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Cost calculation systems are increasingly being implemented in original equipment manufacturing as well as in supplying companies. However, the benefits of these systems in terms of cost and time reduction have not yet been scientifically investigated. In an empirical study, different software solutions for product cost calculation in practice are analyzed and potential benefits identified. The results show that software packages based on CAD, ERP or PLM (1) combined with stand-alone calculation tools (2) are a promising way for cost estimation in industrial product development.

Procurement decisions are particularly affected by the digital transformation in many industries. These decisions aim at cost savings as well as value creation of digital products coming from suppliers. The characteristics of digital components differ from conventional ones. Many companies have great difficulties in verifying the procurement costs of software products. Software evaluation becomes a more and more important part of cost engineering in companies. In theory and scientific literature, a distinction is made in software evaluation procedures between cost-, value-, and license-oriented approaches. This paper presents the design and results of an empirical study to find out which of these approaches are currently being pursued and which ones are eyed for the future by companies in different industries.

In this paper we present our multi-modal information access system for mobile phones. The proposed solution adopts the distributed information access combined with distributed speech recognition (DSR). The paper provides an overview of related standards and gives recommendation for their practical implementation. Discussed are issues related to the efficient implementation of a DSR front-end on mobile phones and the organization of the data transmission. The presented prototype system operates on today's mobile phones in existing GPRS infrastructures. The results of a subjective test demonstrate the usability on the proposed prototype system.