Despite the pandemic being fully operational, the services connected to the cloud and data center are at the level of excellence
IVREA. If the digital revolution is widely underway, how is the Canavese ICT doing? Paolo Conta, recently reconfirmed president of the ICT Group (Information and communications technology, information and communication technologies) of Confidustria Canavese and CEO of the digital company Laser of Strambino, traces the picture of a sector with 500 companies and ten thousand employees.
Let’s get right into the topic: what should we expect?
«Our companies are in line with the national trend. In 2020 (data from Anitec-Assinform-Confindustria) a contraction of the It market in Italy of 0.6% compared to 2019 was estimated, a non-negative figure when referring to the upheaval we have experienced and that other sectors have experienced. Despite the individual difficulties that our companies have also had to face, the sector has reacted well, managing on the whole to maintain almost complete operations. A few more concerns for 2021 which could suffer from the delay in investments in innovation, delays caused by the reduction of budgets reflecting the economic crisis due to the pandemic ».
Is the digital transformation producing the increase in investments expected for 2021?
“The PNRR foresees an expenditure of almost 50 billion euros on mission 6, Digital, Innovation and Competitiveness by 2026, but these effects will be visible starting from 2022. To date, the perception is that we are still blocked by fear, in waiting for something positive to happen in order to resume working normally. We need to make a great effort to quickly regain confidence and gain momentum to take advantage of the opportunities in the coming years. The forecasts for 2024 give a scenario of growth of the digital market which, after a push to 6% in 2022, stands at around 4% for 2024 ».
Internet of things, cloud, data center, mobile applications
«The supplies on large infrastructural issues such as the cloud, data centers, large centers of competence, are the prerogative of global players. Different speech instead on services, which can be connected to them. Here the excellent skills of our companies, usually of a small size, are being expressed at high levels, both with independent offers, and often also as a reliable reference for large systems integrators who find reliability and flexibility ».
Is there greater territorial awareness of the crucial role played by your sector?
“It is a clear fact that the pandemic has brought digital to a degree of attention that it did not have before. In all development programs, starting from Europe up to our regions, digital has a decisive role. Now the important thing is to be able to move from words to deeds: first and foremost entrepreneurs must be convinced that digital is not a cost on which to file annual budgets, but a strategic opportunity also to change the way of doing business “.
Does the difficulty in finding specialized personnel remain the same or has Covid changed something?
“Unfortunately, there has not yet been a reversal of the trend at national level, and difficulties in finding ICT resources persist throughout the territory. The interventions at the local level that we are carrying out also in collaboration with the Youth Group to raise awareness of access to technical subjects, constitute a long-lasting program, which hopefully will bear fruit in the coming years. With optimism we can record that for the new school year at the Camillo Olivetti Institute in Ivrea there will be an additional section of IT ».
As re-elected president, what goals have you set for yourself?
«In the two previous years we have focused a lot on the issues of territorial connectivity and technical resources, important issues that we do not intend to abandon, but which today have a path underway. What we have begun to work on is the launch of a quick digital awareness process of our companies that tries to catch up with the well-known delay (Desi index) that Italy is suffering today and that could become disastrous in the future. Together with our colleagues from the Group of metalworking companies and the Ciac structure, we are defining an intense training program, both for operational and managerial levels. We are fortunate to have important national players on the ICT Group board (Olivetti, Tim, Vodafone, Wind) who with their strength are helping us to implement interesting programs in this direction ». s.b.