For medium-sized companies, higher efficiency and cost-optimized production are of particular value. Both can be easily achieved with automation, sensor technology, and artificial intelligence: In a "smart factory" or "smart industry", networked machines independently generate and transmit data, e.g. in terms of automatic fault detection and condition monitoring. The prerequisite for this is a powerful and fail-safe IT infrastructure with redundancy functions such as backup Internet lines as well as high bandwidth for maximum data throughput.

Digital platforms such as booking and comparison portals and online marketplaces enable more efficient handling of business processes: leaner processes, new markets, effective customer loyalty – the opportunities for increasing value creation are manifold. This kind of networking of employees, customers, external service providers, and suppliers requires a solid basis for the exchange of services and information: an IT infrastructure that can handle changing data loads and network access in a stable and secure manner.

IT specialists are scarce and difficult to retain. Network administration and security must therefore be outsourced or concentrated on individuals by many mid-sized companies. Cloud-based network management bundles these measures into clever software functions that make the IT team's job easier and supplement or even replace missing IT resources. For example, a cloud can handle tasks such as 24/7 monitoring of the network, centralized and automated device configurations, troubleshooting, or Wi-Fi optimization.