the top two maturity levels.

The summary of the study results is available free of charge as a download. The majority of the companies surveyed are not "mature" for digitization. One in ten companies is in the "rest phase," the lowest level of maturity.

These companies lack an adapted strategy or even digital skills on the part of their employees. Fifteen percent are in maturity level two, the "starter phase".

Although initial digital projects can be identified, they are only implemented sporadically. More than a quarter of the companies surveyed are classified in the "pilot phase", in which strategies are already being implemented sporadically on the basis of initial experience with digital projects.

The impetus there comes from the management level, resulting in cross-functional teams that develop at least a basic awareness of digital transformation.

Just under a third (32 percent) of companies are already in the "digitization phase" - this corresponds to maturity level four. Here, the cultural change is already clearly visible; digitization is reaching the company's management strategy, core processes, products and services, and is already leading to positive economic effects.

One in six companies achieves the highest maturity level five and is thus considered "digitized: Digitization runs through all processes, the online world is perfectly dovetailed with the offline world, and the entire organization is geared to implementing digital processes.