adesso founder and Supervisory Board Chairman Prof. Dr. Volker Gruhn and Executive Board member Andreas Prenneis welcomed Minister Pinkwart to the company’s offices. Following a brief overview of the firm’s history and its current structure (with some 6,000 employees at just under 50 locations in Europe), adesso project managers offered insights into current state-of-the-art projects that will play an instrumental role in shaping digital transformation in the North Rhine-Westphalia business region.
5G EURIALE project
adesso, along with its subsidiary adesso mobile solutions GmbH, is part of the consortium behind 5G EURIALE. The project is one of the winners of the 5G.NRW funding competition, which was initiated by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to support innovative ideas in the field of 5G mobile communications technology. The state’s overall 5G mobile communications strategy aims to make North Rhine-Westphalia into the leading market for 5G. Competence Center 5G.NRW (CC5G.NRW) and the funding competition are part of that strategy, with the goal of reducing barriers to entry for companies and developing the economic potential of vertical markets, such as the automotive and mobility sector, energy, food and agriculture, smart cities, healthcare and manufacturing.
The objective of EURIALE is to seize the opportunities offered by 5G mobile communications technology to ensure the reliable transmission of images, video and audio information so that seriously injured persons receive rapid care in emergency situations. As part of it, medical and road safety telematics based on 5G are used to link first responders and paramedics on the ground with doctors at hospitals and facilitate the exchange of data.
Florian Bliesch, Head of Innovation at adesso mobile solutions, presented the adesso Group’s activities in the field of 5G, with a special focus on the technology’s role as a key enabler of technological advancements in society and business. Those advancements stem from 5G’s main selling points, such as reliability, bandwidth and capacity.
Staige in Essen
adesso also holds a stake in Staige, an Essen-based digitalisation company formerly known as AISportsWatch. CEO Jan Taube presented Minister Pinkwart the innovative, AI-based camera system that the firm uses to stream live events such as amateur sporting competitions in HD quality, providing sport clubs in the state and throughout Germany with a digital stage for member engagement and additional sources of income through streaming. One of the topics discussed was the potential integration of the technology into the infrastructure of sport clubs (football, tennis, ice hockey, equestrian sport and more) and religious institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia. Other topics included a variety of funding options, such as enabling local public institutions and authorities to connect to Staige’s infrastructure.
Online Access Act to promote digitalisation in the public sector
Minister Pinkwart’s visit ended with a look at digitalisation projects in public administration. Germany’s Online Access Act (OZG) obliges federal and state governments to provide digital access to public services through administrative portals by the end of 2022. Those portals are then to be linked as part of a portal network. adesso supports a variety of public administrative agencies in North Rhine-Westphalia in implementing the OZG, with a consistent and systematic focus on the needs of citizens, as the company explained to the minister.
During his visit to adesso, Minister Pinkwart said: “North Rhine-Westphalia is on track to becoming a digital pioneer in Germany. As a trailblazing company from our state, adesso is an important partner in the digitalisation of business and administration. With its broad range of activities in highly innovative business fields such as 5G and artificial intelligence, the company is demonstrating ways to successfully shape the digital transformation.”
The accompanying image shows the hosts from adesso with the minister in front of the company’s headquarters in Dortmund (from left):
