Baseline4SME: A shared platform for AI applications in SMEs

Finding suitable software, setting it up and connecting it to existing tools: for a large corporation this is a manageable task, for a business with twenty employees it is often the hurdle at which digitalisation stalls. In the project Baseline4SME, we are working with abat+ GmbH from St. Ingbert to lower that hurdle considerably.

Starting point

Many small and medium-sized enterprises would like to digitalise their processes or support them with artificial intelligence. Few of them, however, have an IT department of their own or a budget for custom development. For software vendors, in turn, reaching these companies at all takes considerable effort. Both sides would benefit from each other but find it hard to connect.

The platform

Baseline4SME creates a shared place for this. Vendors offer their applications on the platform, companies choose what fits their tasks and use several solutions together. No development project of their own is required.

The platform is not being built from scratch. It is based on AnyBase, a system already developed by abat+. In the project, AnyBase is being extended so that software from further vendors can be integrated with little effort.

Meta-Level’s contribution

As the first external vendor, Meta-Level brings three of its own AI applications to the platform, so the concept is tested with real applications. Two questions are in focus: how well offerings from different vendors can be brought together technically, and whether the platform can sustain itself economically in the long term.

For Holger Müller, authorised officer of Meta-Level Software AG, the project is also a strategic step: “The project gives us the opportunity to further expand our expertise in artificial intelligence and to build a new customer segment of small and medium-sized enterprises in Saarland.”

Outlook

Beyond the individual applications, Baseline4SME is intended to bring the Saarland software industry and the companies in the region closer together, so that good solutions reach the businesses that need them sooner. We presented the project together with abat+ at the ministry’s innovation summit. Now we look forward to seeing the first applications in use on the platform.

Funding

Baseline4SME is funded by the Saarland Ministry for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digital Affairs and Energy under the ZTS funding programme with around 443,300 euros and co-funded by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).