Whatever one may think of Facebook or Meta, the quote from Zuckerberg’s IT innovation hub vividly describes what is part of our daily lives—both personally and professionally—and is growing in importance every day.

Teams and Zoom meetings, online retail, search engine algorithms, robot vacuum cleaners: The presence and influence of software, artificial intelligence, and virtual worlds on our actions and behavior are immense—and growing. Software analyzes, optimizes, and forecasts—now more than ever, even in production and logistics.

Sophisticated forecasting methods can be found, for example, behind the fast-food counter, as Torsten Oldhues, Managing Director of Operations at HAVI Germany, reveals. What’s almost unbelievable is that the predictions of the software-powered “Burger Oracle”—which HAVI uses to ensure product availability at the point of sale while keeping inventory levels to a minimum—are accurate more than 90 percent of the time, thereby ensuring that customers leave full and satisfied. That may sound far-fetched, but it’s down-to-earth reality. The same goes for the virtual 3D models and engineering methods that aircraft manufacturer Pilatus has recently been using to support the development and design process directly on the production floor. And while the Swiss company’s aircraft take off toward the clouds, the Upper Bavarian tinkerers at MD ELEKTRONIK are, so to speak, taking the opposite path: They source directly from the cloud whatever software support they need for the mobility of tomorrow.

In this issue of our magazine, you’ll read about these and many other examples from the increasingly digital world of work. Along with these, we’re presenting insightful guest articles that examine digitalization from tax and legal perspectives.

Let yourself be inspired—and please feel free to give me your feedback. My colleagues and I are also looking forward to hearing from you. Just give us a call—or write to 

kundenmagazin(at)io-group.com
I look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely, Thomas Kilimann