Catalog of over 30 AI business apps for the entire value chain; 100 more in development
Weilerbach/Duisburg/Proalpha Business Festival, November 21, 2024 – The Proalpha Group, a leading provider of ERP and business applications for SMEs, introduces the Proalpha Industrial AI Platform: a comprehensive offering for practical, results-driven and replicable use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in industrial SMEs. The platform includes a catalog of over 30 AI business apps designed for core processes across key business areas that drive value creation — from procurement and production to after-sales and service. An additional 100 AI apps are already in development. This ready-to-use AI app portfolio makes AI accessible to industrial SMEs, serving as a game changer in an increasingly challenging economic environment.
The Proalpha Industrial AI Platform leverages proven AI technologies from Empolis and Nemo. Developed as a SaaS solution for the cloud, it is fully integrated into the Proalpha ecosystem but also seamlessly connects to third-party systems. The platform provides businesses with holistic data intelligence in the form of prepackaged AI apps, enabling the processing of both structured data (e.g., procurement tables) and unstructured data (e.g., documents, notes, or service knowledge), depending on the use case. This allows hidden information to be transformed into actionable knowledge and data-driven decisions.
The Proalpha Industrial AI Platform elevates the capabilities of detection, diagnosis and forecasting based on company-specific data to a new level, including actionable recommendations that can even be implemented automatically in the long run.
Key benefits for businesses:
- The easy integration of technologies enables the rapid implementation of tailored use cases and, consequently, quick time-to-market.
- Quick wins and tangible operational results from intelligent AI assistants foster trust and demystify AI in the various departments.
- SMEs equip themselves with innovative AI technologies to tackle current and future challenges and market changes.
"With our Industrial AI business software, we aim to guide manufacturing SMEs on their journey toward becoming AI-driven organizations, regardless of their current maturity level or implementation speed,” says Christoph Kull, President of Business Applications at Proalpha. “The key is to move away from a scattergun approach and focus on targeted AI implementation that delivers quick and noticeable value. This is achieved by gradually introducing AI through ready-to-use applications, the AI apps, one process and business area at a time.”
Specialist departments as AI drivers
“If German businesses want to be innovation leaders rather than followers, AI must be applied where it truly makes a difference. Specialist departments must start leveraging it instead of just discussing it," says Kull. "The reason is obvious: the specialists in these departments know the core processes and the data required for AI better than anyone else in the company. They know where AI creates real value and which levers need to be adjusted to achieve productivity gains."
The Proalpha Industrial AI Platform facilitates the operationalization of AI through a holistic approach, moving both bottom-up and top-down. Once departments systematize their expertise, AI-driven processes and analyses feed back into strategic decision-making at the management level.
Ready-to-use AI applications for SMEs
The Proalpha Industrial AI Platform currently offers more than 30 AI apps for business areas such as ERP, Financial Management, Human Capital Management, Spend Management, Digital Shop Floor, and Customer Experience. An additional 100 AI apps are currently being developed.
These apps help companies, for example, to optimize inventory with better consumption forecasts, MRP parameters and replenishment lead times , and streamline production to reduce cycle times and idle times. More effective delivery processes thus improve partner reliability.
These optimizations are powered by AI-driven master data refinement through pattern and error detection, comprehensive data quality management and data migrations according to plan. Simply digitizing processes or analyzing table-based data is often insufficient for making employees in knowledge-intensive processes more productive. A perfect example is customer service: customer inquiries can only be addressed faster, more professionally and more individually if the necessary knowledge for complex support requests is readily available. This knowledge often resides outside ERP systems, such as in manuals, documentation, email distributions or Teams channels. AI-powered processing of unstructured data from various sources enables productivity gains of 30 to 40% in knowledge-intensive processes by providing relevant information to the right person at the right time. In an era of demographic change and labor shortage, AI-driven knowledge management becomes a critical survival factor for many industrial SMEs.
Twin Transformation with AI
Manufacturing SMEs in particular are facing growing demands for sustainability from customers, partners and upcoming regulations (e.g., ESG reporting). For most businesses, being able to transparently measure and optimize their ecological footprint is already essential.
The Proalpha Industrial AI Platform allows companies to analyze and thus efficiently optimize their Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) and Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) in real time through AI-driven access to energy consumption data. Businesses can identify major energy consumers and anomalies in their machinery and processes. This helps them gain full transparency of energy usage at each production step, enabling them to optimize their processes efficiently using AI. With AI-powered analytics, companies align financial and ecological efficiency, gaining a significant competitive edge.
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"With the Proalpha Industrial AI Platform, we combine decades of expertise in industrial SMEs with cutting-edge AI technology from Empolis and Nemo." Christoph Kull, President Business Applications, Proalpha Group |
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Kull adds: “Our goal is to make AI-powered solutions accessible to businesses of all sizes, enabling SMEs to increase productivity, expand opportunities and prepare for the future.”
Further information on Proalpha Industrial AI Platform is available at www.proalpha.com/en/ai-hub.
