OpenData4KMU at AMCIS 2026: TREO Talk on Open Data Forecasting Use Cases for SMEs

AMCIS Conference in Reno, Nevada (USA)

From August 20 to 22, 2026, Reno, Nevada, hosted the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), one of the largest international conferences in Information Systems. The project OpenData4KMU was represented there with a TREO Talk: Adrian Abendroth, together with Mobina Naserizadeh, presented intermediate results under the title "Bridging the Data Gap: A Compendium of Open Data Forecasting Use Cases for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises".

Starting Point: Forecasts Under Pressure

Forecasts are indispensable for many key planning decisions in companies, for example in production, procurement, capacity planning, and sales. At the same time, markets, prices, and supply chains are increasingly responding to global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Suez Canal blockage, the war in Ukraine, or the semiconductor crisis. Internal company data primarily reflect the past, while early external indicators are often lacking. The talk brought this challenge to the point: if a single component is missing, the entire production can come to a standstill.

This is exactly where OpenData4KMU comes in: publicly available data, for example from government portals or organizations like NASA, is intended to be used as external signals to make forecasts earlier, more broadly grounded, and thus more robust.

Research Question and Goals

The project's central research question is: How can small and medium-sized enterprises be empowered to use open data to improve the quality of their forecasts and thereby strengthen their competitive position? To this end, the project pursues six goals, ranging from identifying relevant forecasting use cases, classifying suitable data sources, and developing an integration approach, to a software-based demonstrator and its validation in case studies with companies.

Methodological Approach and Preliminary Findings

The starting point was a systematic literature review across six databases, including Scopus, ProQuest, and the AIS Electronic Library. From originally more than 5,700 hits, 33 relevant publications were identified after several filtering steps as well as a forward and backward search. In addition, ten interviews with SMEs are currently underway, some of which have already been conducted.

In the course of the research, 16 relevant open data portals have been identified and evaluated so far, ranging from large international sources such as the European Data Portal or FRED to specialized offerings such as Copernicus, the Mobilithek, or the German Weather Service. Building on this, the team has developed a classification system that assigns datasets to twelve main categories and around 80 subcategories, and links them to twelve use case categories, such as Sales and Demand Forecasting, Risk and Early Warning Management, or Transportation and Logistics.

What's Next?

The next steps include focus groups with the project steering committee to structure internal data sources at the partner companies, as well as a market comparison of forecasting tools, interviews with forecasting tool vendors, and validation of the developed classification.

The talk generated considerable interest within the international IS community and provided valuable input for the further work on the project.

The contribution is available in the AIS Electronic Library: Contribution for download

Presentation Slides

The complete slides from the talk are available for download here: Slides for download