In a guest article Ines Bahr writes about the digital transformation in the company Capterra: If a company misses digitisation, it risks significant competitive disadvantages compared to its digitised competitors. Large companies have recognised this and are already supporting their business processes with cloud systems. Many start-ups also use cloud technologies and benefit from the numerous advantages. However, German SMEs in particular are still struggling to outsource processes to the cloud. Many companies gallop directly into software selection without having set up a digitisation strategy and, above all, without really having understood digitisation.

On the online platform Kommune 21, Dr. Andreas Zamperoni, Principal Project Manager at msg, and Michael Kandel, Senior Manager at m3 management consulting, report about their experiences with Smart City and agile networks. m3 management consulting is a member of the msg group. The article deals with how agile management can be used to establish successful network projects that can make a decisive contribution on the way to the Smart City. The web platform Kommune 21 deals with all topics of interest to the modern community, including of course the concept of the Smart City. Below is a summary of the article.

Digitisation and modernisation are phenomena that are penetrating ever faster into more and more areas of the economy and everyday life. In fact, the constant change has never been more noticeable than it is today. Industry 4.0 is no longer a vision of the future, it is catching up with us quickly. Companies of all industries are therefore forced to deal with digitization, globalization, modernization and new technologies if they want to remain competitive and economical. The term industry 4.0 refers to a summary of many phenomena that develop simultaneously and have common intersections. The Internet plays a role in many processes - not only as a source of information but also as a sales market, advertising space and communication instrument.

The blog of the IT information and news site IT-Daily.net published an article about successful change management and external consultants, in which the author deals with the role of consultants in times of globalization and digitization. These two circumstances continuously determine and transform the working environment of most people. Executives and managers everywhere are busy recording, analysing and responding to the current consequences of digitisation and globalisation. Restructuring is initiated and evaluated, forecasts for the future are prepared and repeatedly changed. Below is a summary of the article. Especially in the IT sector, the effects of global and technical changes are quickly becoming apparent. Anyone who is not in a position to react quickly as a manager here will soon be a thing of the past and can watch familiar structures become obsolete and impractical.

Worldwide, the pressure to produce and innovate increases continuously. That circumstance also affects the information and telecommunications technology sector, among others. In order to remain competitive, companies must deploy their employees efficiently to avoid revising or inactivity. This is where resource management comes into play, which is closely linked to skill management - which employees are available and what are their skills? Resource management does not only offer these operational benefits, but also a clear strategic advantage: Project managers and managing directors already know at the planning stage what capacities are available in addition to various projects and daily business.

Knowledge and the application of lean management are required in many projects - and this form of management is a subject that is highly discussed in the professional world. But what does lean management actually mean? The term and the idea behind it had its origin in the automobile industry in Japan - and already in the 1950s. There, the principle of continuous improvement and the reduction of divisional thinking were called for. The implementation of a so-called "lean production" was generally important. These principles of streamlining were then applied to planning processes, plans, administration, procedures and management in general. Lean Management, which began under the term "Lean Production", is always about improving the entire system. Through lean management, both the administration of a group and its value chain should function more efficiently, faster, leaner and thus more economically.

Project management is a profession that is in a constant process of change. People who choose a career as a project manager should be aware of this. It helps them immensely in their professional career if they are interested in new technologies, innovative methods and creative processes. Some trends arise and remain only a few months, others continue for years and decades and change project management sustainably and continuously. What are the current trends and what do we have to be prepared for? Project manager certification bodies like us, the IAPM, also have to keep up with the times. Current trends are therefore reflected in the preparatory seminars of our trainers.

Stakeholder management is still one of the most important methods in project management today. The origin of the method is unclear, but it is clear that stakeholder management is an important component of the training courses for all certifications for project managers, including those of the IAPM training partners. Stakeholder management is defined as the handling and analysis of the various needs and interests of all project participants. The various interest groups include not only customers, donors and investors, but also politicians, neighbours, local residents, the press, nature conservation associations, associations or other groups of people who are affected by the project in any way and who could have an influence on the project.

Nicole Basel is Digital Director and reports on impulse.de about her experiences with digitisation as well as her views on this topic and on the reasons why companies fail because of digitisation. Nicole Basel knows the typical mistakes that are made time and again in the various digitisation processes and wants to prevent companies from repeating these mistakes with her article. In the following we summarize her text for you: Concentrating solely on technology is a typical mistake that many companies make. The impulse is understandable: there is a new computer program that suddenly offers new, great possibilities that inspire all employees. Even the decision-makers sometimes get so carried away by amazing software solutions that they buy a software that is truly remarkable.

Oliver Schonschek is an IT journalist and technology consultant. Together with Dr. Andreas Bergler, he thought about IT security in an article for the "IT Business" website. He poses the question of whether and to what extent digitization represents a security risk for IT. Digitalization has many advantages and is, of course, unstoppable. In some areas it is progressing at a rapid pace, in others at a leisurely pace, and in some cases is developing in unexpected directions. In many areas, digitization reduces production and wage costs, while productivity increases and new products and services continue to conquer the market. Thanks to digitization, new markets can be opened up and sales increased. Digitisation also brings with it some challenges. IT specialists must be trained and further educated, because hardly any sector develops faster than the IT sector, which has long penetrated all other sectors.

Digitisation is THE subject in all industries and almost everyone notices its effects in their workplace directly and indirectly. Especially in an industry like project management you have to adapt to new technologies and digital gadgets almost monthly. A modern project manager is expected to be familiar with the latest methods and technical tools. The effects of digitization are manifold. People, society and the environment often feel changes delayed and not immediately, because digitization is progressing slowly and step by step, so that it is often only in retrospect that everything that has changed in recent years can really be recorded. Anyone who calls a hotline, for example, no longer expects to hear a human voice. Long (more or less) intelligent software has taken over here.

Two professors from the Technical University of Berlin conducted a study in which they investigated trends in project management. Future trends up to 2025, i.e. for the coming years, were observed and analysed. Among the 14 different trends identified was also the statement that there was a tendency for more and more women to discover the professional field of project management. Employment statistics show that more and more female project managers have been found in recent years and it looks as if this development is set to continue. This is probably mainly due to the fact that the trend may indeed intensify significantly, because we are still far from seeing as many women as men flock to this field of employment. But why is that and how will this trend continue?