Digitalization Uptake Still Crawling Forward
In 2025, only around 34% of German companies report using dedicated facility management software—up just slightly from 31% in 2024, and still below the EU average of roughly 42%. While government institutions in Germany have finally begun catching up digitally, companies lag behind despite an expanding software market. Tools exist, but adoption repeatedly hits the same brick walls: mismatched workflows, underfunded IT transitions, and resistance to fully replacing established habits. The question isn’t whether digitalization matters—it’s why implementation keeps stalling.
The Spreadsheet That Refuses to Die
Walk into many “digitally transformed” companies and you’ll still find the real source of truth: an Excel file tucked somewhere on a shared drive. Even when a full-featured management system is in place, day-to-day work quietly gravitates back to spreadsheets. Data enters the system through imports, leaves it through exports, and circulates in Excel for analysis, planning, and reporting. The software becomes a façade—visible to management and customers—while the operational core remains as manual as ever.
Legacy Projects That Can’t Keep Up
One major reason digitalization stalls: systems that began as internal software projects years ago. The people who built them may be gone, documentation is thin, and the remaining staff can only maintain the status quo. Adapting the tool to new workflows becomes slow, expensive, or impossible. Excel steps in as a “temporary” workaround—flexible, quick to change, and universally understood. Temporary, however, often turns permanent, leaving companies with a system that exists on paper but not in practice.
External Tools That Miss Real Workflows
Another stumbling block lies in off-the-shelf solutions that simply don’t match how work actually happens. Many are built from an abstract industry view rather than real-world usage. Apps assume constant connectivity even though technicians often operate in LTE-shielded facilities. Data entry screens work for single items but collapse under mass-entry needs, pushing teams back to Excel imports. Misaligned software doesn’t speed up operations—it slows them down, and employees adapt by working around it rather than with it.
When Excel Becomes the Risk
If software is meant to be the single source of truth, relying on spreadsheets creates silent but serious risks. Mass imports bypass safeguards like duplicate detection, validation rules, and workflow logic. A single malformed cell can override existing records, introduce corrupted data, or break downstream processes. Each import becomes a potential liability. Without a system designed to keep data clean at the point of entry, companies unintentionally undermine the very digitalization they aim to achieve.
The Need for Modern, Maintainable Systems
True digital transformation requires software that is easy to maintain, adaptable, and secure by design. That means hosting within European datacenters, enabling ransomware protection, ensuring daily backups, and building workflows based on real facility-management experience—not theoretical templates. When systems are flexible, protected, and grounded in genuine operational insight, adoption no longer needs workarounds. It finally becomes what it was meant to be: the foundation for efficient, confident day-to-day operations.