It's spring - that means in industry circles: Hannover Messe! SCALE-MX was also there this year. As a transfer initiative, we were able to exhibit together with Transfer-X and Next Level Mittelstand at the joint stand of the Industry 4.0 platform in Hall 8.

The task of SCALE-MX is to familiarize industrial companies with the Manufacturing-X data ecosystem and motivate them to connect. While some companies are already involved in Manufacturing-X research projects, many, especially SMEs, are not yet familiar with the infrastructure. With a quiz and popcorn, we motivated the specialist audience to get to grips with the data ecosystem.

We are delighted that we were able to shed light on the subject in many exciting discussions. For the data ecosystem to be a success, many companies need to be involved. After all, it is only through the digital cooperation of many partners that real added value can be created. This can be found, for example, in sustainability reporting: calculating a product carbon footprint (PCF) is becoming increasingly relevant for many companies. Instead of making their product data available to all customers individually, it can be shared directly and securely via the data room.

The experts from our team discussed these and other use cases of the data room in depth with the audience at the stand. What is the difference to a cloud platform? Is the data exchange GDPR-compliant? And how complex is the technical connection?

In addition to the individual discussions at the stand, we also held a panel with Silke Ziebarth from Transfer-X, Dr. Martin May from Next Level Mittelstand and our consortium leaders Dr. Marc Hüske and Dr. Angelina Marko. Here, too, the focus was on the advantages of sovereign data exchange in the data room as well as specific recommendations for action for interested companies. These are the key messages of the panel:

• Clarity instead of buzzwords: Companies first need a needs analysis and then concrete decision-making aids on the way to the data room.
• Practice instead of theory: companies develop digital maturity through practical tips, for example on determining the carbon footprint (PCF) of a product.
• Data room ≠ Cloud: A data room is not a cloud, so no data is stored there. The direct connection ensures data security.
• Sharing knowledge: The many use cases from the X projects must be disseminated so that the data ecosystem can scale and companies can benefit from it.

The takeaway from an intensive week is that we need to continue to have in-depth discussions about the benefits of the data ecosystem, concrete practical examples and practical recommendations. We are now back at our desks and in the process of developing new content and formats. Stay tuned!