Digitalisation is the trigger for new activities and business models in all industries, including the chemical industry. We decided to address the topic in form of a thematic forum which took place at the innovation park Augsburg on the 27th of February 2019 in cooperation with the Zentrum Digitalisierung Bayern (ZD.B).
Attempting to stimulate a cross-industry discourse, about 50 people from various industries and areas participated in Augsburg. The forum started with a presentation by Sebastian Brenner, Managing Director of CheMondis GmbH, a 100 percent corporate start-up of the chemical company LANXESS. CheMondis is a B2B marketplace for chemicals, representing a new, digital sales channel, especially for small and medium-sized companies. With their business model, the start-up questions the traditional procedures and processes in the procurement of chemical substances.
In the “Share & Discuss” session, Sylvia Aust, Head of Digital Transformation at Wacker Chemie AG, explained Wacker’s digital programme and the thereby addressed topics. EXPACON freelance consultant and OQEMA supervisory board member, Till Knorr, shared his observations in the context of digitalisation and how the management level deals with it.
In two workshops, Jonas Schaub and David Widman from elunic AG developed solution approaches in the context of “Industry 4.0” with the participants. In order to identify technological solutions to support sales, FoxBase CEO, Carsten Dolch, discussed the challenges of B2B sales with the participants.
The event was moderated by Céline Flores Willers who is known as one of the LinkedIn top voices in Germany and as an influencer for innovation and technology.
