A manufacturing SME owner usually starts from one of two places: either an ERP vendor’s pitch prompts a “we need this too” decision, or an incentive application asks for a “digital maturity report” that gets assembled without anyone quite knowing what it measures. In both cases, the same step is missing: before the investment, get a clear picture of where the business stands today — which process generates which data, and which team can actually use digital tools.
A digital maturity assessment fills exactly that gap. This piece covers what the assessment does, the framework the European Commission uses, why it has become a precondition in Turkish incentive mechanisms, and where doing it alone tends to stall.
What a digital maturity assessment is, and why it comes first
A digital maturity assessment scores a business’s processes, data, infrastructure, and team capability against a set of criteria to produce a picture of the current state. The point is to sequence the investment decision correctly: some businesses first need to start capturing production data at all; others already have data but never analyze it; others have the technical infrastructure but the team isn’t using the tools.
When a business skips straight to buying software or hardware without this step, a familiar outcome follows: the new system doesn’t fit the existing process, data entry stays manual, and the investment sits unused. Measurement reduces that risk — you see where you stand first, then decide which step is actually the priority.
Maturity levels differ from business to business, but a few recurring profiles show up in practice:
| Maturity level | Typical state | Priority step |
|---|---|---|
| Early | Data mostly on paper/Excel, systems disconnected | Consolidate core process data into one system |
| Mid | An ERP or similar system exists, but data flow between modules is limited | Integrate and automate to remove data silos |
| Advanced | Data is captured and reported, but analytics/forecasting is weak | Add an analytics layer and compliance (emissions, quality) reporting |
This table isn’t a diagnosis — it’s a starting point for classification. The real picture is usually a mix of these three profiles, shaped by the business’s own sector and processes.
The European Commission’s 6-criteria framework
In July 2024, the European Commission, through its European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) network, published a self-service Digital Maturity Assessment Tool (DMAT) for businesses. The tool is available in 32 languages and scores a business across six areas:
- Corporate digital strategy
- Digital readiness (infrastructure, systems)
- Digital skills development
- Data management
- Automation and AI use
- Green digitalization
That sixth criterion stands out: the Commission doesn’t treat digitalization as separate from carbon footprint. A business’s data-capture and automation capacity is assessed alongside its capacity to measure energy use and emissions. The practical takeaway for a Turkish manufacturer: if you’re a supplier being asked for emissions data under CBAM or CSRD, the system that produces that data is already part of digital maturity — not a separate project.
Why maturity comes before the application in Turkey
A similar logic runs through Turkey’s support mechanisms. KOSGEB’s digital transformation loan application requires the digital maturity assessment run by TÜBİTAK TÜSSİDE (known as DDX) as one of its preconditions; the Ministry of Industry and Technology’s DIGITALTR programme likewise runs a digital maturity analysis on manufacturing businesses before proposing a technology solution. In other words, these institutions want to see what a business genuinely needs before handing out a grant or loan — a data-driven request, not an arbitrary one.
For an SME this can look like extra paperwork, but it can be turned into an advantage: if the assessment has to happen anyway, using its result as a roadmap for investment sequencing — not just a document attached to an application file — is the more useful choice.
Where a self-assessment runs out of road
An online self-assessment tool gives a general picture, but it stalls in three places:
- The questions don’t reflect the business’s actual process. A generic “data management” question in a form doesn’t distinguish between your specific production-line data sources (machines, ERP, manual logs).
- A score alone doesn’t recommend an action. A “medium digital maturity” result doesn’t say which investment should come first.
- Incentive and compliance context is missing. An exporter subject to CBAM has different priorities than a business focused purely on internal efficiency — a generic tool doesn’t make that distinction.
These three gaps are exactly where an outside perspective — one familiar with the sector and the regulatory context — makes a measurable difference.
From measurement to action
İkiz Eksen’s working model starts from this exact point: measure first (current process, data source, and emissions position are mapped clearly), then transform (software or integration matched to the priority process goes live), then sustain (the resulting data is connected to reporting and compliance needs). That sequencing differs from an approach that starts with a software sale — because the cost of correcting a wrongly-sequenced investment runs much longer than one that started with proper measurement.
This way of working draws on experience accumulated across 550+ corporate customers and 15+ sectors under Qera; the infrastructure runs on Microsoft Azure, and projects are delivered turnkey across Turkey. Data gathered during the assessment is, where needed, completed together with solution partners (for IoT hardware, accredited measurement, or certification) — İkiz Eksen doesn’t claim expertise in every domain; it owns the coordination and the data/software layer.
Checklist for a corporate assessment process
A business reviewing its own digital maturity can start by answering these questions clearly:
- Which data in production or operations is already in a system today, and which still lives on paper or in someone’s head?
- Do the existing ERP or software tools talk to each other, or does data sit in silos?
- How many people on the team use digital tools daily, and where is training actually needed?
- Is a customer or regulation (CBAM, CSRD, etc.) already asking for emissions/energy data, and how is that data captured today?
- If an incentive or loan application is planned, is the specific maturity-report format that institution requires already known?
Businesses that want a clear picture built on these criteria can request an assessment conversation through the contact form; sharing preliminary information carries no commitment.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a digital maturity assessment take?
It depends on the size of the business and the number of processes involved; a small business can get an initial picture from a few days of site visits and document review, while a multi-process production facility can take several weeks.
Can the assessment result be used directly in an incentive application?
The format the institution requires matters — KOSGEB and Ministry of Industry and Technology programmes can each have their own maturity-report criteria. An independent assessment speeds up preparation before applying, but adapting it to the application format is usually a separate step; always confirm the current requirement on the relevant institution’s own page.
Is this assessment only relevant to large businesses, or does it matter for small ones too?
It’s useful regardless of scale; a small business’s assessment is shorter and usually narrows down to fewer priorities, but the question of “what should we measure first” matters at every scale.
Why are digital maturity and green/emissions measurement treated together?
Because they rest on the same underlying infrastructure: the capacity to capture, record, and report data. Once a business has digitalized its production data, building energy and emissions data on top of that same system costs less than standing up a separate project.
Should we run the assessment with our own team, or bring in outside support?
An initial draft can be built internally; but where regulatory context (CBAM, CSRD, KOSGEB/Ministry criteria) and cross-sector comparison are needed, outside advisory input speeds up prioritization. The two aren’t mutually exclusive — most businesses start with an internal assessment and validate it with an outside view.
Sources: European Commission, Digital Strategy — Digital Maturity Assessment Tool announcement (July 2024); Ministry of Industry and Technology’s DIGITALTR programme and KOSGEB digital transformation loan criteria (covered in İkiz Eksen’s earlier posts — confirm the current requirement with the relevant institution before applying).
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