Extrapolating the planned investments of the companies surveyed to the five industry sectors represented in the study results in an annual investment of €140 billion by European industry. The two industry sectors that will make above average investments in digital enterprise solutions are the information and communications (3.9% per annum) and manufacturing and engineering industries (3.5% per annum).
Companies from the information and communications industry mainly focus their investments on products and services for flexible real time manufacturing planning and control. This sector also places importance on the optimisation of the logistics systems. Companies in the machine building industry, meanwhile, concentrate their investments in manufacturing automation, recording real time data along the supply chain as well as on the expansion of manufacturing execution systems (MES). Planned investments by the process industry in industrial internet applications still lag behind those in the other industry sectors.