Steinbeis has been cooperating on economic development with the districts of Vechta and Cloppenburg for over 30 years.
The economic environment keeps changing at an ever faster rate. New technologies drive innovation and fundamentally transform products, production processes, business models and market structures in cycles that get shorter and shorter. How can small and medium-sized enterprises overcome these challenges? When the District of Vechta in Lower Saxony asked itself this question back in 1990, it realized that it needed to go beyond the traditional economic development services provided by local authorities and offer the region’s businesses concrete support with innovation projects. To do this, it embarked on a partnership with Steinbeis that is still delivering to this day.
The business landscape in this region in the western part of Lower Saxony is dominated by SMEs, primarily in the agri-food, plastics engineering, mechanical and plant engineering and construction industries. Different companies at different stages in their development range from trade business startups to highly-specialized global market leaders. Across the different industries, they face numerous technological challenges and changes in their markets. Providing individual innovation project support to the companies already located in the region calls for know-how in all the relevant technology fields and market segments. This is asking a lot of a local economic development agency. But since April 1991, help has been at hand from the Steinbeis Transfer Center in Vechta, now known as the Steinbeis Transfer Center for the Oldenburger Münsterland Region. Working on behalf of the Districts of Vechta and Cloppenburg, the Transfer Center cooperates closely with the local development agencies and the region’s higher education and research infrastructure to help local businesses tackle the challenges of technology-driven structural change.
Knowledge and technology transfer strengthens local appeal.
Thanks to their close collaboration with the Cloppenburg and Vechta district economic development agencies, the local Steinbeis experts are able to create an excellent environment for innovation. In addition to their technological expertise, they offer businesses the support they need to strategically translate innovations into marketable solutions. The combination of a strong regional presence and a national network of experts helps to strengthen the Oldenburger Münsterland region as a technology hub and maintain its long-term competitiveness.
The two-stage consulting model for businesses is run by a small team of three people. These genuine all-rounders bring both technical and commercial expertise to the table. In partnership with the economic development agencies, they deliver between 100 and 130 short consultation sessions a year to businesses in the Oldenburger Münsterland region. These sessions include an initial analysis of the business’s current situation, identification of the main challenges and potential for innovation, and an initial assessment of possible solutions.
Experts can be brought in to provide specialist consulting in the second stage. The short consultation sessions typically lead to between 25 and 40 specialist consultations a year in the Oldenburger Münsterland region. These consultations analyze problems and propose solutions in the following areas:
- Overall range of technologies
- Business administration/ management
- Design
- Technology and market assessment
- Funding advice
Since the cost of both the short and specialist consultations is covered through the partnership with the two district councils, the first steps toward planned innovation projects are free for businesses.
Initiating and supporting innovation projects
The specialist consultations are often followed by the initiation and implementation of concrete innovation projects. As well as the development of new products or services, these may also involve the optimization of existing processes or the introduction of new business models. The projects are generally financed by the businesses themselves, often with the aid of innovation funding from the federal government or the state of Lower Saxony.
The results of this collaborative approach to economic development speak for themselves. Since early 1991, the Steinbeis experts have delivered some 2,900 short consultation sessions, arranged just under 1,000 specialist consultations, and initiated and implemented approximately 200 innovation projects at and with businesses in the Oldenburger Münsterland region.
Digital technology is changing how we use information
Recent years have seen a fundamental change in how businesses acquire knowledge and incorporate technological developments into their processes. While the acquisition of information and technological know-how was still a major challenge as recently as the early 1990s, companies today face a different problem: how to select and use the right information from an almost unlimited number of digital sources.
The Steinbeis Transfer Center for the Oldenburger Münsterland Region was founded before the advent of digital knowledge networks and rapid online access to specialist information. Companies wishing to make use of new technologies had to obtain the necessary information through painstaking research, from personal contacts, or by visiting trade fairs. “At the time, we addressed this challenge through our principle of ‘transfer from mind to mind’, in the form of short and specialist consultations”, explains Hermann Blanke, who has been Managing Director of the Steinbeis Enterprise ever since it was founded.
Digital technology has radically transformed this process. Knowledge is no longer hard to come by – on the contrary, the challenge for businesses today is to filter out the relevant, valuable information from the mountain of data out there. And despite the advances in digital technology, ‘transfer from mind to mind’ remains a crucial success factor for businesses. It is when artificial intelligence and digital knowledge platforms are complemented by the experience, strategic judgement and industry expertise built up by experts over many years that innovation projects benefit from the full package. Targeted consulting and individual assessments are particularly critical in technology-driven industries where innovations must be rapidly evaluated to see if they are marketable.
Trust is key to success
“The lasting success of our Steinbeis Transfer Center is down to a combination of professional expertise, extensive experience, and the trust we have built up through our work with businesses and economic development agencies”, insists Blanke. Close cooperation with the economic development agencies of the Vechta and
Cloppenburg districts has, over several decades, proven to be particularly key to the successful initiation and delivery of innovation projects. The close partnership with both districts is based on the simple principle that businesses should receive as much support as possible during their innovation process without having to deal with red tape or reporting requirements. For instance, they do not have to provide the district councils with detailed information about their projects. This ensures a high degree of confidentiality, which is especially important where sensitive technological developments or strategic realignments are concerned. For their part, the district councils trust Steinbeis to deliver the projects professionally, viewing their own role more as promoters and supporters rather than as regulators or overseers.
Over the past few decades, the region’s businesses have come to appreciate this partnership model, valuing the Steinbeis experts as reliable and discreet partners who provide rapid, flexible and practical support with innovation processes.
“Familiarity, continuity, trust and reliability are key”
An interview with economic development practitioners Nicole Bramlage and Ulrike Meyer (District of Vechta) and Dirk Gehrmann (District of Cloppenburg)
We live in challenging times. What do you see as the most important current issues in regional and local economic development?
Dirk Gehrmann:
The main issues at the moment are digitalization, promoting innovation, the skills shortage, and sustainable development and transformation. Overcoming these challenges will call for innovative solutions and close cooperation between businesses, universities and government. Strengthening companies’ resilience in times of crisis is also crucial.
Ulrike Meyer:
I think another key issue is the energy transition and the associated rise in energy prices. This poses challenges for many businesses in our region, especially those in energy-intensive production sectors such as the agri-food and plastics industries. Decarbonization is another issue that will require changes to be made if we are to meet our climate targets. Companies need to supply climate-friendly products, services and technologies, and consumers need to use them. Industry currently has a lot of work to do in this area, too.
Digitalization is transforming processes and business models. It has great potential, but there are also risks such as cybercrime and fake news. We still have a lot of catching up to do in areas like infrastructure and the public administration, but also in terms of our overall mindset.
To address these issues, you need skilled professionals – and that’s another very topical issue. The supply of skilled professionals, especially those needed for innovation, is set to decline in years to come as a result of demographic change. In our region, there are also a lot of people whose jobs involve relatively simple tasks. There will be fewer and fewer jobs like this in the future, so education, professional development and lifelong learning will become even more important.
Along with trouble spots around the world, deglobalization trends like protectionism and the foreclosure of major markets also pose a huge challenge, and not only for the businesses in our region – Germany’s economy as a whole is highly dependent on exports.
Businesses are also burdened by an excess of red tape, both in terms of everyday reporting requirements and when applying for funding or planning permission for construction projects.
What can be done to overcome these challenges?
Nicole Bramlage:
Our region has already shown that it can transform itself on many occasions in the past, and the ability to do so will be even more important in the future. We already have decentralized, regional solutions, and the technology is also mostly there. We now need partnerships and collaboration between all the actors from business, academia, government and civil society to deliver these regional solutions. This can be supported by appropriate funding programs and by cutting red tape. Investment in digital infrastructure, training, professional development and research is also vital for the transformation process.
Dirk Gehrmann:
The challenges can be overcome through targeted funding, networking and sharing best practices for SMEs. Personal familiarity, continuity, trust and reliability are key in all aspects of economic development, as are targeted innovation funding and support for innovative startups. Close cooperation between businesses and knowledge institutions can also help to mitigate the skills shortage and make companies more attractive employers.
In your experience, what are the benefits for all the stakeholders of working with Steinbeis in the field of economic development?
Dirk Gehrmann:
The main benefit is that they get access to expertise, resources and a professional network of experts and agile businesses. Companies get help with implementing their projects, while universities get the chance to apply their research in practice. This strengthens both the regional economy and innovation, contributing to regional development here in the district of Cloppenburg, and thus also enhancing the image of the Oldenburger Münsterland region as a place to do business.
Ulrike Meyer:
Steinbeis is a strong knowledge and technology transfer partner for all the stakeholders. Businesses benefit from access to a large network of experts covering a multitude of different disciplines. But universities also benefit from a stronger practical focus, contacts with the business community that are valuable for both research and teaching, and of course the financial resources that can be generated from joint activities. And the municipality benefits from having a strong, innovative and resilient economy.
What role is played by the knowledge and technology transfer that Steinbeis specializes in?
Nicole Bramlage:
Especially in regions that don’t have an abundant and diverse range of higher education institutions, the Steinbeis Network is an important partner without whom economic development agencies would struggle to offer knowledge and technology transfer and innovation support, particularly to SMEs.
Financial support from the EU, the federal state and the municipality is critical if we are to maintain and expand this valuable service. But it mustn’t be accompanied by more bureaucracy, because that deters SMEs and startups in particular from using the available knowledge and technology transfer opportunities. On the contrary, we need less bureaucracy, not more.
Dirk Gehrmann:
Knowledge and technology transfer plays a vital role in economic development in the district of Cloppenburg, since it enables experts and businesses to share ideas and technologies. This transfer allows businesses to use the latest research and market developments to improve their competitiveness. For their part, universities and research institutions gain valuable insights into the practical requirements of SMEs.
Are there any ways in which the cooperation between your districts and Steinbeis could be improved?
Dirk Gehrmann:
This is already happening through regular discussions and further joint projects. But it does require adequate staff and financial resources on all sides. If we were able to ramp up our knowledge and technology transfer activities, we could provide even more support to help businesses in Cloppenburg cope with the rapidly accelerating transformation. But this is perhaps an ambitious goal at a time when municipalities are coming under growing financial pressure. Support for transfer from the state of Lower Saxony and the federal government, together with a clear allocation of the actors’ roles right down to the local level thus remains absolutely key to improving the current service.
Ulrike Meyer:
To enable successful cooperation in a spirit of trust and a close dialog among equals in our region, you need to be able to rely on both the people and the finances. Trust is an important factor in knowledge and technology transfer. Individuals who know the region really well and have good connections make a particularly important contribution to successful transfer.
Next level of collaboration: DigiHub Vechta leads the way
Steinbeis experts cooperate with district council and businesses in a pioneering communication and collaboration project
DIGIHUB._NXT LEVEL OF COLLABORATION is a flagship project of the Steinbeis Transfer Center for the Oldenburger Münsterland Region and the district of Vechta’s economic development agency. The project grew out of the experience of the Covid pandemic, which brought home how much harder it is getting to predict and foresee future events. The pandemic led to changes in both our private lives and the workplace. The way we communicate, meet and collaborate has also changed as a result of the need to reduce our carbon footprint in order to tackle climate change, and due to the emergence of new technologies. The DigiHub seeks to address these changes.
How can businesses, organizations and institutions keep communicating, meeting and collaborating in a decentralized future? And how can we organize interactions between very different partners? These questions are addressed by the DigiHub, whose partners discuss new communication, meeting and collaboration solutions and concrete use cases arising from them, generating ideas for how we might communicate in the future.
The concept behind the idea
“The DigiHub was conceived as a space for experimentation and development where people can experience the future of digital collaboration”, explains Steinbeis project manager Alexander Miller. The project team concentrates on existing technologies, investigating practical solutions for businesses and educational institutions.
The focus is on three key themes:
- Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR): the use of immersive technologies for meetings, training and collaboration.
- Holographic projection: enabling the virtual, 3D presence of people and products at meetings and events.
- Video studio technology: development of modern communication solutions for businesses and educational institutions.
The DigiHub consortium
Key to the project’s implementation was the state funding guideline Digital.Hub.Niedersachsen, which funded 90% of the investment needed to build a digital hub in Lower Saxony.
A consortium of four partners was formed to submit an application and implement the project:
- The District of Vechta would be the official applicant and focus on networking and economic development.
- The Steinbeis Transfer Center for the Oldenburger Münsterland Region would be the knowledge and technology transfer expert, working closely with businesses and educational institutions.
- The VEC-Hallen event venue would provide the technology infrastructure for hybrid and in-person events.
- The Digital Competence Lab would provide strategic support and curated formats for the digital transformation.
The DigiHub’s two centers
The DigiHub has two centers focused on different aspects. Start:Punkt Vechta, which is also home to the Steinbeis Transfer Center for the Oldenburger Münsterland Region, houses the XR systems for immersive training and simulations. This is also where you’ll find the podcast and videocast technology that enables the production of professional digital communication formats, as well as a fully equipped studio. The District of Vechta’s Start:Punkt Vechta venue regularly hosts workshops for businesses. The DigiHub center here connects the project to the district council’s startup consulting and economic development services for innovative businesses.
The second center is at the VEC-Hallen event venue, also in Vechta. It is home to an impressive holographic projector on an 8x4m stage that enables live 3D projections of people and products and can be used for lectures, training and product presentations.
What has the DigiHub done so far?
Since its establishment, the DigiHub has launched several activities to help businesses, educational institutions and other organizations in the region get to grips with the new technologies. Regular workshops at Start:Punkt Vechta provide businesses with hands-on training in the use of XR technologies. The project team also visits companies throughout the region to present and demonstrate XR technology on their own premises. Presentations and workshops at schools explain the issues to students and teachers. And lastly, interested businesses and institutions can experience and try out XR technology live at events in both the VEC-Hallen venue and the Transfer Center’s second venue in the Zentrum Zukunft.
The DigiHub Vechta has quickly established itself as a key innovative space for digital collaboration, and is constantly evolving to investigate new technologies and their potential practical applications.