Many firms are unprepared for the 2027 e-invoicing mandate, while shadow AI risks data breaches. Germany also advances admin digitization and EU data rules.
Germany's push toward fully digitized administration and business processes is gaining urgency, but a widening gap between perception and reality threatens to leave many firms unprepared for legally binding deadlines. A study by service provider Quadient, based on a survey of 300 companies, reveals that while many businesses believe they have already digitized their workflows, only six percent currently meet the specific legal requirements for electronic invoicing that will take effect on 1 January 2027. From that date, companies with annual revenue exceeding 800,000 euros will be obliged to issue and receive e-invoices.
The Cologne-based startup dataMatters, a spin-off of RWTH Aachen University, has introduced urbanOS, which it claims is the world’s first operating system for Smart Cities.
The Cologne-based startup dataMatters, a spin-off of RWTH Aachen University, has introduced urbanOS, which it claims is the world’s first operating system for Smart Cities. This municipal operating system functions similarly to computer or smartphone operating systems but is optimized for the “smartification” of urban infrastructure, ranging from traffic management and waste disposal to energy supply and public safety. According to the company, the “digital town hall” is highly scalable – meeting the needs of cities, districts, and municipalities, from small towns to mid-sized cities and even large metropolitan areas.
Read more: DE: The World’s First Operating System for Smart Cities
A municipal utility is more than a service company: it is part of a city’s identity, core of what is often called the municipal corporation, an important power player.
The Germany town of Emden sits at the edge of the North Sea. This community of 50,000 people has been operating as a town for over 800 years. Today, it is home to a shipbuilding wharf, an automotive plant, and a university. Emden is surrounded by water and endless flat land with windmill farms and biogas plants. Unfortunately, many young people are not convinced that Emden is the sexiest place they ever wanted to live in. Like many European regions, Emden is fighting demographic change and the exodus of young people, while larger cities fight collapse because of inflow.
Read more: DE: Lower Saxony: Emden: The Digital Transformation of Small Utilities in Germany
Combining the real and the digital worlds, technology from Siemens Xcelerator portfolio will form the backbone of the new neighbourhood in Berlin Spandau.
Siemens has announced it is investing €750m in the modernisation of Siemensstadt Square in Berlin to make it the "digital, sustainable, competitive city of the future".
Read more: DE: Berlin: Siemensstadt Square: blueprint for the city of the future?
The German internet association Eco has put the states of Hessen, Baden-Wurttemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia in the first three positions of its first study on Digitale Landerkompass digital policy.
The state of Hessen ranked first mainly due to the fact that it has developed a comprehensive digitization strategy and a large number of concrete funding projects. The Department of Digital Strategy and Development, which is directly under the Prime Minister of the state, was founded in January of this year and deals primarily with questions of artificial intelligence and the needs the firms in terms of digitization and social acceptance.