Europe’s Enterprises Rising to Meet Digital Expectations

The rapid rise of digital engineering technologies has led to great expectations among European enterprises for advances across all segments of the value chain, according to a new research report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2024 ISG Provider Lens Digital Engineering Services report for Europe finds digital engineering services are revolutionizing European businesses at a brisk pace. The convergence of the physical world and digital technologies has created an unprecedented demand for such services to help companies become more intelligent, connected and sustainable, the ISG report says.

“The digital landscape is changing very quickly,” said Gaurav Gupta, partner and global head, digital engineering, for ISG. “Providers are enhancing their portfolios by introducing digital interventions across the product lifecycle to stay ahead of the curve.”

Digitization has led to enormous modifications in the complete ecosystem of a product, from R&D and design to manufacturing and operations, the ISG report says. The rising use of industrial IoT, immersive technologies, digital twins, digital threads and other digital tools have significant implications for many European industries, the report says.

Europe’s automotive industry, for one, is growing with the adoption of intelligent and electric vehicles, the ISG report says. Many automakers are leveraging AR/VR technologies to enhance the experience of customer dealers, train new resources and create digital replicas of the shop floor that can pinpoint and predict potential failures, ISG says.

Smart factories powered by Industry 4.0 technologies are prioritizing efficiency and innovation. According to the ISG report, enterprises are now exploring the possibility of enhanced digital twins that incorporate predictive AI to simulate operational scenarios more accurately by replicating present operations and forecasting future outcomes. The ultimate goal of digital thread and digital twin technologies is to streamline workflows and enable timely interventions in manufacturing and supply chain functions, the report says.

“Enterprises in Europe are looking for providers to implement emerging technologies and reassess and streamline business processes and models,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “Those providers should have extensive portfolios that span a variety of technologies, not just digital twins, but also analytics, MR/VR and robotics.”