The assumption, certified by various studies, is clear: the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by companies to adapt existing organization (with smart working), business models and infrastructures to the new global economic context . It is therefore not surprising that investments in technologies have shown particularly strong growth rates on a global scale.
A study by analyst firm Markets and Markets, for example, tells us that business digitization spending will jump from $ 521 billion to $ 1,250 billion by 2026, with a composite annual increase of 19% and overall growth that ( in the whole period) is close to 140%.
A recent report by McKinsey (“The new digital edge: Rethinking strategy for the postpandemic era”) found instead that 65% of companies have increased the funds dedicated to digitization (recovering the necessary budget through cuts in resources in other sectors) and only 7% have decreased them. Just under two out of three companies, according to the same study, are aware of the fact that by the end of 2023 they will have to think about a new digital business model to remain economically profitable and only 11% will not change their way of operating. on the market.
The situation in Europe
In the Old Continent, the level of adoption of digital technologies in the business sector lags behind in the United States: the summary comes from a study by the European Investment Bank released a few weeks ago, according to which the European average stands at 65% in the presence of 71% that can exhibit US companies. Remaining on this side of the ocean, some peculiarities are interesting: if certainly it is not surprising that the digital revolution is led by the Nordic countries (Denmark, Holland and Finland, at the top of the ranking with a penetration of digital in companies over 80%) it is objectively curious to note that the traditionally most important nations at an economic level are struggling more than expected. And the same goes for Germany, France, the United Kingdom and even Italy.
Italy with the “ballast” of the SMEs and the wild card of the PNRR funds
In fact, the Peninsula is only in 19th place in the ranking extended to 28 European nations with a digitization rate of companies equal to 62.6%, a percentage below the European average but slightly better than that of France (62, 5%) and the United Kingdom (61.3%).