The article lists the most powerful Digital Transformation trends for 2019. Each of the trends is further discussed in detail in linked articles. A recommended read.

"The pace of technology innovation continues to accelerate, and companies continue to find navigating the business strategy, business model, workforce, customer interaction, and business operational changes necessary to compete effectively to be a significant challenge. This progression will continue through next year and beyond."

Internet of Things became a buzz word especially in the producing industry. However, many companies still struggle with the challenges of finding the right use cases and appropriate technologies. We consolidated the most important facts you should consider when starting digitalization of your products and services.

China started to create an ecosystem for companies to modernize their facilities and also rethink through their current business models. Especially the IT-sector with a fast-growing e-commerce business is supposed to become the backbone of the industry. Read more about the regional Centers of Excellence in our full article.

Silicon Valley is still the major player even though it is losing ground in terms of fast-growing start-ups. Silicon Valley based tech companies brought in a total of 12.000 deals since 2012, more than twice as many as the number two, the New York area. Similar for funding, Silicon Valley companies brought in a total of $140 billions with Beijing being next in line at $75 billions.

“Industrie 2025” is an initiative to anchor the vision of industry 4.0 in Swiss small and medium enterprises. The working group “Thinking in Digital Business Models” focuses on digital business models and develops pragmatic methods for their implementation. IPG Group is proudly an active partner in this working group.

Serbia has already put strong public focus on Industry 4.0 but has to come up with a comprehensive initiative plan and activity list for its widespread implementation in the short term since the lag is significant. Although, as a late comer, Serbia can learn from success cases and best practice examples of other economies, that already implemented digitalization initiatives. But - Serbia should not copy these cases, but learn and seek for its own path.

Serbia has already put strong public focus on Industry 4.0 but has to come up with a comprehensive initiative plan and activity list for its widespread implementation in the short term since the lag is significant. Although, as a late comer, Serbia can learn from success cases and best practice examples of other economies, that already implemented digitalization initiatives. But - Serbia should not copy these cases, but learn and seek for its own path.

Consider these recommended actions when executing your Digital Transformation initiatives in 2019. Coming from an experienced CIO, these are generic and applicable in any industry.

"Leaders of digital transformation should realign priorities, dive into artificial intelligence and automation and find sustainable ways to engage the workforce.... In this post, I’d like to share some recommendations on things to do next year to maximize your chance of hitting your transformational goals."

In his whitepaper, Miguel Arjona (Altran Group) describes the virtual factory as an inevitable result of the increasing trend to digitalization of production. He sees the requirement of “new forms of interaction between men and machines”, where Augmented / Virtual Reality is the key technology for an enriched physical production environment. According to Miguel, interaction with virtual objects is another field of development to complement sensors and actuator in the Internet of Things.

Kopaonik Business Forum is committed to improving the performance of Serbian economy through analytical contributions and dialogue between major relevant stakeholders. It is a high profile event organized under the conceptual patronage of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia. It is no accident that the Forum has been receiving a growing number of requests for attendance from around the region. In the last couple of years, the Forum has gathered on average more than a thousand participants, including heads of state and government, ministers, high representatives of regulatory bodies, representatives of international financial institutions, respectable scholars, diplomats, business practitioners, and media.