A Case Study: Developing a Systematic Method for the Digitalization of Business Processes for SME in the Construction Industry

Though SMEs are essential to Europe’s economic structure, their digitalization level is lagged. Lack of skills, financial resources, and benefits information are the main barriers. Those barriers for SMEs show most representatively in the construction industry. As most of the construction companies are SMEs, they have only limited resources to improve their digitalization level. Meanwhile, the implementation procedure includes cost-intensive and time-consuming stages. Furthermore, most of the fully developed software would not fit the special requirements of the construction industry entirely. In order to help SMEs overcome the barriers of digitalization, solutions are proposed from government, academic, and industry perspectives. Even though many solutions are proposed, the implementation is still low. There are various methods and technologies for digitalization in the literature and in practice. In order to obtain the most suitable solution for digitalization, an AHP-PROMETHEE approach is proposed in this chapter. A German construction SME has collaborated in this chapter and provided a business process as use case for digitalization. Through this case study, the approach was demonstrated, and the recommended solutions were listed. In this way, it is proven that the AHP-PROMETHEE approach is not limited to assisting construction SMEs selecting the digitalization method; it can be applied in a broader perspective.