Digitalization is a source for Industrial Internet, which solutions influence businesses and everyday life in many different ways. The digital transformation calls for understanding, not only about your customers, but also your whole organization. A digital business world opens up for seamless and borderless collaborations in product, service and production development, yet such a visionary future need both systematic and systemic changes in companies. As such open innovation approaches including participatory research studies could support regional growth and increase competitiveness among SMEs. This article describes how these issues have been managed in a transnational project for the Northern Nordics.