Test Before Invest
Independent Technological Advice
Teste before invest: a crucial step for entrepreneurs who are starting to digitise their business. Testing provides important information and insights used for decision-making. Gijs Beumkes, Programme Lead at the Fraunhofer Innovation Platform leads this work group.
“The University of Twente and Fraunhofer carry a combined responsibility for the ‘test-before- invest” package. When the innovation brokers receive requests for the testing of certain technologies, they approach us. We carefully examine the request to determine with which specialised field lab or research institution we can match them. Once a match is made, we make a roadmap that starts with the current status and takes the entrepreneur through all the steps that need to be taken to reach the desired goal. The entrepreneur then moves onto the next work group; ‘skills & training’ which assists in the training of people once the technology is developed and successfully tested.”
“Within our work group, we distinguish between 4 different activities through which we assist the entrepreneurs. The first one is technology benchmarking – this is where we map out the relevant technology already available. Secondly, we offer a feasibility study. Here we assess whether the desired technological development is feasible and meets the needs of the company. One way of doing this is by conducting a simulation. As a third step we carry out a technology assessment in which we test the technology within the context of the actual business case. This can be done, for example, with a demonstrator setup. Finally, we offer the opportunity to test the technology on a larger, industrial scale. It is not always necessary to go through all the 4 steps, it is more a matter of finding what best fits the specific situations and requirements.”
“We provide an overview of the latest technologies and what they can achieve. Currently, many different solutions and developments are on offer. However, for most entrepreneurs it is a challenge to know which specific technology best fits their company. This could be due to a lack of knowledge, but also due to a lack of time or manpower. To allow companies to test on a small scale we have developed ‘test-before-invest’. We are independent and transparent with a vast network of field labs, each with their own areas of expertise.”
“It is our goal to successfully assist at least 150 companies in their digital transformation journey by 2025. We feel that we are successful when the companies we have assisted are able to further build on the support that they have received. An added value would be if the collaboration is further strengthened between the different stakeholders making BOOST Robotics the next logical step towards digitalisation for businesses is the Eastern region of The Netherlands.”
