Managing Partner
Prof. Dr. Jörg W. Fischer

I believe that sticking to old methods is a dilemma of today's digitization consulting. We use old methods even though we suspect that new methods exist in secret that can raise our capabilities to a new level.

Today a company needs more than ever Guidance, tools and methods that can lead them safely, accurately and directly on the inevitable transformation to the future. 

Sometimes I am asked why I and we from the STZ-RIM advise

From my perspective, there is an important reason why we, and I in particular, offer digitization consulting today.

In 2005, when I was still a young Digital Factory consultant at Tecnomatix GmbH, the news came that we had been acquired by Unigraphics Solutions GmbH. After a few years in the digital factory I now came for the first time with Product Lifecycle Management in connection. 

The PLM salespeople and consultants at the time extolled the features and functions of Teamcenter in the market. A common phrase from consultants to customers at that time was: "Tell me what you want and I'll implement it". Each customer got a different implementation depending on what they wanted or what the consultant thought was the right approach.

Even then I felt that this could not be sustainable. There was so much more hidden behind the subject. Only no one was talking about it. Only later did I realize that it was a blind spot. No one could really talk about it because the language for it wasn't there yet.

In 2006, my former team leader Olaf Brand gave me the task of dealing with the topic of product structures. I set out to solve it. There was neither literature nor any clues on how to approach the topic.
In 2011, after more than a year of discussions in a BOM Best Practice Group, I was able for the first time to outline a Structural theory formulate.

A short time later, one morning I came to the central realization that changed everything. It said that the information models in the IT systems, i.e. PLM, ERP, etc., are the crystallization seeds of the business processes in companies. This realization changed everything for me and I made it the central guiding principle in everything I did. Suddenly everything was much easier. It was like having a light to guide you safely in the thickest fog.

Based on this guiding principle, I have developed over the years Methods, Tools and Process models with the help of which information architectures and flows in companies can be precisely described, clearly modeled and designed. In the meantime, this has developed into our RIM-Intention to Execute X have become.

From my perspective RIM-Intention to Execute X a game changer. The precision with which we analyze today and make complex digitization solutions designable and implementable is unique. It opens up the basis for a completely new type of consulting, which in particular also enables the balancing act between aggregation at top management levels to resolution at the level of the bits in the IT systems.

That is also the reason why I consult. I was aware that this approach can decisively move companies forward and lead them into the future. I couldn't keep it to myself, but had to make it available to everyone (here, here, here and of course on our YouTube channel).

Now the question was what was the appropriate framework to make the approach available to companies.

The solution was obvious. It was technology transfer. There has long been a unique organizational framework for this, namely the Steinbeis Verbund. As a company in the Steinbeis Verbund, we in the state of Baden-Württemberg have the task of strengthening the transfer of knowledge and technology from research institutions and universities to industry.

With our RIM-Intention to Execute X we succeed perfectly.

We look forward to working with you.

Kind regards your

Prof. Dr. Jörg W. Fischer