Many small and medium-sized industrial enterprises or organisations will in the future use a single information system to control all their activities. The system will integrate a number of functions, such as financial management and the control of production and materials. The creation of such a comprehensive system demands careful planning and plenty of resources. For many, however, the introduction of these systems is an arduous process and sometimes even an unsuccessful one.

SMEs generally lack the resources to design an easy-to-use but useful IT system suitable for their needs. The Finnish Ministry of Labour, the Finnish Work Environment Fund, the National Technology Agency (Tekes) and a few Finnish companies are funding work aimed at helping SMEs to introduce efficient IT systems capable of controlling their operations.

Research and development work is focused on the creation of a model and solutions by which an SME seeking a new comprehensive information system and the system vendor can more easily understand each other needs and together plan a useful and practical system.

Development work on the model and solution methods is part of a larger project (value: FIM 13 million) concerning the efficient introduction of new information technology. VTT Automation is responsible for implementation of the project, in which research institutes of the universities of Jyväskylä and Turku are also participants.

Additional information:
VTT Automation
Magnus Simons
tel. +358 9 456 6528, +358 40 5438586
magnus.simons@vtt.fi