On April 28, 2026, a SCALE-MX best-practice workshop was held at SmartFactoryOWL in collaboration with Factory-X, Fraunhofer IOSB-INA, and the Chambers of Industry and Commerce (IHK) of Bielefeld and Detmold. The workshop focused on how industrial data rooms can specifically help strengthen the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

For many SMEs, maintaining competitiveness is currently one of the key challenges they face. Rising costs, increasing regulatory requirements, and a shortage of skilled workers are putting growing pressure on companies. At the same time, valuable industrial data often goes unused because it is scattered across various systems, technically incompatible, or not shared due to concerns about losing control.

Data rooms: The Key to Greater Competitiveness

This is exactly where digital data rooms come in: they lay the groundwork for making data available securely, confidently, and in a standardized manner across organizational boundaries, thereby unlocking new opportunities for efficiency and innovation.

The workshop clearly demonstrated the potential of digital data rooms. They enable new forms of collaboration and deliver tangible benefits for companies.

Practical insights and data room technologies

SCALE-MX provided a comprehensive introduction to the concept of industrial data rooms and used current use cases to demonstrate how SMEs can identify concrete pathways to adopting data room technologies. The presentation highlighted the steps necessary to ensure long-term future-proofing.

A particular highlight was the interactive simulation game “Ecochain,” which allowed participants to experience data-driven collaboration along supply chains in a realistic setting. This made the potential of sovereign data spaces immediately tangible and easy to understand.

The tour of SmartFactoryOWL was also particularly impressive: there, visitors were able to experience innovative approaches to connected production, human-centered automation, and robotics through real-world demonstrations.

Conclusion

The event clearly demonstrated that data rooms offer significant potential benefits for industrial companies. The open discussion among the participants underscored the strong need for solutions that are easy to understand, practical, and actionable.