Estonia's experience in running a fully digital public administration is opening doors in German industry, Trade with Estonia writes. The agency says the state administration became officially 100 per cent digital in January 2025 and that the same know-how is now being offered to manufacturers in Germany, who face pressure to automate, use data analytics and AI, protect their systems and cut resource use.
Andreas Karsten, who leads manufacturing digitisation projects at Nortal AG, said German firms need to integrate digital solutions into their existing processes while improving efficiency
. The report lists Nortal's work for the procurement office of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and an invoicing system for Deutsche Bahn among its examples.
Other companies named include Eliko, whose ultra-wideband positioning system tracks materials, vehicles and people in factories with an accuracy of 10 to 30 cm and is used in a project with Bosch Thermotechnology; OIXIO, which combines IT infrastructure, automation and cybersecurity and has a presence in Mönchengladbach; 1oT, whose multi-carrier SIM cards connect around 2 million IoT devices in 173 countries; Proekspert, which builds software for smart devices and expanded in Germany by establishing Sensorise GmbH in Bremen; and FoxSec, which supplies access control and intrusion detection for industrial sites.
The agency presents these cases as evidence that Estonian suppliers can take German factories from planning to working solutions.
Source: Trade with Estonia, . The text above is our own summary; the words in quotation marks are the source's.
What this means for an Estonian entrepreneur
An Estonian technology company that wins German industrial clients often follows them with a local unit, as Proekspert did with a GmbH in Bremen. Before opening one, the owners should decide how the Estonian company and the foreign subsidiary or branch will be connected, where profits are taxed and how contracts and staff are divided between them.
We plan how an Estonian company and its foreign subsidiaries or branches fit together legally and for tax. International group structure with an Estonian company
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