Guiding businesses to
a successful digital future

GEA Lab

IAt a time when digital technology is considered the main driver of the sixth Industrial Revolution, GEA could not remain on the sidelines of this transformative process.

Digital transformation represents an extraordinary opportunity for the company, given its underlying potential value, but it also introduces elements of uncertainty and risk, linked to the complexity of the choices to be made and the possibility of making investments that are wrong or unsustainable in the long term.

Through its digital department, GEA brings together the experience gained in over 60 years of supporting companies with the dynamism and proactive attitude of a team of professionals with a strong inclination towards new digital technologies, combined with an ecosystem of partners specialised in the development and implementation of advanced solutions.

In this context, GEA Lab acts as a strategic advisor for companies wishing to embark on a structured and sustainable digital transformation journey, supporting them in their choices and accompanying them through to the implementation of the most suitable digital solutions consistent with their business strategy.

In larger organizations, this role is typically filled by a dedicated internal figure, the Chief Digital Officer (CDO), while for smaller companies, GEA Lab can operate as CDO as a Service, enabling them to tackle digital transformation in a consistent and informed manner, while containing costs and reducing risks.

Unlocking the potential of emerging technologies

Our focus

After the very early beginnings of digital technology in companies in the 1970s and 1980s, which was strongly oriented towards the customization of solutions, the market gradually adopted an increasingly standardized approach in the following decades, consolidating reference solutions, both in ERP and vertical areas, gradually leading organizations to adapt their operating models to predefined schemes, replacing customizations, configurations, and parameterizations, but leaving several areas and parts of the process uncovered, which were the preserve of individual IT solutions.

The advent of generative artificial intelligence in recent years and the entry of major global players into the competition is gradually challenging this model, paving the way for a new digital paradigm characterized by a plurality of native AI operators.

Thanks to technologies capable of making even obsolete digital systems interoperable, enabling code development through natural language with significant time and efficiency savings, and processing and enhancing data and information from heterogeneous sources in a simple and adaptive way, personalisation returns to its original central role, but enhanced by a technological accelerator that makes it more pervasive, extremely rapid in transforming ideas into fully operational solutions and, above all, much more affordable than in the past and than mainstream solutions.

This scenario creates particularly fertile ground for the emergence and establishment of new digital realities, capable of generating significant impact even with limited resources, thanks to the possibility of capitalising on technological assets – such as Large Language Models and no-code development platforms – made available by the new protagonists of the AI era.

However, the change underway is still in its early stages and has not been fully understood by user companies, which will be the first to benefit from this evolution. It will enable them to leverage their technological investments, avoiding unnecessary software replacements and achieving unprecedented levels of automation and process interoperability, with significantly reduced financial commitments. This understanding is struggling to spread, partly due to often conflicting communications from those who have an interest in preserving established mainstream models.

GEA Lab’s mission is to support medium-sized Italian companies in understanding and capitalising on this change, helping them to fully realise the potential of new technologies, capitalise on existing digital infrastructure, and collaborate with new players emerging within the digital ecosystem for their dynamism, versatility, and resourcefulness.

Our ambitions and areas of work

The areas in which GEALAB has recently gained the most significant experience and achieved the greatest results relate in particular to:

the streamlining and automation of transactional and planning processes through the use of AI software agents;
the enhancement of data generated by machines and production lines, aimed at optimising manufacturing processes through machine learning techniques;
the protection, enhancement and advanced use of corporate knowledge through solutions based on generative AI.

In these contexts, GEA Lab has been involved not only in designing digital solutions and supporting their implementation, but also in assessing the impacts and implications associated with the adoption of these enabling technologies, with particular reference to:

the data to be processed,

to verify its accessibility, completeness and intrinsic quality, and the architecture to be aimed for, to protect sensitive information and mitigate management costs;

the software infrastructure,

to assess the functional integration interventions required;

the cultural context of application,

to understand the most appropriate methods of involvement and support.

Our innovation ecosystem

Our advisory and consulting activities focus primarily on understanding the operational processes in which new digital technologies can create value for the company, as well as evaluating investments and returns.

Once we have identified and defined the area with the greatest impact and return, we support the company in defining and implementing a pilot solution. This intermediate step is essential when using cutting-edge technologies such as AI, not only to measure the actual benefits that can be achieved, but above all to correctly identify the organisational and procedural implications, aspects related to data protection and security, as well as the requirements for control and governance of the outputs produced.

Only after acquiring adequate evidence from the experimental phase do we proceed with the actual roll-out of the solutions, minimising the risks of impact and limiting the expenditure of resources on initiatives where the associated implications severely penalise the achievable result.

With regard to the implementation of digital solutions, both at the prototype and final stages, GEALAB relies on selected external partners who, in terms of professional skills, preparation and values, have proven to be consistent with GEA’s distinctive traits.
This collaboration is part of the approach that has always characterised GEA as a trusted advisor to medium-sized Italian businesses. A constantly updated ecosystem of partners, keeping pace with the evolution and dynamism that has characterised the entire technology sector in recent years.

Guiding businesses toa successful digital future